My Heel Has Been Killing Me 🦶

For the past two or three weeks, I’ve dealt with some pretty intense left heel pain. Which caught me out of the blue and took me by surprise. Nothing has really changed in my life. I’m about more or less as active as I normally am, and not much has changed with my day-to-day footwear.

But upon waking in the morning — or trying to walk when I’ve been relaxing/sitting for a while — stepping onto my foot is a major ouch factor.

As I was exploring acupuncture podcasts and acupressure podcasts the other day (I’m a big pod girl), I came across ACU-Track: The Acupuncture Research Podcast, and specifically, this episode on plantar heel pain:

The truth is, I’m still only about 15 minutes in; with how busy I’ve been between work and motherhood, it’s been a challenge to listen for more than 1-2 minutes at a time. I’ll tackle it in my morning commute tomorrow, however.

Researchers and experts Richard Clark and Maria Tighe have been studying the effects of acupuncture for plantar heel pain for years. I’m looking at an article of theirs from 2012, in which the conclusion states this:

“There is evidence supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture for PHP (plantar heel pain). This is comparable to the evidence available for conventionally used interventions, such as stretching, night splints or dexamethasone. Therefore acupuncture should be considered in recommendations for the management of patients with PHP.”

So if this heel doesn’t improve soon, I may be seeing my local acupuncturist for some relief.

Do you know the top 10 reasons people seek acupuncture care in the U.S.?

This is from a 2022 article published in the journal Medical Acupuncture by Dr. Changzhen Gong:

By the way, ear seeds can also help with some of these conditions.

Virginia Bill Expands Who Can Practice an Auricular Acupuncture Protocol in the State 👂

House Bill 1278 has passed in Virginia and is now awaiting the governor’s signature by end of day April 8th. It will allow anyone trained in the five needle auricular acupuncture protocol (5NP) to use it (and it alone) under a few conditions, including:

• The 5NP practitioner must have been trained through a recognized organization such as the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association

• The 5NP practitioner cannot claim to be a licensed acupuncturist (unless he or she actually is, of course)

This is not the first state that has passed legislation to permit non-acupuncturists to administer this type of behavioral health treatment, according to Working Class Acupuncture.

Music > Acupressure > Nothing: Pain Relief for Young Children Undergoing a Medical Procedure

A team of researchers (Daihimfar et al., 2024) recently sought to discover which type of non-pharmacological intervention was most effective for reducing pain in young children ages 3-6 getting medical blood draws:

• Music therapy

• Acupressure therapy on the Hugo point of the hand

• Or nothing (this was the control group)

Researchers found that the 180 participants’ pain intensity differed significantly between the therapy types: the music therapy group reported significantly less pain than the acupressure therapy group.

⭐ But the acupressure therapy group reported significantly less pain than the control group. ⭐

Music and acupressure for the win.

Still Reading This Far? 🌟💫✨

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Many thanks!

Kaci O’Dell
Founder, My Ear Seeds
Creator, The Pressure Point Pulse

Sources:

Clark, R. J., & Tighe, M. (2012). The effectiveness of acupuncture for plantar heel pain: a systematic review. Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 30(4), 298–306. https://doi.org/10.1136/acupmed-2012-010183

Daihimfar, F., Babamohamadi, H., & Ghorbani, R. (2024). A comparison of the effects of acupressure and music on venipuncture pain intensity in children: A randomized controlled clinical trial. Pain Research and Management, 2024, Article ID 2504732. https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/2504732

Gong C. (2022). A Retrospective Look at 50 Years of Acupuncture in the United States. Medical acupuncture, 34(2), 83–87. https://doi.org/10.1089/acu.2021.0049