Acupuncture

About Acupuncture

Acupuncture is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (or “TCM”), a medical system that originated over 4000 years ago. It addresses the health of the whole body, and aims to treat the cause of each issue rather than the symptoms.

What Acupuncture Does

The human body is a complex, delicate system. In TCM, sickness or pain is often considered to be caused by an imbalance somewhere in the body’s system. Acupuncture, along with other forms of Chinese Medicine, aims to correct this imbalance and encourage the body to heal itself naturally.

What to Expect During an Acupuncture Treatment
Tiny needles, sometimes finer than a human hair, are placed on special points that correspond to the problem area(s) of the body. Sometimes people don’t feel the needles at all, but more often people experience a tingling or warm sensation when a needle is inserted. Patients usually find acupuncture to be quite relaxing, and many even fall asleep during their sessions. The shortest treatments last about 45 minutes, while the longest ones can take up to 90 minutes. Patients are recommended to schedule one treatment per week for 8-10 weeks to see the best results, but worse symptoms may need more frequent visits, and as symptoms improve, patients may only need treatments once or twice per month.

Safety

Acupuncture is a safe medical procedure, and qualified practitioners go to school for years to ensure that they know how to do it properly. All needles are disposed of according to strict procedures, and are never reused. There are very few risks involved, with very few, minor adverse side affects. As a result, acupuncture is often recommended by medical professionals as an alternative or supplement to medication or surgery.

What Acupuncture Can Help

Among other things, acupuncture can benefit:

  • pain, muscle spasms, and injuries (neck pain, back pain, shoulder pain, ankle pain, knee pain, etc.)
  • osteoarthritis
  • neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, trigeminal neuralgia and Parkinson’s disease.
  • post–stroke rehabilitation
  • tendonitis, carpal tunnel, plantar fasciitis, gout
  • stress and anxiety
  • migraines and headaches
  • digestion problems such as constipation, diarrhea, IBS and Crohn’s disease
  • autoimmune issues such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus
  • PMS and cramping
  • menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and irritability
  • infertility, IVF, breech birth, birth induction
  • …And much more!

Please contact us if you want to know if we can help your particular health issues, and they are not listed here. Or take a look at our Facebook page, where we regularly post informative articles about acupuncture and ways it can benefit you.

When Acupuncture is Most Effective

In general, we recommend scheduling treatments once per week for 8-10 weeks to achieve your desired results. If the problem is acute, such as severe pain or another intense issue, we recommend treatments twice per week for two weeks, and then once per week for 8-10 weeks.

In General

Just like how medications are ineffective unless you take the prescribed dose at the instructed time, acupuncture won’t yield results if you don’t come for treatments frequently and consistently. Typically, there are three types of people:

Type 1

About 5-10% are fast responders. They may see tremendous improvement after only 1-4 treatments. 

 Type 2

Another 5-10% of people don’t respond well to acupuncture. These people are sometimes on many medications and have had multiple surgeries, and now need the fast, intense intervention of western allopathic medicine (a hospital).  They can still try acupuncture, but it’s like trying to move a cement mountain with a needle, and there may be little response. 

Type 3

Most people are the 80-90% in between.  The time frames vary as to how quickly they improve, but they do improve with acupuncture.