At Spine Plus we provide specialist (Medical and Electro) Acupuncture therapy from our team of osteopaths and physiotherapists in London, focusing on chronic pain and myofascial pain syndromes including trigger points (trigger point dry needling).

Our Osteopaths physicians can also provide other (advanced) modalities alongside electro-acupuncture to help maximise recovery from a range of conditions such as back pain, whiplash, knee pain, RSI, sports injuries and rehabilitation from orthopaedic surgery.

When the intention is to provide immediate release of tension and improvement in blood flow in tense muscle knots (Trigger Points) there is little difference between dry needling and electro-acupuncture. However, by passing a low-level electrical current through the target muscle tissue to the point where there is a low-level pulsation of that muscle, electroacupuncture can stimulate and “reset” the “type II and type III ergo receptors” within the muscle tissue which feedback to the spinal cord and connect with the brain. In doing so, even in the presence of painful degenerative conditions such as arthritis, the chronic pain pathways can be calmed down for several weeks and months at a time, thereby providing effective, drug-free pain management.

The aforementioned muscle pulse is different to the more vigorous “twitch response” achieved when stimulating the local muscle spindle nerve receptors within trigger points achieved with manual dry needling. Whilst dry needling (non-electrical acupuncture) does have some effect at desensitising local and regional nerve pathways, this effect is less profound and more short-lived, only lasting around 24 hours after each session, whereas the down-regulation in nerve-ending sensitivity achieved by a course of electro-acupuncture will last weeks or even months making electro-acupuncture a much more POWERFUL version of acupuncture pain relief for chronic pain conditions such as knee pain due to arthritis, certain types of back pain and other conditions involving dysfunction of the nervous system such as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia. 

Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (TCA) involves more numerous and (mostly) more superficial needling. The philosophy behind TCA is different to medical electrical acupuncture in that the intention is to balance energy / “chi” within the body which according to TCA flows under the surface of the skin. Whilst many of the points that are used are the same (due to overlap and correlation of muscle trigger points with Traditional Acupuncture points) modern, medical, electro-acupuncture differs in both its application and understanding which is based on a modern medical understanding of human anatomy and physiology. 

Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation (TENS) is a common modality that has been used in physiotherapy for many years to provide short-term pain relief. This involves placing electrical pads on the skin. If the intensity of TENS is increased high enough, muscle contraction can be achieved, however, this is from stimulating the “motor” fibres within the muscle below the skin, not all the essential type II and type III ergo receptors necessary for long-term pain relief. Skin presents a significant barrier to the conduction of electricity, if one wanted to use TENS to stimulate the type II and type III ergo receptors the intensity would have to be so high the stimulus (and muscle contractions) would be intolerable, and potentially damaging. By placing needles directly through the skin, into the muscle, so they are in contact with the type II and type III ergo receptors, these receptors can be directly stimulated with the low voltages used with electro-acupuncture.