Keep Acupuncture Real: What You Must Know Before You Try Dry Needling

Guest Post by Kristen Horner Warren, L.Ac, M.S., M.A., Dipl.OM

(EDITED 05/13/2015: A previous version of this article included a section titled “A few key facts about dry needling”. This section has been removed and I now encourage interested readers to consult a detailed and authoritative discussion of the same issues by the National Center for Acupuncture Safety and Integrity.)

To this point I have not spoken out about this issue because I didn’t want to get embroiled in an ugly fight, but it has come to the point that I cannot in good conscience remain quiet about a serious threat to public safety and the integrity of a profession that I love. What is that threat? It is so-called dry needling, which is another name for acupuncture performed by physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, athletic trainers, physician’s assistants, and other allied health professionals, typically after 20-30 hours of training.

I feel that I have something unique to contribute to this discussion, given that I invested the time and money required to complete a 30-hour certification in “Dry Needling for Pain Management”. This experience gave me an inside look at the training that practitioners of dry needling receive in contrast with my training as a licensed acupuncturist. The bottom line? I am gravely concerned and see dry needling as a serious threat to public safety.

This is not about defending territory

When I first learned about dry needling I was open-minded. I am not by nature territorial or competitive. My primary goal is to offer my patients the most effective treatment and I am willing to entertain the possibility that people outside of my profession could have something clinically useful to contribute to my knowledge base. In the aftermath of a major car accident in 2003 I worked closely with a physical therapist for about six months and was extraordinarily impressed his knowledge and skill. This experience caused me to have a generally positive attitude toward physical therapy as a profession.

In an effort to make a fair assessment of dry needling and out of a desire to learn, I traveled to Phoenix in 2012 to attend a three-day “Dry Needling for Pain Management Certification” course. The instructor is well-known in the field and is the author of two textbooks on the topic and I was eager to learn more about his “neurophysiological” approach to treatment.

My experience at the “Dry Needling Certification” course

There were approximately 60 other practitioners in attendance. Most of them were physical therapists, a few were chiropractors, two were physicians, and there was one other licensed acupuncturist. Friday and Saturday were devoted to lecture and the material was interesting and useful. I scribbled copious notes (we were prohibited from using laptop computers out of concern that we would surreptitiously record the class), was fascinated by the in-depth theoretical discussion surrounding how acupuncture works neurophysiologically, and was impressed by the knowledge and enthusiasm of the other students.

The practical portion of the course is where things got scary

Sunday was the practical portion of the course. We were given boxes of cheap acupuncture needles in lengths ranging from 30 to 50 millimeters. The entire group of 60 gathered around one massage table and stood on tip-toe to try to get a good view of the instructor as he needled a series of points on a volunteer subject. Then we broke off into groups of three or four to practice. Because there was only one instructor for the whole group, within a matter of moments I became the informal guide for my side of the room.

Like many things, acupuncture looks simple and easy when done by an expert yet is a lot more complicated than meets the untrained eye. Most of the other practitioners in attendance had never handled acupuncture needles before, so they were fumbling with basic skills such as how to open needle packages and handle guide tubes. This seems like a minor point but is not — clumsy handling of acupuncture needles and associated equipment can easily result in contamination of the needles and risk for infection.

As the day of needling practice proceeded, I became more and more concerned. In Chinese medicine school we spent over a year in the classroom learning about safety considerations surrounding acupuncture before we so much as touched needles. Like high school students in driver’s ed who are forced to view videos of high speed collisions and look at photographs of the mangled wreckage of a drunk driver’s cars, we spent weeks studying cases (rare as they are) of people who had been harmed by inappropriate needling. We examined dozens of CT scans which showed how very close the apex of the lungs are to the underside of the trapezius muscles. We palpated the bodies of our classmates, learning to locate critical structures by feel. We discussed the fact that movements associated with respiration and/or digestion can cause a needle placement that was initially safe to become unsafe as the patient rests with the needles in place. We were encouraged to plan our treatments to make use of lower risk points on the extremities whenever possible.

In Chinese medicine school, when we did start needling, it was under the very close supervision of an expert. I inserted hundreds of needles in my own hands, feet, and legs before I touched another person and I inserted thousands of needles in my classmates’ hands, feet, and legs before I started practicing on points on the torso, neck, and face. I had been working with needles for two years (and hundreds of hours) by the time I touched a patient.

Now I found myself in a room full of minimally supervised individuals who were being encouraged to needle “assertively” into high-risk points located over internal organs less than 20 minutes after they touched an acupuncture needle for the very first time. I scurried between groups, answering questions, clarifying point locations or correcting angle of insertion, and exclaiming “hold on a sec, don’t do it that way!!!” over and over again. Although the other students were all experts in anatomy and musculoskeletal pathology, what they lacked entirely was the very subtle “feel” that is required to needle skillfully, safely, and painlessly.

