Tuina for Chronic Neck and Back Pain

Tuina + Acupuncture for Chronic Neck and Low Back Pain

By Scott Whitfield, LAc. DAOM

Acupuncture works well for all sorts of pain. Why then would we consider using Tuina massage in combination with acupuncture? Simple, it improves medical outcomes for patients with pain.

Tuina is a set of ancient massage techniques developed in China during the Shang Dynasty (1766 BCE – 1066 BCE) and is mentioned in the Huang Di Nei Jing, our oldest extant text on Chinese medicine.

Recently, I found myself in a position in which I treated many software engineers with “postural syndrome.” Ancient medicine for modern problems? Absolutely.

These hard-working individuals might spend upward of 10-12 (or more) hours per day on computing tasks. The tendency for humans in such cases is to pay less attention to our bodies, our posture in particular, and more to the work. 

This may set up the conditions for what Dr. Janda called Cross Syndrome – when certain muscle groups get tight and others stretched out and disinhibited – creating an imbalance between the front and back sets of neck and shoulder muscles.

This ultimately leads to pain and tension in the neck and shoulder region.

Sitting for too long (more than 20 minutes at a time) creates a similar situation in the lower back. The hip flexors get tight and the glutes get weak. This throws off the front-back dynamic balance which is present in a healthy low back.

As I worked with these patients with postural syndrome, I started adding 5 minutes of tuina massage to the front end of their acupuncture session. It helped.

In an unpublished outcome study we conducted in our clinic (using MYMOP2), we found that the tuina massage made a difference in the patient's outcome. The pain was resolved more rapidly and more completely with tuina in combination with acupuncture than without. 

This study found that tuina (alone) was a cost-effective solution to chronic neck pain. The study participants got tuina massage twice per week for 3 weeks for 6 total sessions.

As a provider, I’m convinced of the power of this combination of physical medicine modalities: Tuina massage and Acupuncture.