Acupuncture: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Virtually everything—from pain management to treating the common cold. I have been at the front desk of a clinic and actually heard people call in sick… THOSE are exactly the people we can help. It can often help with symptoms of:

• Stress
• Low Back Pain
• Sports Injuries
• Headaches
• Acne
• Chronic Fatigue
• Digestive Issues
• Women’s and Men’s Health
• Asthma
• Cancer (in association with an oncologist)
• TMJ, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Etc. (in association with a dentist)

Chinese medicine also treats addictions using NADA (National Acupuncture Detox Association) protocols for things like emotional issues—PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), smoking, detoxifying body, weight loss, and addictions.

Chinese medicine also has the ability to detect sub-acute conditions; things flying just under the wire even before Western medicine can detect anything i.e. blood problems before the blood tests show anything, liver and kidney dis-harmonies, stomach and intestinal issues, just to name a few…

Chinese medicine practiced here in the West is alternative, integrative, and holistic medicine. It is alternative in that many patients do not go to Western MD’s because it’s not working for them (e.g. side effects to drugs, cost, no insurance, amount of time waiting in the office, and/or a lack of time spent with them).

It may be integrative because we can combine elements from both Western and Chinese medicine for the best treatment possible— the best of both worlds. It is holistic because we treat the body, mind, and spirit.

Now don’t get us wrong—when you need heroic medicine, go get it! You need it after a vehicle accident or when having a heart attack—you definitely need an EMT or an MD, not an acupuncturist. Depending on the severity of a traumatic injury, there are protocols and herbal formulas to stop bleeding and treat the injury as well, enhancing the effectiveness of Western treatments.

For your quality of life afterward, your daily life, and/or improving the quality of life measures, Chinese medicine has far-reaching capabilities over Western medicine, reducing reliance on man-made pharmaceutical needs and long-term rehabilitation.

Preventive medicine is one of the main concepts of acupuncture. Acupuncture treatment facilitates physical strengthening as it increases resistance to disease and disharmony thus improving the body’s ability to function. Stress-related symptoms and illnesses are particularly amenable to treatment by acupuncture. Tension, headaches, anxiety, depression, digestive complaints, and fatigue are symptoms of a body/mind imbalance.

When the energy of the body (QI) is blocked or not flowing smoothly, pain ensues. Acupuncture endeavors to remove these blocks to restore the balance of energy flow within the body and eliminate the pain. Pain is the body’s signal that tells us that something unnatural is occurring. Pain is also not the only indication that something is off-balance within your body.

By restoring the smooth flow of energy, acupuncture can intervene in a process that may, over time and without early treatment, create greater dysfunction or organic changes.

The needles are very thin, usually between the thickness of 1 or 2 of the hairs on your head or something like the thickness of a thin cat’s whisker at the most, closer to the human hair.

You might feel something like a mosquito bite, but usually what someone might experience is a warm feeling, heaviness at the site of the needle, you might also feel an electric sensation know as de qi, that goes away directly after the needle insertion.

Most people think of needles and remember the discomfort of injections. First, most of that is caused by something being injected into your skin or muscle, which hurts. With acupuncture, nothing is being forced into the tissues; this reduces or eliminates the discomfort. Also, the needle on a hypodermic is larger, and hollow, which tears the skin —also unpleasant. An acupuncture needle is solid, slipping easily into the skin without doing any damage.

Again, it depends; with deficiency or chronic conditions, the treatment time might take longer, and with acute conditions, the time may be shorter, but typically a treatment lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending upon your individual condition).

According to Chinese medicine theory, we don’t want to drive the pathogen deeper into the body, we want to release it. The needles are sterile and single-use only and then properly disposed into a biohazard container.

That depends; the more chronic the condition, the longer the treatment plan. The more acute, USUALLY the shorter the treatment plan. I.e.: if you break your leg, it’s acute but it takes a longer time to heal the bone properly.