Every day, around 60 million U.S. adults wake up to (or never slept because of) chronic pain. If you're one of those people, you know that while physical therapy can make you feel better, it can often be a temporary solution — and pain medications, even non-opioids, have drawbacks.

Now a study out of China shows that when chronic pain is caused by muscle tension, you end up with reduced blood flow in the area. That then leads to the release of inflammation mediators such as C-reactive protein, which can trigger pain signals.

So the researchers wondered how can we directly target muscle tension and restore local blood supply to achieve sustained pain relief?

It turns out that a technique called Fu's Subcutaneous Needling (FSN), which combines acupuncture with current scientific knowledge about muscles, does the trick.

The study, published in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medical Sciences, shows that using a specialized needle that's inserted into the subcutaneous layer rather than deep muscle layers and applying a "swaying movement" provides pain relief for everything from neck and shoulder stiffness to knee osteoarthritis and visceral pain.

The researchers say this switches the concept of pain treatment from nerve-centered theories toward a muscle-centered mode.

And it should alert pain sufferers (and their doctors) to the need to address the underlying muscle tension and constricted blood flow that leads to chronic pain.