Welcome to Nassar Acupuncture!

Where eastern and western medicine are integrated together for the absolute best in modern healthcare. We educate our patients to raise their understanding of wellness, and empower them to make intelligent decisions regarding their health and wellbeing in their daily lives.

We combine acupuncture with herbal medicine, nutritional/lifestyle assessment, and orthopedic manipulation to approach your condition from every angle possible.

We are conveniently located in the heart of West Los Angeles on Olympic between Sawtelle and Barrington.

Why acupuncture?

Acupuncture is an effective form of medicine that is used to treat a wide variety of medical conditions. Acupuncture promotes natural healing; it enhances immunity, removes inflammation, and improves overall body function. Acupuncture pain relief can be used for a variety of types of pain therapy, including arthritis pain relief.

What is acupuncture?

Acupuncture is one method utilized by practitioners of Traditional Oriental Medicine. Acupuncture concerns the insertion of extremely fine, hair-like needles into specific acupuncture points located throughout the body.

What can acupuncture treat?

Acupuncture treats a large variety of conditions, including internal diseases of the digestive system, lungs, kidney/urinary system, reproductive system, as well as those concerning the immune system, and inflammatory diseases. Additionally, acupuncture is commonly utilized in the treatment of orthopedic conditions. Acupuncture pain relief is extremely effective with painful conditions found throughout the body, including inflamed joints, muscle strains, sprains, repetitive stress injuries, and neuropathies.

Is it true that acupuncture pain relief can be an effective form of pain control?

Yes. Acupuncture pain relief is extremely effective in the treatment of pain as a symptom of almost any condition. What sets acupuncture apart from other major forms of pain therapy is its ability to treat the underlying cause of the pain directly while providing immediate and effective pain relief with absolutely no side effects. An acupuncturist that specializes in orthopedics is especially effective with pain therapy, because in addition to acupuncture they can use minor physical manipulations and exercises to supplement your rehabilitation.

Is acupuncture painful?

This is without a doubt the question we acupuncturists get the most. So, what is the answer? Well, acupuncture is mostly painless. All patients are different, and all conditions manifest differently. What I can say is that I've never had a patient not return because the needles were painful. The sensation felt from an acupuncture needle is entirely different from that of a typical needle-most patients wouldn't describe the sensation as "painful," but instead as different from anything they've ever felt before, though not unpleasant. Some patients really enjoy the sensation. Either way, certainly the benefits of acupuncture vastly outweigh any temporary and slight discomfort you might experience from the needles.

Acupuncture for Pain Relief, and Pain Therapy, From Back Pain to Arthritis Pain Relief

Traditional Chinese Medicine's practices include such treatments as Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, dietary therapy, shiatsu massage and other either inherent or related practices which are based upon historical medical study and traditions developed over centuries of empirical data and related philosophical interpretations. These disciplines taken as a whole form a distinct paradigm in medical thought almost completely unrelated to Western medicine until recently. TCM, as it is often abbreviated, was unified in the 1950's in China under Mao Zedong.

Acupuncture has had a growing presence in the United States since the 1970's, The National Acupuncture Association (NAA) initially introduced acupuncture to the West mostly through seminars and research presentations. The NAA opened the UCLA Acupuncture Pain clinic in 1972, as one of the first Acupuncture clinics in the U.S. The clinic's accreditation as part of UCLA went a long way towards opening the doors for other Acupuncture clinics and for TCM in general in this country.

In 1997, the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a consensus statement on Acupuncture that concluded that despite research on Acupuncture being difficult to conduct, there is "sufficient evidence" to expand its therapeutic use and encourage further studies of the phenomenon. Due most specifically to Acupuncture's ability to control pain, it has since become not only accepted as an alternative medical practice, but for many Americans is now their medical procedure of choice for not only pain, but other medical conditions as well.

Acupuncture concerns the insertion of extremely fine, hair-like needles into specific acupuncture points located throughout the body. Acupuncture can be used for pain relief for both acute pain like for a migraine headache and/or chronic pain such as ongoing back pain, even for symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and cancer pain.

Certainly the most frequently asked question regarding the initial visit to ours or any Acupuncture office is, "Do the needles hurt?" Acupuncture is mostly painless due to the extremely fine type of needles used. Most patients would describe acupuncture as virtually pain free, especially in relation to a shot by a medical professional or dentist, but as all individuals are different, some describe discomfort, slight pain or just a strange somewhat pleasant sensation.

Part of the reason you might hear someone describe Acupuncture as painful would have to do with the ability and time taken by the Acupuncturist. At Nassar Acupuncture we concentrate on reducing pain from our needle insertion just as we focus on reducing pain from our patient's condition or illness..

Acupuncture is used more often for various types of pain relief than almost any other alternative medical practice in the U. S. Acupuncture pain therapy is perhaps the single greatest reason you see so many Acupuncture offices in and around greater Los Angeles. The L. A. area has more acupuncture practices than any other city in the nation.

