Quieting the Storm: Healing Chronic Pain and Fatigue with Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
There are some wounds the eye cannot see.
They live deep in the sinews of the body, woven between the bones and breath. They arrive quietly—after a car accident, a virus, a season of too much stress and too little rest—and settle in like fog that won’t lift. Pain that doesn’t leave. Exhaustion that sleep cannot fix.
This is the landscape of chronic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME)—conditions that evade the simple fix, that perplex labs and leave many patients unheard.
In my clinic, I meet these conditions not as puzzles to solve, but as stories to listen to. And in the tradition of Chinese medicine, we hold a profound truth: the body remembers how to heal—if we learn how to listen, and gently guide it home.
The Invisible Weight of Chronic Conditions
Chronic pain and chronic fatigue are more than diagnoses. They are experiences that alter how a person moves through the world.
Pain that flares without reason.
Fatigue that sleep cannot repair.
Brain fog, digestive imbalance, low mood, and a body that feels foreign.
Modern medicine may rule out disease—but not discomfort. For many, the lack of a clear cause becomes its own source of suffering.
But Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) sees the body differently.
In our medicine, we ask: Where is Qi blocked? Where is Blood not flowing? What organ systems have become deficient, overworked, or taxed by years of stress or trauma?
Acupuncture: Reconnecting the Currents
Acupuncture is an invitation for the body to return to itself.
By stimulating points along the meridians—pathways through which Qi (vital energy) flows—we help restore circulation, reduce inflammation, calm the nervous system, and bring balance to the internal landscape.
Western research increasingly supports what we’ve long known through clinical experience:
A meta-analysis of over 20,000 patients found that acupuncture significantly reduces chronic musculoskeletal pain, including back, neck, and osteoarthritis-related pain. Effects persisted even 12 months after treatment (Vickers et al., Archives of Internal Medicine, 2012).
In people with chronic fatigue syndrome, acupuncture has been shown to improve fatigue levels, immune response, and overall quality of life (Wang et al., Trials, 2008; Lee et al., BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013).
These findings echo what I see in practice:
People feel less pain.
They sleep better.
Their digestion improves.
The weight begins to lift.
A Medicine of Patterns, Not Labels
In TCM, we don’t treat "chronic fatigue" or "fibromyalgia" as Western diagnoses. Instead, we see patterns:
Qi Deficiency: Fatigue, shortness of breath, spontaneous sweating, brain fog.
Blood Stagnation: Pain that is fixed and stabbing, worse at night, often post-traumatic.
Liver Qi Stagnation: Emotional tension, fibromyalgia-like tenderness, migraines.
Kidney Deficiency: Deep fatigue, low back pain, dizziness, adrenal burnout.
Each person is treated as an individual, not a diagnosis code.
With acupuncture, herbal formulas, nutrition, and gentle lifestyle shifts, we nourish what is weak, move what is stuck, and calm what is overactive.
Beyond Symptom Management: A Return to Self
Chronic illness can fracture identity. People often say, “I don’t feel like myself anymore.”
But through this medicine, many find their way back.
One needle at a time, we quiet the overworked nervous system.
We calm the inflammatory fires.
We nourish the organs that have been long depleted.
In TCM, healing is not about suppressing symptoms—it is about restoring flow, rekindling vitality, and remembering balance.
And so healing becomes not just possible—but poetic.
A Note on Hope
If you are someone living with chronic pain or fatigue: I see you. I’ve sat with many like you—tired of being told it’s “just in your head,” tired of trying yet another approach, only to be let down.
Chinese medicine does not promise a magic bullet. But it does offer something rare: time, presence, and a path that honors the complexity of what you carry.
And that, I believe, is where true healing begins.
If you'd like to learn more about how acupuncture and Chinese medicine can support your healing from chronic conditions, I invite you to reach out. You don’t have to navigate this path alone.
Sincerely,
Dr. Alexandria Henriques, DAc.
Acupunk NYC
Vickers, A. J., et al. (2012). Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Archives of Internal Medicine, 172(19), 1444–1453.
Wang, T., et al. (2008). Efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome: a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 9(1), 1.
Lee, J. H., et al. (2013). Acupuncture for chronic fatigue syndrome and idiopathic chronic fatigue: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 13, 163.