Orange County Register

I got a call a couple weeks ago from an acupuncturist who wanted to make sure I was aware of all the different ailments the ancient Chinese needle therapy can treat.

One, he said, was athletic injuries, such as sprains and strains.

Surprise. A week later, while walking into my favorite restaurant, I stumbled on a curb and rolled my ankle. This is what it looked like later that day.

It’s not exactly an athletic injury, but close enough for Human Lab Rat purposes. So I did the first thing I always do when I get injured: Call my brother Russell Muir, who is the head athletic trainer at Rio Hondo College. Russ directed me through a couple quick checks to make sure my ankle wasn’t broken, then he prescribed RICE. Rest, ice, compression, elevation.

I apparently had a problem with the rest part. Because less than a week later, I was surfing and doing squats in the gym. And a week later, my ankle was still swollen and stiff.

I thought acupuncture might make up for my irresponsible post-injury behavior.

One of our experts, Dr. Wadie Najm of the Susan Samueli School for Integrated Medicine at UCI, recommended I talk to his colleague Heather Rice. Rice, a licensed acupuncturist, studied for two years under a guy named Matt Callison, who pioneered a method for acupuncture geared toward athletes. She helped him treat players at the University of San Diego and with the San Diego Chargers.

Rice explained that acupuncture stimulates blood flow and helps reduce swelling, which also reduces pain. The less pain and swelling, she says, the faster an athlete can resume physical therapy to help strengthen the muscles around the injury.

So the treatment is not a substitute for the RICE my brother prescribed, or for physical therapy to rebuild the strength of the strained muscles. It’s a complement.

So here’s what the treatment felt like:

I laid on an exam table with a pillow under my knees, and Dr. Rice started tapping hair-thin needles into my leg, starting with a point below my knee adjacent to my shin.

With each tap, my muscles activated in a wave, spreading slowly down the length of each tendon. The first needle engaged muscles stretching down my shin to the top of my foot. Then my leg felt dull and heavy.

I only experienced discomfort with one needle, which Rice tapped into the swollen strip of foot somewhere below my ankle bone. The skin gave a quick throb, then dissipated.

She put a couple needles in my left leg for balance, and one at a point on the back of my right hand, in the space between my thumb and index finger.

When she was done, she told me to relax. She returned twice to reactivate the muscles, slightly pulling each needle, then tapping and twisting.

Rice was trying to stimulate the muscle’s motor points — the most electrically excitable area of the muscle with the most nerve endings. Needling a muscle point is supposed to “reset” a malfunctioning muscle and release muscle shortening.

After pulling out the pins, she gently massaged a menthol scented oil into the swollen tissue under a warm lamp for about 15 minutes. I was surprised that I didn’t feel more discomfort when she touched areas of my ankle that had been tender earlier in the day.

She ended the session by putting strips of Wu Yang Brand medicated patches on my ankle, which contain menthol and various herbs that are supposed to help ease aches and pains. It smelled and tingled like Icy Hot. She also gave me a list of exercises to build my ankle strength.

I rested that night, and in the morning, pulled off the strips. The swelling appeared to go down a bit, but the ankle was still stiff, as it usually is in the morning. The pain also had returned.

I can’t speak to how the treatment effected my overall recovery because the next day, I got called out to cover the fires burning through Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills. I ran on my foot several times during the day, and my ankle remains swollen.

Russ says that athletic trainers don’t recommend acupuncture as a standard treatment for sprains and strains. Some, like Russ, are open to its benefits. Others are not.

Here’s Dr. Najm’s take:

Sports-related injuries (both acute and chronic) are very well suited for acupuncture treatment. Most sports injuries result in sprains, strains and contusions. These injuries are due to inflammation which results in swelling, spasm and subsequent pain, limited motion and function.

Acupuncture is well known for its effectiveness in reducing all kind of pain including those due to sport injuries. Improving pain and decreasing spasm will allow the athlete to start rehabilitation faster. In addition acupuncture can help in decreasing inflammation and lead to better function. Ankle injuries have been very responsive to acupuncture treatments. In fact several professional athletes in the USA and around the world (Canada, United Kingdom, China, etc…) have successfully used acupuncture to treat ankle sprains and other sports related injuries.

Treatment for acute injuries are best started as soon as possible, and when combined with physical therapy, athletes they are able to return to full activity sooner. Chronic or recurrent injuries can be started any time. Several Acupuncturists are now part of sports rehabilitation programs. In fact, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, CA, has sports acupuncturists on faculty.

I would do it again just for the massage and feel the heavy pulses through my muscles. Rice charges $120 for the first session, $70 for subsequent sessions.

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