Chinese Scalp Acupuncture: A Powerful Tool
Article featured in SCI Ontario’s Outspoken Magazine Summer 2018 Issue
One of the most powerful clinical acupuncture tools is actually based on the anatomy of the brain (neuroanatomy). When I first heard of this technique back in the ‘70s I thought it would be impossible to send a signal from the scalp to the brain with just a thin stainless-steel needle. That was before it became common knowledge in the medical world that an electrode on the scalp could pick up a signal over the sensory cortex when a part of the body was touched. If signals can go out to the scalp from the brain, why can’t we send a signal in to it?
Actually, we can.
In 2012, the Acupuncture Foundation of Canada Institute hosted a course taught by Dr. Jason Hao, an expert in Chinese Scalp Acupuncture (CSA). Hao is a licensed practitioner of Oriental Medicine (an American term) who, along with his wife Linda, trained with doctors in China who developed CSA, starting in the 1950s. Both Drs. Hao graduated as fully trained Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors and then specialized in CSA.
Dr. Hao treated seven individuals at the course in Toronto, all of whom had neurological problems, including major brain injury with left side paralysis, diffuse brain injury, stroke, Parkinson’s Disease (2), cerebral palsy and Multiple Sclerosis. Remarkably, all but two patients promptly responded well to treatment at the course, which was videotaped. However, none of them had pain as their primary condition. A case of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) of ten years’ duration responded with a reduction in volume of 50% within a few minutes of treatment.
This was a very exciting revelation for me. As I had felt when I first learned acupuncture, I again felt like a kid in a candy store when I started to get dramatic results using this powerful technique; and I had been doing acupuncture for 38 years at that point.
This technique works very well for treating pain, as well as improving function in neurological conditions. There is some evidence published regarding its efficacy for stroke¹ and for treating Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
A 2012 paper published in the journal Military Medicine described two case histories of soldiers with CRPS, arguably the worst pain possible, and results of treating them with Chinese Scalp Acupuncture.² In addition, they tabulated the results of treating 14 cases of CRPS with CSA.
Case #1
The first soldier, age 31, was shot in his right shoulder in Iraq. He had multiple procedures to clean out the wound, which led finally to a partial shoulder replacement operation. Post-op he had severe nerve pain for six months that could not be controlled by medications. Ultimately the artificial partial shoulder was removed and the joint was fused. Pain continued and another operation was done with no relief. A full year after the injury, he was seen by a Physical Medicine specialist who was trained in acupuncture, including Chinese Scalp Acupuncture.
His right arm and thorax showed colour and temperature changes as well as “allodynia”, meaning that pain was provoked by light touch that would normally not feel uncomfortable. His scalp acupuncture treatment consisted of one needle inserted into the scalp at a low angle, covering the left part of the brain where sensation in the right arm is processed and another that stimulated the tops of the left sensory and motor cortexes. The needles were twirled back and forth for several minutes throughout the 30- minute treatment. Immediately after the treatment, there was an 80-90% improvement in pain and allodynia as well as improved range of motion of his wrist. A second treatment three days later completely resolved the allodynia and 20 months later the CRPS pain had not returned.
Case #2
An 18-year-old soldier fell on his outstretched left hand in Iraq, dislocating and fracturing his thumb. The injury required surgery and the placement of hardware to stabilize bones. He complained of pain and a tendon was sliding out of place, resulting in surgery to stabilize it nine months after the injury. He was diagnosed with CRPS six weeks after that surgery, leading to eight months of treatments that did not help. These included anticonvulsants (e.g., gabapentin), desensitization and a treatment called Fluidotherapy with a $5,000 (USD) machine that performs the functions of applied heat, massage, sensory stimulation, levitation and pressure oscillations.
On physical examination he had a cold, mottled, claw-like hand with noticeable loss of muscle between the bones, and allodynia in his hand and two-thirds of his forearm. His nerve pain was all gone after four scalp acupuncture treatments and had not returned after 16 months. The only pain he had was “orthopedic from the original injury,” that he rated as 1/10 where 10 was unbearable.
The Military Medicine paper reported on 14 soldiers who had Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and were treated with CSA, two of whom were the individuals described above. The average pain severity pre-treatment of the group of 14 ranged from 5-10/10 (average 7.3/10) and they had an average of 2.8 treatments. After treatment, nine soldiers had zero pain and four had 1/10 pain levels, a truly remarkable result.
In the Conclusion section of the paper the author states that, with respect to the two detailed cases, “Notably, the pain reduction, functional improvement, and sensory normalization were fully maintained between treatments. To date, the treatment response has been sustained for as much as 20 months with no return of allodynia or decrement in function.”
There were no complications or side effects of treatment in either of these cases, lasting improvement required two to four treatments and relief was profound. In both of these cases the individual with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome acted as his/her own control, and it is unlikely to be a coincidence that their pain chose the moment acupuncture treatment was instituted to disappear or be reduced dramatically. The long follow-up period with no relapse supports this suggestion.
In conclusion, Chinese Scalp Acupuncture appears to be a safe and effective option for treating neuropathic pain.
Wang Y, Shen J, Wang X-M, Fu D-L, Chen C-Y, et al. Scalp Acupuncture for Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 480950, 9 pages doi:10.1155/2012/480950.
Hommer DH, Chinese Scalp Acupuncture Relieves Pain and Restores Function in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. Military Medicine, 177, 10:1231, 2012