Needling is a subtle skill that takes years to master

In Chinese medicine school, my early needling training was at the hands of a man who is the tenth generation acupuncturist in his family who had begun his own training in needling at age nine. He taught me that the acupuncture needle is a delicate instrument similar to the proboscis of a mosquito. He explained that, in the hands of a master acupuncturist, a needle is a living thing, an extension of the fingertips. The skilled and mindful acupuncturist can feel very clearly what is going on at the tip of the needle at all times. With this very careful attention, it is possible to feel when one’s needle tip is approaching structures that ought not be penetrated, such as nerves, blood vessels, the periosteum (the membrane surrounding bones), or the membrane surrounding internal organs.

The nature of the dry needling course made instruction in these types of subtleties impossible. One of the advantages being so busy answering questions during the practical portion of the course is that I was not subject to much needling myself. The exclamations of those who were being needled made it clear, however, that “painless” is not a description that could be attached to the techniques that were being used. I saw several rapidly developing bruises resulting from blood vessels that had been nicked, as well as heard the howls of a couple of practice subjects whose delicate periosteum had been plowed into by an incorrectly angled or too-deep needle.

Ignorant people overestimate their knowledge and skill because they are so ignorant that they don’t know they are ignorant

By the end of the day most of the students had needled each point no more than a few times (and clumsily at that), yet in his closing comments the instructor encouraged all of us to leap into the practice of dry needling the next morning at our respective clinics. My heart sank at the thought of how many patients these new “practitioners” would come into contact with. At best they would provide a painful and ineffective experience with acupuncture and at worst they could cause serious injury.  There was no discussion of the fact that three days of training is a tiny drop in the bucket of what is required to become competent with needles. The other professionals in that weekend course left on Sunday evening believing that they were fully qualified at something that I am well aware that I have still not mastered after nearly four years of formal education and over twelve years of full time clinical practice.

The whole experience made me think of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein unskilled individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than is accurate. This bias is attributed to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their ineptitude. Conversely, highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate their relative competence, erroneously assuming that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.

In plain English: Ignorant people overestimate their knowledge and skill because they are so ignorant that they don’t know they are ignorant.

Based on my experience attending a dry needling certification, this explains exactly what is going on with physical therapists and other professionals who are practicing (and teaching) dry needling — having made no effort to understand the rich history, subtle skill, and extensive training involved with real acupuncture, practitioners of dry needling assume that the training of Licensed Acupuncturists is limited to “superstitious” or “archaic” notions such as Qi, meridians, Yin, and Yang. Having made this assumption, they further assume that a physical therapist’s extensive knowledge of anatomy qualifies them to wield needles with nothing more than a weekend’s training.

It is dangerous when any medical professional overestimates their ability

This state of affairs is dangerous, a fact that has been borne out by several recent cases in which high-profile patients have been injured by practitioners of dry needling (although a couple of these articles refer to “acupuncture” as opposed to “dry needling” the training of the practitioners involved is similar to what I experienced in the dry needling course). You can read about these cases here.

Olympic skier attributes collapsed lung to dry needling

Canadian olympian’s nightmare after dry needling collapses her lung

Andrew Llyod Webber’s health woes blamed on acupuncture

References

 Dry Needling and Violations of the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and Food and Drug Association Rules

 Asian Medicine and Acupuncture Society of Arizona Position on Physical Therapists and Non-Licensees Using Dry Needling

 CPT Assistant: Coding Clarification – Trigger Point Injections Using “Dry Needling” Technique

National Chiropractic Council letter to Oregon Medical Board  Doctor fined $35,000 for Medicare fraud related to dry needling

 American Physical Therapy Association: Physical Therapy & the Performance of Dry Needling

 Oregon Board Physical Therapist Licensing Board: Updated Statement Related to Physical Therapists Using the Intervention of Dry Needling

So What can I Do about Liver Qi Stagnation?

Now that you understand Liver Qi stagnation a little better, let's talk about what you can do about it. Unfortunately, in our society, we have a lot of unhealthy ways to deal with stress, but dealing with stress in a healthy way is absolutely essential for our long-term health.  Here are a few approaches to take:

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-Turn off the electronics.  In the last decade, electronics have taken over our lives in a whole new way.  In some ways, it's nice to be so connected to people you never get to see and be able to get information from all around the world.  However, spending a lot of time on the internet, playing video games, and constantly checking email via our smartphones creates an agitation in our bodies that quickly leads to Liver Qi stagnation.  So unplug and get outside on a regular basis.