Parts of West L A and Orange County are among the most economically prosperous locations in the country so people who want to can afford alternative pain therapy rather than relying on drugs or just enduring the pain.

Acupuncture has been used for various types of orthopedic treatment. It has been used to treat a wide variety of illnesses, diseases, and conditions, ranging from weight loss and sleep disturbances, to bursitis and other joint pain, or chronic neck and back pain. It has been found to be extremely effective in treating severe pain in its various forms, including herniated disc pain, other lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, dental pain, sciatica, headache, and even offers cancer pain relief.

At Nassar Acupuncture, we work in integrative medicine, meaning that we find the combination of oriental medicine and the Medicine of the West to be the most successful treatment plan in addressing almost any medical condition.

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow, or as it is clinically known, Lateral Epicondylitis, is a repetitive stress injury that results from continuous bending and turning of the wrist and forearm in the direction of wrist extension and supination (ie the bending of the wrist away from the palm, and twisting it toward the thumb). The common causes of this disorder are excessive computer usage or competing in sports that require racquet ― hence the name "tennis elbow"

Clinically, what happens is this. The extensor carpi radialis brevis muscle of the forearm, which is located between the lateral elbow and the thumb, becomes strained and slowly incurs damage to both its muscle and the tendon that connects it to the elbow.

The best treatment of tennis elbow is a combination treatment. First, it is imperative that the patient avoid the offending action as much as possible to allow the muscle and tendon time to heal.

Second, the patient should receive acupuncture from an acupuncturist that specializes in acupuncture orthopedics. Acupuncture will help the body to invoke the immune system and promote blood flow to the area to help with the healing process. Acupuncture will also help to reduce the pain and sensitivity of the elbow by reducing inflammation there as well.

Third, the patient will need to rehabilitate the muscle and surrounding muscles so as to avoid incurring more damage in the future. For this reason, physical therapy can be a terrific addition to treatment, though exercises can be prescribed by your orthopedic acupuncturist as well.

The key to this and any repetitive stress injury is in early detection and treatment to avoid a long recovery time, as can be the case with long-term chronic conditions.

Low Back Pain

Low back pain is an extremely common syndrome. It is a symptom of a wide range of disorders that affect the bony and soft tissue components of the lower back: the lumbar vertebrae, muscles, ligaments, nerves, and intervertebral discs. Low back pain can be acute, subacute, or chronic in nature.

Acute lower back pain is frequently caused by a traumatic injury. This can be anything from a car accident to the lifting of a heavy load improperly. Acute back pain is most frequently the symptom of some form of soft tissue damage.

Chronic low back pain tends to slowly develop over time and is likewise much slower at resolving, especially without therapeutic intervention. The cause of this type of injury is usually found in the various activities of daily living. Frequently this can come in the guise of a poor work station for people with desk jobs or poor lifting/twisting for those with more physically strenuous occupations.

Acupuncture is an effective form of treatment and frequent augmentation to rehabilitative programs like physical therapy. Acupuncture works to remove the inflammation that prevents active healing by recruiting the white blood cells of the lymphatic system. The needles also work to loosen tensed muscles and calm inflamed nerves, all while promoting circulation and general health for your back.

When paired with physical therapy, a patient has the freedom to strengthen supportive muscles far more effectively and painlessly. This will help to ensure long lasting relief and a lower likelihood recurrence.

Sciatica

Sciatica is the name for the symptom that many patients experience of burning, shooting pain following the pathway of the sciatic nerve, from the lower back to the buttocks and further down the outside of the legs and feet, sometimes all the way down to the little toe.

There tends to be a good deal of confusion and misunderstanding regarding the actual cause of sciatic pain. There are actually two entirely different syndromes that are implicated in Sciatica.

• The first is a radiculopathy of the lumbar spine. A radiculopathy is an irritation of the nerve at the nerve root, where it first emerges from the spine. Common causes are disc herniation, misalignment of the spine, and degenerative disc disease. Frequently, the affect of the radiculopathy can be worsened by tension of the muscles surrounding the spine.
• The second syndrome that frequently leads to sciatica is far less easily diagnosed, and therefore more often overlooked. This is compression of the nerve further down its trajectory by muscles that the nerve runs through and next to. The most common muscle perpetrator is the piriformis muscle of the buttocks. In a significant portion of the population, the sciatic nerve actually runs directly through the piriformis muscle. In these people especially, tension or spasming of the muscle can lead to compression of the sciatic nerve, and thereby the associated sciatic pain.

Very frequently sciatica, even long standing sciatica, can be relatively easily addressed by acupuncture and a few simple exercises. The goal of treatment is to relax the stressed muscles that may be impacting the nerve, and remove inflammation from the nerve directly to reduce pain immediately. If the sciatica is caused by a radiculopathy, it will also be very important to strengthen the lower abdominal muscles to better support the back, and allow the muscles around the spine to loosen and relax.

Herbal medicine, topical ointments, kinesio taping, TENS therapy, cupping, and ultrasound therapy can also be effective adjunct therapies for treating sciatica.