Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder in which a person’s muscles contract uncontrollably. The contraction, with time varied or constant, causes the affected body part to twist involuntarily, resulting in repetitive movements or abnormal postures or locked-up. Dystonia may affect one muscle, a muscle group, or sometimes the entire body. Dystonia can affect different body parts, and often the symptoms of dystonia progress with time through stages. People with dystonia often complain of pain and exhaustion because of the constant muscle contractions. Some other symptoms include:
“dragging leg”
Cramping of the foot
Contraction of arm elbow, wrist and hand fingers.
Involuntary pulling of the neck
Uncontrollable eye blinking
Speech difficulties
Acupuncture has long been used to treat neurological diseases including dystonia. There are some new studies have been conducted recently
1) there has been successful addition of acupuncture to treat a patient with cervical dystonia previously managed with Botox (botulinum toxin) injections. This resulted in reduced pain and muscle spasm relief and to the authors’ knowledge is the first case to be reported using this treatment combination. The patient was diagnosed with the idiopathic variant of cervical dystonia and had been treated with regular Botox injections for almost a year and half. She was then referred for a course of acupuncture to manage pain and reduce excessive muscle tone. She had excellent benefit from the acupuncture and she continued to get top-ups of acupuncture every 8-10 weeks. Requirement for Botox injections had decreased thus reducing its long-term side effects.
2) Focal Dystonia (musician’s cramp),
In focal hand dystonia, abnormal muscle movements are initiated during musical performance, and it is a major obstacle for musicians. Characteristic symptoms for pianists are that they find difficulties in striking notes fast, or lack of strength in fingers, that will cause difficulties in striking note vertically. It is reported that 165 cases of focal dystonia in 1320 were musicians between 1992 and 1999. “Not only in focal dystonia, but in all neurological disease, acupuncture treatment are claimed to be more effective than treatment by western medicine.” said the researcher.
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