Ref. acupuncture, my physio was NHS but also a well respected sports physio. The acupuncture was on NHS. When she asked me if I would consider acupuncture I was, as I said before, very sceptical but I asked her to explain how it worked. She first explained the eastern reasoning about the yin and the yang and the west wind and the four horsemen and all that tosh. Then she explained the western view of it all. Briefly, by putting needles into three connected neural centers conned the body's systems into believing it had suffer a massive wound. It is believed that when this occurs the body shuts down or slows all non-essentials and goes into protect and repair mode, massively reducing repair and healing times. I thought this made some sense and was more convincing than the eastern view. I asked if there was any reason not to try it and she said the worst that could happen would be that it might not work. So I gave it a go. In the earlier post I may have given the impression that the effect was short lived. On the contrary, the initial effect of apparent drunkenness reduced after each treatment but the final effect was completely successful.
As regards the exercises afterwards, they were, as Derek said, standing with my back against the wall, putting my chin on my chest, then pushing the back of my head on the wall, hold for 8 seconds then relax. Repeat 20 times. Do this 3 times per day. I am now completely free of any pain in my arm caused by ruptured disc pressing on spinal cord. So, for me, acupuncture worked. There is a very good book, written by an ex New Zeeland SAS man, called "Treat Your Own Back" that recommends the same exercise. All this said, it's dangerous to do anything without a CORRECT initial diagnosis. Best of luck.
Jerry.
