Muscle / tendon / ligament pain and acupressure technique on hand/foot

Please read the below writeup only if you have a pain/numbness condition in arms, hands, neck, lower back because of computer or any other repetitive work, and the pain does not respond well to any therapies bringing down your productivity levels, and  has  been lasting for more than a year.  The writeup discusses a way of healing the pain in any part of the body by employing acupressure/acupuncture of points  on palm/fingers/foot. The basic part of the therapy is easy to learn and is described below.  The expected time to learn the basic Sujok therapy by referring to fig 1, & 2 below is five minutes.

I am a person who had debilitating form of RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury : A musculoskeletal pain condition that is caused by repetitive work) of forearms/hands for eight years. I had hard time to type for five minutes even after taking one-year rest from my software job. During my eight years of stay in US I tried different possible therapies without any luck.  However, I am recovering now by using Sujok acupressure/acupuncture.  I decided to share my success through this blog to help other RSI sufferers. I studied this system extensively and received training from an Allopath.  Interestingly I have found out that several medicos are passionate about this therapy and have been researching and using this science. I am writing this to let the people know if you have not found any benefit from the type of therapies you are persuing, then use Sujok therapy. You will be surprised to see you can treat yourself. Sujok is a Korean acupressure/acupuncture technique, which concentrates only on the fingers and palm of the hand to treat theoretically any type of musculoskeletal pain in any part of the body. The therapy has been invented by a Korean scientist Prof. Park  Jae Woo in 1980 and has been used widely in Russia. The beauty of this therapy is one can SELF TREAT and is non medicamentous. In Sujok all the chinese meridians and their points have been mapped on the hand and no forbidden points are used. Hence this is completely safe to practice. In Russia clinical trials have been done using this therapy for many diseases.  Several Russian Allopaths have dedicated their life to develop this science. 

The therapy has been found to be very effective for Musculoskeletal pain conditions that includes RSI,  migraines, non specific low back pain, slip disc (herniated disc), and asthma disorders. The Russian Allopaths have conducted clinical research  to support the efficacy of this therapy. The link is below:

http://Sujok.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/pain-syndromes.pdf 

I also want to share my following observations w.r.t. RSI:  

1. If the medical tests for the pain are normal, and the condition persists for more than one year, it would be wise to look for the alternate therapies. The basic Sujok employs seeds/magnets/massage/moxibustion of the corresponding sore points on the palm and fingers of the hand/foot to send the healing impulses to the affected region of the human body. This is the basic treatment in Sujok and a patient can be taught to self treat with the basic therapy usually in a single session. In my experience by following these simple self treatment techniques for several days many people have had curative effects. The patient is shown the corresponding sore points on the palm and fingers to apply seeds/magnets/moxa and this helps the patient to continue the treatment on his own. There is no medical explanation available to explain why this works.

The method of locating the sore points on the palm or fingers for a particular musculoskeletal pain is described below:

Fig 1. The above figure shows how a hand can resemble the human body when the thumb is rotated towards the arm as shown. According to the basic Sujok, also called correspondence (similarity) treatment,  for the musculoskeletal pain in any part of the body the corresponding part of the hand will have a painful point. (The front of the body corresponds to the front of the palm, and back of the body corresponds to the backside of the palm.) This painful point needs to be identified and massaged possibly by using the head of the match stick, or blunt pencil for two to three minutes. This will have direct  healing effect on the painful region of the human body. The application of fenugreek (menthe or methi) seeds on this hand region with a tape and keeping it for few hours will make the recovery faster.

Fig 2.  The figure on the left that shows five protruding parts from the trunk in the human body and the figure on the right that shows the finger correspondence to the projected parts of the trunk. It can be noted that the index finger represents the whole hand that is part of and the three creases of the index finger represent the three joints of the whole hand :  base crease of the index finger corresponds to shoulder joint of the hand, the  second crease corresponds to elbow joint , and the top crease of the index finger (from top nails) corresponds to  the wrist joint of the hand. Using correspondance theory  if one has painful wrist joint, the top crease of the index finger of that hand will have a sore point. and for the headache, the top of the thumb will have a painful point that can be massaged to get the relief.

