Treating Arthritis

Mr. Willis, a 25 year-old young man who loves cycling, had joint pain in his left knee for one year. A year ago, he started to experience stiffness pain in the knee, which bothered his cycling exercise. Gradually, he was not able to bike anymore due to the intensive pain in his knee. The pain was getting worse during exercise; sometimes he felt his knee being locked and unable to move. There was no bone injury or joint displacement with X-ray and MRI exams. His doctor didn't’t recommend surgery for his knee because of lack of evidence. Instead, he was given pain relief medicine and referred for physical therapy but with little improvement. Without choice, he came to our clinic seeking for help from acupuncture.

At his first visit, his left knee was slight swelling without any redness. The joint was not hot/warm by touch but rather slight colder than the right knee. The surrounding tendons of the knee were extreme hard. There were strange click sounds when he walked in certain way.

After treated with acupuncture and acupressure once per week for six weeks, he reported that his left knee was much less painful and easy to walk with. But, he still felt some pain and stiffness in the surrounding tendons of the knee. With other six-week continue treatments, he started to bike again with the pain, swelling and stiffness completely gone.