Acupuncture offers a natural alternative to pain medicine

Having tiny needles poked into your skin may not seem like the most relaxing way to spend an afternoon. But when it comes to acupuncture, those needles can cure a number of common problems.

"It can help with pretty much anything you can think of. From bed wetting in children to back pain to headaches,” Acupuncturist Kristen Ball told TV6 News. “The most common thing I treat is definitely muscular or skeletal pain, so back pain, headaches, neck pain, carpal tunnel, and those kinds of things."

Robelle Degenaer starting getting acupuncture for a more natural pain relief.

"I sought acupuncture as an alternative to getting further opioids,” Degenaer said. “In fact to try to get off the opioids."

Opioids she was given for years during the eighteen year treatment of her illness, but she says it was the acupuncture that kept her alive.

"They told me that with any one of the three things going on inside your body should've killed you and I knew then that it was the acupuncture that had kept my body going all those years,” Degenaer added.

If you're interested in trying acupuncture but are a little skeptical, one thing to keep in mind is how long it has been around. Acupuncture dates back thousands of years.

"People wouldn't keep doing things that doesn't work for 10,000-plus years. They would get tired of it and quit,” Ball said. “But the fact that it still exists and is still going strong attests to how well it does work."

"I just would encourage anybody who suffers with chronic pain issues, like migraine headaches or fibromyalgia or any kind of chronic pain to look at getting acupuncture as opposed to taking pain medications,” Degenaer said.