Which is better for the body, acupuncture or massage

If the operation is compliant and adapted to the individual's physical condition, neither acupuncture nor massage will cause clear harm to the body. There is no absolute conclusion on the risk level of the two, and the difference will only be reflected in non-standard operation scenarios.

When I was volunteering at a community physical therapy center, I encountered two particularly impressive cases. One was a programmer in his early twenties who suffered from shoulder and neck pain for half a month. To save time, he bought an acupuncture needle online and inserted it by himself according to the tutorial. He missed the right spot and inserted a branch of the brachial plexus. His left arm was numb for ten days before he slowly recovered. He also said at the time that he thought the acupuncture only needed to be inserted in the approximate location, but he didn't know that the acupuncture needle would hit the nerve just by a few millimeters. There was also Aunt Zhang, who was in her sixties and had moderate osteoporosis. She heard from neighbors in the community that the massage shop at the door was very good for lumbar massage, so she went to try it. The master massaged her lumbar spine very hard in order to "reset" her. The pain was so bad that she couldn't get out of bed the same day after the massage. She went to the hospital to take a X-ray, which showed that she had a lumbar compression fracture, and she had to lie down for more than two months to recover.

Many people intuitively believe that acupuncture requires breaking the skin and is an invasive operation, so the risk is definitely higher. This is indeed true in the context of non-professional operations. After all, acupuncture needs to penetrate the skin, and if the disinfection is not in place, it can easily cause local infection. If the person who performs the acupuncture is not familiar with the anatomy of the human body, it is easy to accidentally injure the lungs and cause pneumothorax when inserting the acupuncture points on the chest and back. The deep nerves and blood vessels will also cause corresponding damage. These are clear risks in acupuncture operations. But on the other hand, many physical therapists feel that inappropriate massage can be more dangerous. After all, most people are too wary of massage. They feel that there is no need to break the skin anyway, and casual massage will cause pain for at most two days. They will not tell them in advance that they have osteoporosis, spondylolisthesis, or spondylolisthesis. For basic diseases such as aneurysm, if an unprofessional master uses neck pulling techniques or heavy pressure on the lumbar spine, big problems may occur, especially when pulling the cervical spine. Improper operation may even cause vertebral artery dissection. There are sporadic reports of such extreme cases every year.

There is actually no unified conclusion in the industry on the risk ranking of these two types of operations. I know an acupuncture doctor who has been practicing for 20 to 30 years and has never encountered a single serious operation accident. On the contrary, he sees two or three patients every week who suffered soft tissue injuries due to irregular massage. Even patients with worsening lumbar disc herniation; some massage therapists who have been working for more than ten years believe that as long as the patient's physical condition is clearly understood in advance and contraindications are strictly avoided, the risk of massage is even lower than that of acupuncture. After all, there is no need to break the skin and there is no possibility of accidental injury to organs.

After all, these two are safe physical therapy methods that have been proven for thousands of years. There is no argument that one is "worse for the body". The problem is always the person doing it, not the method itself. If you really have to choose, whether it is acupuncture or massage, you should first find a qualified and formal institution. When you go there, you should clearly explain your underlying diseases and discomfort symptoms to the operator. It is much more reliable than worrying about which one is more dangerous.