Q: I suffer from a prolapsed bowel which I cannot have an operation for because I also suffer from COPD. Would acupuncture treatment help me with the pain?
A: While there is a great deal of literature on the use of acupuncture for pain relief, as our factsheet shows please click here
the kind of discomfort you will suffer as a consequence of a prolapsed bowel may not respond as well as some types of pain to treatment.
However, within the theory of Chinese medicine there are a number of syndromes, recognised clusters of symptoms with a specific cause, which include prolapses as one of the main presentations. In all cases they point to a functional disturbance of a specific part of the system, and as recognised symptoms there are a number of treatment protocols which have been used for centuries to address them.
However, we must not give you false hope. There are dozens of reasons for prolapses, and in some cases they would be considered beyond treatment even in Chinese medicine. If there are other confirming patterns of symptoms, though, a practitioner may be able to offer you some help, and treatment could certainly not do any harm.
We suggest that you contact a BAcC member local to you and ask their advice about your specific case.
