The difference between acupuncture and massage

The most essential difference between the two is that acupuncture is an invasive medical procedure. Metal needles are inserted into specific acupoints on the human body, and meridian conduction is used to mobilize qi and blood and regulate the functions of internal and external organs. It must be performed by personnel holding a medical practitioner qualification certificate.； Massage (divided into two categories: medical massage and health massage) is a non-invasive external treatment method. It uses external force to act on soft tissues and joints on the body surface, mainly improving local circulation and adjusting structural disorders. Only medical massage requires physician qualifications, while ordinary health massage can be performed with a skill level certificate.

I just met a young man with a stiff neck in the clinic last week. He walked in with his neck crooked and shouted, "Doctor, you can come any way, you can do acupuncture and massage, as long as it can make me turn my head immediately." In fact, there are many people like him who regard the two projects as a "choose one pain relief package". After all, they are both external treatments with traditional Chinese medicine, and they all focus on "no need to take medicine." Everyone thinks they are not that different, but in fact they are not the same thing.

Let’s talk about the risk line that should not be fooled first: any operation that punctures the skin is considered a medical act. This is clearly stipulated by the National Health Commission. Don’t believe the nonsense said by health care centers: “Our needles are thinner than hair and are not considered medical acupuncture.” I have seen many cases of pneumothorax caused by puncturing the apex of the lungs, hematomas caused by puncturing deep blood vessels, or even damage caused by touching nerves. If you really want to get an acupuncture, you must go to a regular medical institution. Doctors from different schools actually have a high degree of consensus on this point. At most, they have differences in the ideas of acupoint selection: Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners like to "take distant points along the meridian". For stiff neck, they prick the Houxi point on the hand, leave the needle for ten minutes and let the patient slowly move the neck, and most of them can relax 70% to 80% on the spot. ； Modern rehabilitation doctors prefer local acupoint selection, pricking the Ashi point near the tense sternocleidomastoid muscle, which has a quick relaxing effect.

I have practiced it myself for so many years, and the biggest feeling is that the two have completely different action paths: acupuncture is like sending instructions to the body's "signal station". You don't need to touch the lesion directly. It relies on the "wireless network" of the meridians to transmit the regulatory signals. It is a "regulation from the inside out".”； Massage is more like maintaining the "parts" of the body. It directly loosens tense muscles and resets misaligned joints, mostly "from the outside in." I once had a menopausal aunt who suffered from shoulder and back pain for more than half a year. She went to a health center every week for shoulder and neck massage. After the massage, she felt comfortable for half a day. She still had hot flashes and night sweats at night. Later, she was treated with Sanyinjiao and Taixi Tiaoshen Yin for two weeks. The number was reduced by more than half, and the shoulder and back pain that had been bothering her for a long time also disappeared. To put it bluntly, her shoulder pain was a superficial symptom caused by internal yin deficiency and excessive fire. Just rubbing the superficial muscles could not reach the root cause. This was a dimension that was difficult to cover with massage.

Of course, massage also has advantages that acupuncture cannot match. For example, if a patient with acute lumbar sprain has already developed a small joint disorder, no matter how many needles you insert, it will not be as direct as the click of bone-setting massage to reset the bone. Many people say that after massage, their whole body is "transparent", and the concrete feeling of relaxation of muscles from tightness to loosening cannot be given by acupuncture. It is often said in the massage industry that "light rubbing is tonic, and heavy pressing is to relieve pain." The harder the force, the better. I have seen many people scream in pain when pressing, thinking that "the more pain, the more effective". As a result, the soft tissue was edematous and painful for three days after pressing. It is really unnecessary. When the muscles are spasmed, the harder you press, the tighter they become. It is reasonable to gently rub them to loosen them.

There is no need to insist on which one to step on. I usually give patients a combination of plans: in the acute stage of lumbar protrusion, when the pain is so painful that the waist cannot be straightened, acupuncture is first used to eliminate edema and analgesia. After the pain subsides, massage is used to relax the deep adhesion of the psoas major muscle and reset the disordered small joints. The recovery speed is much faster than using one method alone. If the patient faints from needles or has coagulation problems, then the appropriate massage plan must be given priority. There is no need to make the patient suffer that kind of misfortune. ； If the patient's skin is particularly sensitive and red patches appear when pressed a little, it would be safer to give priority to fine-needle acupuncture.

Oh, by the way, I would also like to mention the most common pitfall for everyone: don’t confuse health massage with medical massage. Ordinary health masseurs have a skill level certificate from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. They can only relax muscles, but cannot set bones, stretch necks, and cannot claim to be able to cure cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis. If there are clear lesions, you still have to find a medical masseur with a medical certificate to deal with them. Don’t make fun of your own cervical spine.

To put it bluntly, whether it is acupuncture or massage, the ultimate goal is to solve problems and make people feel comfortable. There is no need to worry about which one is better. Finding the right formal institution and reliable operator is better than anything else. One final word, don’t blindly inject acupuncture at home. Last month, I treated a young man who had a hematoma caused by a three-mile incision. He was in so much pain that he couldn’t walk. It was really hard to do.