Acupuncture for Hip Pain

How Chinese medicine understands hip pain

In Chinese medicine, most hip pain is a form of Bi syndrome: pain from Qi and Blood that are blocked in the channels around the joint. Where the pain sits matters. The Gallbladder channel runs down the outer side of the hip and thigh, so pain on the outer hip is usually read along that channel. Pain in the groin lies closer to the Liver and Stomach channels. Pain in the buttock often involves the Bladder channel and the lower back.

What is causing the blockage decides the rest of the treatment. The common patterns are:

• Wind, Cold and Damp. The hip is stiff and heavy, worse in cold, wet weather and first thing in the morning, and better with warmth and movement. Treatment warms the area and clears the channels.
• Qi and Blood stagnation. Sharp, fixed pain, often after a fall, a strain or a sudden jump in running or walking. Treatment moves circulation through the area.
• Liver and Kidney deficiency. A deep, dull ache with weak legs and a sore low back, often in older people or after long illness. In Chinese medicine the Kidneys govern the bones and the Liver the tendons, so treatment also builds these up.

Most people have a mix of these, which is why two people with the same X-ray can get quite different treatment. Pain that shoots down the leg is a different problem, covered on the sciatica page.

What treatment involves

Your first visit at the clinic in Keswick starts with a lot of questions: where the pain sits, which movements bring it on, how you sleep, how far you can walk, and your general health. I look at your tongue and take your pulse. An assessment usually also includes checking how the hip moves in each direction and whether the low back is part of the picture.

Acupuncture is usually the main treatment. Points are commonly chosen around the hip and buttock, along the leg, and elsewhere on the body for your pattern. I treat the whole body at every treatment, not only the area that hurts. The aim is to ease pain and let the muscles around the hip relax so it moves more freely.

For a Cold pattern, moxibustion can warm the points. Cupping and tuina massage can help release the buttock and outer thigh muscles, which often tighten as you start to limp. Where the pattern calls for it, Chinese herbal medicine is a formula written for you and dispensed at the clinic.

The first appointment is 75 minutes, including the diagnosis and first treatment. Follow-ups are 60 minutes. Plan on 5–10 treatments to judge progress.

Between visits

• Keep walking, within comfort. Shorter, more frequent walks usually suit a sore hip better than one long one.
• Sleep with a pillow between your knees. If the outer hip hurts, this takes pressure off it. Avoid lying on the sore side.
• Don’t cross your legs or sit in low, soft chairs for long periods. Both load the outer hip.
• Strengthen gradually. Gentle exercises for the buttock and hip muscles from your physiotherapist or doctor tend to help most kinds of hip pain.
• Use heat for stiffness. A warm shower or heat pack for 10 to 15 minutes can ease a stiff hip in the morning.

When to see your doctor first

See your doctor before starting treatment, or promptly if you are already coming in, if:

• You fell and now cannot put weight on the leg, or the leg looks shorter or turned out. A hip fracture needs emergency care.
• The hip is hot, red or swollen, or you have a fever.
• A child or teenager has hip or knee pain or a new limp.
• You have taken steroid medication for a long time, or drink heavily, and have new deep groin pain.
• You have pain at night that does not ease with rest, unexplained weight loss, or a history of cancer.
• You have a bulge in the groin, or numbness, weakness or bladder or bowel changes with the pain.