Dry Needling: What’s The Point?

Dry Needling: What’s the Point?

Do you do Dry Needling? A question I get about once a week. Providers and patients are looking for non pharmacological ways to reduce pain and enhance function. You want to offer it but before you spend hours and money on additional training, what is the point?

What is Dry Needling?

• Is it just medical terminology applied to Chinese Acupuncture?
• Is it just for Myofascial Trigger Points?
• Is it even legal where I practice?

Questions I often get asked:

• You do Dry Needling?
• Trigger Points only?
• What about cartilage insertion?
• Tendinopathy? Neural tracts?
• Is it your stand alone treatment?
• Where is the latest research?

You can spend 10 minutes on PubMed or on social media and get opinions across the spectrum. Some look more like advertisements from a Snake Oil salesmen that make you, and your patients/general public, believe this is the latest greatest thing to “cure” their ailment. You will also see the cynical, probably well educated and well read, but jaded Physio who “doesn’t believe in that stuff”. Both have a point – bad pun I know.

After 7 years of Dry Needling practice, training and study – I land in the middle of them. I want to help people as best I can but also don’t want to play into codependency and actually practice “Evidence Based” in an era of “we gotta get paid for what we do”. Where is that evidence and can I trust the source? Over the past 6 months of researching the research I have found where we have learned a ton about neurochemistry and anatomy affected by the needle (and the electrical current) but still so many people feel “meh” after treatment. We have Ultrasound guidance to insert needles precisely into meniscus cartilage and fascial planes, blood work reports of reduced inflammatory markers and increased synovial fluid concentrations. I can give you details about Enkephalin and Dynorphin concentrations, Interleukin 6 and 10, and GABA in the anterior horn of the spinal cord. I see changes in brain activity in pain reducing regions on a Functional MRI with needles inserted into the thigh. So why is pain reduction “no different than a placebo”. Join me for a Live Webinar January 25th and we’ll talk about:

Jaons’s Upcoming Live Webinar CE Courses:

January 25th: 10:00am-5:00PM EST

Dry Needling: What is the Point?

CLICK HERE to view Jason’s Instructor Page & OnDemand CE Courses