Most of what comes through the door is not dramatic. It is a shoulder that has been nagging since the season started, a calf that tightens at the same point every run, an elbow that only hurts on the backhand.
What needs a doctor first. A joint that will not take weight, an obvious deformity, a sudden pop with immediate swelling, numbness or pins and needles down a limb, or a head knock — those go to a GP or an emergency department, not to us. An injury that is getting worse week on week rather than better also needs reassessing properly.
Where acupuncture may have a place. For ordinary overuse — the gradual, repetitive kind — some people find acupuncture helps with the discomfort and with getting moving again. It sits alongside the things that actually change an overuse problem: load management, technique, strength and time. On its own it is not a rehabilitation programme, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something. The NCCIH summary of the research is a reasonable place to start if you want to judge for yourself.
What the Lane Cove catchment brings. We are on the Lane Cove River and beside the national park, so a lot of what we see is rowing and paddling shoulders, backs that complain after a morning on the water, and ankles and knees off the bush tracks. If you row, paddle, run trails or play on the fields around here, that is familiar ground.
We work with your other practitioners, not instead of them. If you are already seeing a physiotherapist, a sports doctor or an exercise physiologist, keep seeing them and tell us what they have said. If you are not and you should be, we will say so.
We practise in Lane Cove. Rainbow Acupuncture covers Lane Cove and Freshwater if that suits you better.
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