Research on RSI for Undiagnosed pains:

Some researchers say that the capillaries of the affected region get into restricted blood flow because  of constant tension in muscle fibers. Though this hypothesis has been acceptable to many allopaths lack of availability of any medical test to validate this has been an issue. However, this theory can explain the reasons for the Diffuse RSI where in the symptoms are spread out and the easy fatigability of the affected region is the major symptom such as arm and wrist fatigue/pain with mouse use. As the muscle is continually tensed and no fresh blood is supplied, it switches from aerobic (with oxygen) to anaerobic (without oxygen) metabolism. This produces by-products such as lactic acid which can build up and cause cell damage and pain. According to Dr Sarno the blood flow restriction can also be caused by mind when a person is going through emotional issues.  The mind does this to divert one's attention. Dr. Sarno calls this Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). However, Dr Sarno's explanation of involvement of mind to cause the blood flow restriction in capillaries  is not well accepted in main stream medical community although his theory has been gaining popularity.

 (The above research information has been written after having discussions with Allopaths)  

The Advanced Sujok therapy for deep rooted chronic problems

 If the medical tests indicate carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, tennis elbow, local fibromyalgia, cervical spondylitis, slip disc (related to back pain), spinal canal stenosis, radiculitis, thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) or anything else, and allopathy treatment or basic Sujok does not resolve the problem, then also do not despair. TheAdvanced Sujok can effectively heal the condition using hair thin needles on fingers and palm. According to the Advanced Sujok the diagnosis of modern medicine are the manifestations of imbalances of the five elements of nature (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) in human being. Advanced Sujok has influence from Ayurveda and is potent enough to cure the condition naturally. An accurate diagnosis of modern medicine, if available helps the Sujok practitioner to find out the prevailing energy imbalance (wind, heat, humidity, dryness, coldness), and subsequently, effectively treat an individual and obtain miraculous results. Thus Sujok therapy is bridging the gap between the East and the West. Though Sujok employs metaphysical energy concepts the efficacy of the therapy has attracted several allopaths.  The Advanced Sujok considers easy fatigability of muscular system as the excessive dryness energy of the Liver Meridian and severe pain as excessive coldness energy. Balancing these energies may give effective results in case of Diffuse RSI (The chinese acupuncture points Hegu, NeiTing and or Taichong may also need to be used to enhance the curative effect). However, for the Carpal tunnel syndrome and other forms of  RSI the energy balancing required would be different. It should be noted that the energy balancing is an advanced form of treatment in Sujok and may not be required in all the cases. It also differs based on the individual constitutions and the symptoms prevailing at the time of treatment. The energy balancing can be also used to balance emotional energies (anger, joy, anxiety, sadness, fear).  A long lasting chronic health problem might have induced fear or sadness in an individual. Hence it is required to tonify the joy and reduce sadness/fear. 

( The Modern Medicine  has saved millions of lives around the globe through its inventions. However, it has failed to handle some chronic ailments )

3. Among the alternate therapies there is no single therapy that is panacea for everyone. I have tried homeopathy from several doctors, ayurvedic treatment from Kerala Ayurveda , four month's treatment at Recoup (myotherapy) and some folk medicines. There are cases of people getting cured from each of these streams. However, Sujok therapy has high chances of curing one's RSI and can be tried as the first option. This recommendation is not only based out of my own experience, but also by talking to long time RSI sufferers and allopaths who have been practicing this

                           1. http://acuhealindia.wordpress.com       Bangalore   

                               Dr Lakshminarayan Prabhu MBBS MD MRCP              

                           2. Dr. Ashok Reddy MBBS,     BTM Layout, Bangalore, 080-26686689

                           3. http://drsujok.blogspot.com/     Mysore

                               Dr. Mamatha Rani MBBS, BIAMS, MD(ACU)

                           4  http://www.sujokonline.com    Chennai ,

                               Dr. Sankar T.S.R. Mohanaselvan MBBS , D. Ac(Beijing)

              and the clinical research conducted in Russia

            (http://www.Sujok.com.au/research  ) .

Another Sujok success story in the last two paragraphs of the below link: http://telegraphindia.com/1060507/asp/opinion/story_6186355.asp

4. For some chronic ailments there exist alternate therapies that can help in healing and leading a normal life, and for the emergency cases modern medicine comes to one's rescue. .            

 5. After learning this science I have started treating people free of cost and helped many to get rid of their year old pains. Learning Sujok therapy can be one good idea for the software developers in  India who want to serve people during their spare time.  I am interested in popularizing this therapy and help people suffering from RSI type ailments to start working again.