Nerve pain can have several causes, including nerve compression, sciatica and neuropathy. Some patients visit Spectrum WellCare in MetroWest Orlando after experiencing persistent pain, numbness or tingling and want to discuss whether acupuncture could complement their medical care.
Acupuncture treats nerve pain through multiple mechanisms simultaneously — reducing neurogenic inflammation, interrupting the pain signal cycle, and restoring normal nerve function along the affected pathway. This is why it often produces relief where pain medication alone has not: medication blocks pain signals, but acupuncture addresses the nerve irritation and circulation disruption that are generating those signals in the first place.
At Spectrum WellCare in Orlando FL, Dr. Ajay Purohit treats nerve pain with acupuncture targeting the specific meridian pathways affected. For patients with scar tissue around the nerve or post-surgical nerve damage, MPS therapy in Orlando is added — electrical stimulation that penetrates scar tissue and follows nerve pathways directly. For systemic nerve inflammation, personalized Chinese herbal medicine addresses the internal pattern driving nerve irritation between sessions.
Here is how Dr. Purohit evaluates nerve-related symptoms and decides whether acupuncture, MPS therapy or a combination approach may be appropriate for an individual patient.
Understanding nerve impingement — and why acupuncture works when conventional treatment doesn't
Nerve impingement — often called a "pinched nerve" — is one of the most common and most frustrating conditions I treat at Spectrum WellCare in MetroWest Orlando. Patients arrive after months or years of pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness that disrupts their ability to work, sleep, and live normally.
What makes nerve pain particularly difficult to treat conventionally is that it involves both structural and functional components. You can address the structural compression — with surgery, injections, or physical therapy — and still have significant pain, because the nerve itself has become sensitized and inflamed in ways that outlast the original compression.
What is nerve impingement?
Nerve impingement occurs when surrounding tissues — muscles, tendons, bones, or discs — place excessive pressure on a nerve. This pressure disrupts normal nerve function and produces pain, numbness, tingling, or weakness along the nerve's pathway.
Common causes include poor posture, repetitive movements, spinal disc degeneration, herniated discs, arthritis, and muscle tension. In the lower back, nerve impingement frequently results in sciatica — pain that radiates from the lower back through the buttock and down the leg. In the neck, impingement may produce symptoms that travel into the shoulder, arm, or hand.
Persistent or worsening weakness, numbness, loss of bladder or bowel control, or other neurological changes require prompt medical evaluation. Acupuncture should not delay diagnosis or treatment of possible nerve compression or injury.
How acupuncture addresses nerve pain
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, nerve pain typically involves a pattern of Qi and Blood stagnation along the affected meridian pathway, often combined with underlying deficiency (Kidney Yang or Yin deficiency in lumbar and sciatic cases) and sometimes external pathogenic factors like Cold or Dampness that have lodged in the channels.
Within the traditional Chinese medicine framework, treatment may address both the local symptoms and the broader pattern identified during evaluation. This approach is complementary and does not guarantee lasting relief or replace medical assessment of nerve compression or injury.
Within the traditional Chinese medicine framework, Dr. Purohit may consider points along pathways associated with the back and legs. Point selection varies according to the location of symptoms, examination findings, medical history and the patient's response to care.
The role of MPS therapy in nerve pain treatment
For nerve pain specifically, I frequently combine traditional acupuncture with MPS therapy in Orlando — Microcurrent Point Stimulation. MPS delivers low-frequency electrical stimulation that follows nerve pathways in a way that directly addresses nerve irritation and reduces the neurogenic inflammation that perpetuates chronic nerve pain.
MPS therapy may be considered for selected patients with sciatica-related muscle tension or soft-tissue sensitivity after evaluation. It is not appropriate for every cause of nerve pain, and persistent or worsening symptoms may require additional medical assessment.
The combination of acupuncture to address the meridian pattern, herbal medicine to support the underlying deficiency and reduce inflammation, and MPS to directly target nerve pathways is the most comprehensive approach to nerve pain I have encountered in my practice.
Dr. Ajay Purohit, DTCM, MPH · Licensed Acupuncture Physician AP 2734 · Spectrum WellCare · 2295 S. Hiawassee Rd, Suite 207 · MetroWest Orlando FL 32835 · 407-347-5038