Acupuncture

These questions and answers about acupuncture are from the pamphlet:  “Doctor: What’s This Acupuncture All About?” which is property of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.  For more information, go to:  

http://www.medicalacupuncture.org/For-Patients/Articles-By-Physicians-About-Acupuncture/NCCAM-Acupuncture-Information

Acupuncture is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and to improve functioning.  This is done by inserting needles at very precise acupuncture points.  Sometimes heat or electrical stimulation is applied to the needles to enhance the effect of the treatment.

Needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord, and brain.  These chemicals either change the experience of pain or trigger the release of other chemicals and hormones which influence the body’s own internal regulating system.

The improved energy and biochemical balance produced by acupuncture results in stimulating the body’s natural healing abilities, and in promoting physical and emotional well-being.

Yes.  Acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years and is widely used throughout the world today.  It is recognized to be helpful in treating a wide variety of medical and emotional problems.

Acupuncture can influence three areas of health care:

• Promotion of health and well-being.
• Prevention of illness.
• Treatment of various medical conditions.

Though acupuncture is often associated with pain control, in the hands of a well-trained practitioner, it has much broader applications.  Acupuncture can be used alone or in combination with other treatment forms in many medical disorders.

You may need as few as one treatment for a minor, acute problem such as a headache or infection but serious or very complex problems, or problems that have existed for a long time, may require a series of treatments over weeks or months.  The number of treatments depends on the condition being treated and your response to treatment.