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- Exercise.  Stagnation is exactly what is sounds like - stuckness, lack of movement - so the best way to deal with it is to move your body!  Moderate exercise is the best thing to get your qi moving.  No one is suggesting you start training for a marathon.  In fact, over-doing it with exercise can cause stress in your body as well.  Get out for a walk on your lunch break, take the stairs, jog for a half hour.  Do something more than you've been doing, and you'll see an effect.

- Breathe.  One of the reasons why exercise is so helpful for Liver Qi stagnation is that you have to breathe harder and you get more oxygen into the body.  Remember I mentioned that the Lungs also play a big role in Qi movement?  Deep breathing is essential.  Try lying in bed and breathing deeply 10 times before you fall asleep each night.  At work, set an alarm at your desk to stop every 30 minutes and take 5 deep breaths. Or better yet, step outside and get 5 deep breathes of fresh air.

meditate

Hey, why not combine the two - movement and breathing!?  Lucky for us,  a number of practices that do just that have gained popularity in North America the last few decades, such as Yoga, Tai Ji, Qi Gong, and meditation.  Done properly, all of these practices relax the body and tap into the "rest and digest" part of your nervous system.

- Spend time relaxing with activities or people you like.  Whether you're talking through the things that are bothering you or letting go of the cares of the day, relaxing and laughing with people you enjoy spending time with is a great way to unwind.  Hobbies that get you away from the computer are also good for unwinding. (Angry Birds doesn't count!-) Ideally, you're doing that without much alcohol, by the way. Depending on your particular body, a small amount of alcohol once in a while might help get your qi moving, but many of us end up having more than just one drink.  Being able to relax without alcohol is important as well.

acupuncture

- Visit your acupuncturist.  One of the most fundamental effects of acupuncture is its ability to reduce stress and the physical manifestations of stress in the body.  Addressing imbalances like Liver Qi stagnation is one of the ways that Chinese medicine works preventatively, to help you stay healthier, longer.  Most acupuncturists can also give your herbs or recommendations about foods that can help deal with chronic Qi stagnation.

Ultimately, it's up to you to figure out what combination of activities help you relax.  You'll know the difference in your body and your health will be better for it!

My Spleen is What? Understanding TCM Organ Systems

One reason that people sometimes get confused about Chinese medicine is that it uses terms that we know from Western medicine, such as Liver, Spleen, or Kidney but it gives them broader and additional meanings.  For example, while Western Medicine (WM) knows the spleen to be a lymphatic organ that filters the blood and produces some anti-bodies, the TCM Spleen is a much broader category that includes the spleen, pancreas, and duodenum, as well as some of the function of the thyroid and adrenal glands.

Organ systems in TCM also house aspects of the mind or spirit.  So when a TCM practitioner talks about a Spleen disharmony, they are including digestive and immune function, blood quality and production, muscle quality, and the intellectual aspect of the mind.  An Organ system in Chinese medicine does not equal the organ that is named exactly, rather it signifies a broader category of processes.  So if your TCM practitioner tells you that you have Liver Qi stagnation, please don’t go to your WM doc and ask for a liver blood panel!  If your TCM practitioner says you have Heart Qi deficiency, your EKG results may not show anything wrong with your heart organ.  [Please notice that for the purposes of this blog, I am using lower case letters to name an organ as understood by Western medicine (ex. liver) and upper case letters to name an organ system as understood by Chinese medicine (ex. Liver).]

TCM's understanding of these Organ systems developed over many centuries of observation and anatomical dissection and are still the basis of the medicine today.  TCM's treatment approaches to herb and acupuncture point selection grew out of this understanding.   Of course, those ancient physicians did not have the benefit of microscopes and advanced testing equipment, but they did make some interestingly astute observations about the organs and their associations.   Here's a few examples of overlap between the two systems of thought:

In TCM, the Kidneys are associated with the water element and the taste associated with the Kidneys is salty.  It's obvious to any anatomist that the kidneys have a lot to do with urination, but not as obvious to the naked eye is their role in water and sodium re-absorption.   Two typical symptoms of deficiency of Kidney Qi in TCM are frequent urination and craving salty foods.

TCM Kidneys are associated with the bones.  In WM, the bones store calcium and phosphate, therefore cooperating with the kidneys to regulate the blood levels of these ions.  The kidneys also secrete erythropoietin, which stimulates the bone marrow to produce red blood cells.   TCM Kidneys also have a special relationship with the Heart, which is partly mirrored by the kidney-heart relationship as seen in cases of hypertension, for example.

Just as the cellular function of the kidneys in WM is much more complicated than these few examples, the Kidney system in TCM is also much more complicated, and the two systems do not always mirror each other.  For instance, the TCM Kidneys are associated with a lot of the growth and reproductive functions that we attribute to the endocrine system in WM, as well as a lot of the hereditary influences that WM considers to be the realm of genetics.  However, these similarities do pop up throughout TCM, and show how observant the early TCM physicians were without the use of complicated equipment.  Most importantly, TCM's system of treatment developed from its own understanding of the Organ physiology, just as WM's treatments come out of its own physiological system.

