When the Needles Hurt on One Side
Dear Patient,
Sometimes when you get acupuncture, you’ll notice that the needles are painful on only one side of the body. Maybe you don’t feel anything on the left side, but all the needles on your right side hurt when they go in. Or vice versa.
When a patient asks me about this, I usually respond, “That’s just a sign of imbalance.” That’s true, but there’s more to the story.
In nature, every paired opposite corresponds to yin and yang. Night and day. Moon and sun. Death and birth. The same is true in the body. The head is yang and the feet are yin. The back is yang and the front is yin. The left side is yang and the right side is yin.1
So if the needles hurt more on your left side, it could mean something’s off with your yang energy. Maybe you’ve got too much, or not enough. Or maybe your yang energy is excessive in one place and deficient in another. Or it could mean your yang energy is just fine, and really it’s your yin energy that’s out of whack, but it’s manifesting on the left side because sometimes bodies just do things that defy logical explanation.
If neither side hurts, or if both sides hurt equally, that could indicate a relatively balanced state of yin and yang. But it could also mean one is excess and the other is deficient, and they’re effectively canceling each other out.
It gets complicated quickly. And the ongoing dynamic interplay of yin and yang in your body causes these sensations to change over time. This is why, when someone asks me why the needles hurt on one side and not the other, I usually opt for the simple answer. The explanation of “that’s just a sign of imbalance” is an oversimplification, but it’s also true.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
While the left side of the body is yang and the right side is yin, the opposite is true for the brain. Because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, the right side of the brain is yang, as is the left side of the body. And vice versa. For years I could never remember which side of the body is yin or yang, and I think it’s because it gets flipped when we’re talking about the brain. Or at least that’s the excuse I tell myself.