New patients coming in for pain relief are often surprised when they find out that the acupuncture points used for their treatment aren’t necessarily located where their pain is. How can that be? It’s natural to assume that I’d need to use points on the back to treat back pain, for instance- but actually, many of the best points for back pain are on the hands, feet, and ears. These points are known as distal points, meaning they’re distant from the chief complaint, as opposed to local points, which are right around the painful area.

So why do distal points work? You can think about the network of acupuncture channels like an electrical system in your body, and the acupuncture points themselves like switches. The channels, also known as meridians, circulate energy throughout your body- much like your electrical wiring distributes energy throughout your home. The acupuncture points affect how that energy flows, and just like your light switch doesn’t have to be located directly on the bulb, the point doesn’t have to be located directly over the pain to impact it.

Depending on the case, I’ll often use a combination of local and distal points- but when local points are inaccessible, we usually see good results with distal treatment alone. All that is good news for community-style clinics, since it means we can treat things like back pain without requiring patients to undress or lie face-down. Acupuncture is a wonderful and flexible tool for pain management. For more on acupuncture for pain, click here.