The Spectrum of Yin and Yang

Everybody wants to ask about Qi, but even more fundamental to acupuncture and TCM theory is the spectrum of Yin and Yang.   TCM's idea of balance in the body is based on the concept of Yin and Yang.  Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medical theory was developed by people who paid very close attention to nature and the world around them.    They observed that everything on Earth has both Yin and Yang aspects and they saw the human body as a

You've probably heard of these two words, or at least seen a Tai Ji symbol like this one.  Yin and Yang are two ends of a spectrum, not separate entities.  Everything Yin contains a little bit of Yang and everything Yang contains a little bit of Yin.They always exist in relation to each other. Let's get a better understanding of these two concepts:

Yin is on one side of the spectrum, representing the substantial, material aspects of the world, while Yang is at the other end, representing the insubstantial, functional aspects of the world.

So for example, cold temperatures, which make matter solid, are Yin, while hot temperatures, which melt solids and evaporate liquids are Yang.  In nature, water is a Yin substance, while wind is Yang.  Within the reality of water, though, there are some yang manifestations of water (whitewater rapids, ocean waves) and some yin types of water (ice, stagnant marsh water).

Within the body, Yang is the physiological function while Yin is the anatomy and substance of the body.  Some examples of Yin substances are blood, organ tissue, body fluids, or waste products, while Yang aspects are Qi, organ function, breath, or body heat.  Think of sweating as an example.  The actual sweat is a Yin substance, while the body's ability of the pores to open and close is the Yang aspect.

Disruption in the balance of Yin and Yang in the body is the beginning point for poor health and disease.  You may develop a certain ache or pain out of the blue.  You might just 'not feel right' or feel 'out of sorts'.  Western doctors may tell you all your tests are normal, but you know something is off.  You might be sleeping more or feeling colder or hotter all the time, or you've seen a change in your appetite or thirst.  Imbalances may have been around for a while already by the time you actually notice symptoms of a disease.   Determining these imbalances is the first thing an acupuncturist will do when you see them.

What is this Qi (Chee) you're always hearing about?

Understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine is more than acupuncture needles and herbs. It begins with a whole world view. That view is based in a reverence and understanding of nature and how the natural world works.

TCM's early doctors looked at the body as a microcosm of the natural environment. They saw that just as the seasons change, there are seasons of the body. They saw that while the land needs rain, too much rain can bring destruction. They saw that fire, while destructive, helps the ecosystem recycle and rejuvenate. In short, they saw that while nature is always changing, it will always strive for a state of balance.

They also saw that our bodies act like nature. Chinese Medicine's systematic approach to medicine is based on the concept of balance and the idea that the mind/body system has the ability to heal itself if balance is restored.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complete medical system that has its own understanding of physiology (how the body functions) and its own diagnostic system. It has developed over the course of 3,000 years, based on direct empirical observation by its practitioners. While early TCM doctors long ago did not have sophisticated microscopes with the ability to observe the workings of cells or the presence of bacteria, they still made astute observations about the functional systems of the body and how the body relates to the world around it that continue to be applicable today.

The idea of balance in TCM is a lot like the concept of homeostasis in Western medicine. When your body is too cold, you shiver to warm up, when it is too hot, you sweat to cool down. This is how your body maintains balance. But what happens if there's a blockage that keeps your sweat pores from functioning correctly? You wouldn't be able to sweat and your body wouldn't be able to reach homeostasis on its own. Here's where TCM can step in. By regulating the function of the body, to open sweat pores for example, your body will be able to restore the balance or homeostasis that it is hard-wired to maintain.

Chinese Medicine's use today is not meant to displace Western Medicine, which has brought us many important advances in our understanding and treatment of disease. However, Chinese Medicine can provide a comprehensive approach to pain and common lifestyle diseases in our society, and is often helpful for problems for which Western Medicine has few options. While Western Medicine commonly offers either surgery or pharmaceutical drugs that correct or control local symptoms, Chinese Medicine looks at the body as a whole and corrects imbalances so that the body can actually heal itself over time.

Chinese Medicine is often used today to address chronic pain, functional pain, fertility in both men and women, menstrual irregularities, allergies, digestive problems, sleep issues, anxiety and depression, headaches, chronic fatigue and other auto-immune diseases, and addiction issues, among other conditions. It is also commonly used to address effects of stroke, side effects of chemotherapy, and post-operative pain.

There are a lot of concepts that we talk about in Chinese medicine that may be completely new and foreign to many people. These concepts are often strikingly simply once you understand them, so always ask for more information! The best place to start to understand the TCM mindset is with the concept of yin and yang.