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Unleashing Olympic potential with integrative therapies: Acupuncture

As the 2024 Summer Olympics progress, athletes are turning to acupuncture for its healing and pain relief benefits. This ancient therapy involves inserting fine needles into specific points on the body, helping to manage pain and enhance performance. At Rowan Medicine, Dr. Alex King provides expert acupuncture treatments, helping athletes reach their peak.

Acupuncture, a therapy with ancient roots, involves inserting fine stainless steel needles into specific points on the body to stimulate healing and pain relief. This method has been embraced by athletes seeking to manage pain and enhance their physical performance due to its low side effect profile and the unique sympathetic nervous system, also known as "fight or flight," dampening effects that acupuncture can induce. Another subcategory of acupuncture, well-known in Western medicine, is dry needling. This procedure uses acupuncture needles to repeatedly deactivate tight musculature and is a relatively quick procedure.

Benefits of Acupuncture for Athletes:acupuncture2

  • Pain Management: Acupuncture can effectively reduce pain by stimulating the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. It can cause tight muscles and trigger points to release, which can decrease referred pain.
  • Reduced Inflammation: It helps decrease inflammation, which is crucial for injury recovery.
  • Improved Muscle Function: By targeting specific points, acupuncture can improve neuromuscular muscle function and overall body balance. 
  • Autonomic Nervous System Regulation: Perhaps the largest benefit for athletes; acupuncture can reset the sympathetic nervous system, thus allowing athletes to have more restful sleep and recovery.

At Rowan-Virtua NMI, King combines acupuncture with other therapies to provide comprehensive pain management and promote overall well-being. 

“I believe that acupuncture is the perfect addition to osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM). I will often begin my treatments manually with osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) and add an acupuncture component to further enhance the neurological benefits of decreasing stress and allowing the body to heal optimally,” states Dr. King.  “Some side effects from acupuncture include increased drowsiness after the procedure due to the endorphins and some slight muscle soreness in the treated areas for the first 24 to 48 hours. The most common question I’m asked is, ‘Are the needles painful?’ which I can unequivocally state is not the case. The needles may feel achy on insertion; at most they might feel like a mosquito bite, but generally, most acupuncture needle insertions are not even noticed by my patients,” he explains.

To book an appointment, call: 856-566-7010.