If you have had little or no exposure to Acupuncture, it can be a little intimidating. I hope this will help. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me.
What Can Traditional Chinese Medicine Do for Me?
Acupuncture is
generally known as a good solution for chronic (ongoing) pain management.
This is a well documented, and generally accepted use of acupuncture. But
there are a number of conditions that acupuncture is effective for that are not so well
known. Here are a few:
Women's issues
- Issues associated with menopause are commonly treated with acupuncture.
Pain and irritability issues associated with a woman's monthly cycle may be
effectively addressed with acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
Immune
enhancement - Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be used to treat colds and flus, and can help increase immunity so you don't get so many colds.
Wellness - Acupuncture and herbs can help you maintain your body at peak
health, and improve your resistance to the various bugs being passed around.
Facial
Rejuvenation - Specifically to help you look and feel younger, acupuncture is
surprisingly effective at reducing wrinkles and other signs of
aging. Not as fast as botox, but has benefits beyond mere
appearance.
Aging - As we
are all aware, the aging process is ongoing but
acupuncture can help maintain your health, and can be targeted to specific
issues you may have as you get older.
In 1997 the
National Institute of Health summarized some other areas where Acupuncture has
been studied: "there is clear evidence that needle acupuncture is
efficacious for adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and probably for the nausea of
pregnancy... There is reasonable evidence of efficacy for postoperative dental
pain... reasonable studies (although sometimes only single studies) showing
relief of pain with acupuncture on diverse pain conditions such as menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, and fibromyalgia..." However,
"acupuncture does not demonstrate efficacy for cessation of smoking and
may not be efficacious for some other conditions."
The items
listed above are the issues we all face as human beings. Some of us may
have additional issues caused by accident or illness. Almost every
treatment for car accidents, surgery, illness, etc provided by your local
doctor can be enhanced by the application of acupuncture.
What to
Expect
Acupuncture is
a whole new world to many people. They don't know what to expect because
they are unfamiliar with the practice of acupuncture. So here is a
description of what to expect at your first acupuncture appointment.
Your
acupuncture practitioner will ask you about your medical history, talk to you
about whatever issues that prompted you to come in, and will do all the normal
medical disclosures regarding HIPAA and privacy. In her mind she will be designing the
treatment plan, and will discuss with you anything related to that you would
like to know.
Then, she will
send you behind the screen, or she will leave the room, and she will ask you to
undress and cover up with a towel or sheet.
She will tell you what to wear, and ask you to lie on the table, either
face up or face down. You will probably
be in your underwear, you typically do not completely undress for an
acupuncture treatment.
She will tap
the needles in, and proceed to treat you.
When the needles are in place, she will step outside of the room for anywhere from 5-30 minutes. During this time, she may
cover you or turn the heat up to be sure you stay warm.
When the
session is over, she will remove the needles and discard them. She will ask you to get dressed. Then she
will discuss with you which herbs or Chinese medicinal herbs may be beneficial
to help continue the improvement of your health. You will walk away feeling
good, and the next day will be even better.
Does it
hurt?
Acupuncture is
a whole new world to some folks. They don't know what to expect because
they are unfamiliar with the practice of acupuncture. But you need not
worry about pain, this is a process that is not painful.
The needles we
use are very fine. When inserted into your skin, we just tap them quickly
and there is not even the sting of a typical vaccination. This is a good
thing, of course, because we may put many needles in you. Even for
something like a simple headache, we will use several on your head, several on
each hand, and maybe one or two on the back of your neck.
It is important
to note that the practice of Acupuncture, like many wellness disciplines, is
all about working as a partner with your practitioner to improve your
health. This is particularly true as it relates to pain you may feel
during the acupuncture treatment. If it hurts, it isn't quite right.
You need to speak up and let the practitioner know. The needle can be
repositioned so it doesn't hurt, although you may occasionally feel an ache at
the site of the needle.
It is possible
for you to cause a painful acupuncture experience. You should not
move when being treated. The needles may go far enough into your body
that when you move a muscle the needle will move and cause pain.
Overall, the
experience should not cause you any more pain than a massage. In the long
run, of course, the use of acupuncture has well documented benefits for your
overall health and well being.
Is it Effective?
It
is clear that after thousands of years of practice, that Acupuncture is
effective. But this question kind of misses the point. After all,
the only thing that matters is if it is effective for you.
In our world,
we tend to think like men. (No offense intended to the guys among us!)
But we look at our bodies like a car. Something breaks, we want it
fixed. So we go to our doctor and he gives us drugs or surgery, and
voila! It is fixed.
Acupuncture is
not like that. It is more like growing a garden. It is a process
where you work with the elements you have, and help them. You water
during the dry spells, you pull the weeds out, you apply a little
compost. You do these as part of an ongoing effort to help
your garden grow. Acupuncture is part of an overall attitude toward
your life and your health. You are trying to do what you need to;
trying to eat right, exercise as much as you can, getting enough sleep.
Despite your efforts to live a healthy life issues crop up outside the normal,
and acupuncture can help your body deal with these issues.
This type of
treatment is very effective for some, less effective for others. It is definitely
not designed to be as effective as taking a pill. Consider taking your
daily Prozac. Quick, easy and effective. You may be able to achieve
the same thing through acupuncture with a greater overall benefit for your
health. But it would not appear like a miracle cure the way a
drug can.
In 1997,
the National Institute of Health issued a consensus statement on
acupuncture that concluded that "there is sufficient evidence of
acupuncture's value to expand its use into conventional medicine and to
encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value." The
NIH statement noted that "the data in support of acupuncture are as strong
as those for many accepted Western medical therapies", and added that
"the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many
drugs or other accepted medical procedures used for the same condition."
Almost no one
suggests that acupuncture should completely replace Western medicine. The
benefits of drugs and surgery are undeniable. But in cases where you
don't believe action that drastic is necessary, or where you want additional
help through a problem, acupuncture is safe, reliable, and effective.
Looking
Good!
Acupuncture is
a part of your medical care designed to enhance your health and well
being. It can help relieve ongoing health
issues, but can also have a beneficial effect on how you look.
A subset of
acupuncture is designed specifically to help you look better, and is called Facial Rejuvenation.
As you might guess, this is a series of treatments that involve no
drugs or surgery.
It does take
some time, bf
you want a healthy procedure that works with your body to make you look better,
this is for you. The treatment consists
of 10-12 acupuncture treatments, each takes an hour to an hour and a half. Additional electrical stimulation in minute
amounts is added to some of the needles.
You will start to see noticeable changes in your skin and the contours
of your face after five or six of the treatments.
So, if you are considering
botox or cosmetic surgery, you would be well advised to consider acupuncture as
a safer and overall more healthful approach to looking younger. And with acupuncture you will probably feel
better too!
Surgery or
Drugs?
That question
is the typical response to your ailments by practitioners of Western
medicine. To be sure, these can be
appropriate, useful, and effective methods of treating your ailments. But we have all had ailments that we don’t
want to treat that way. We don’t want to
ignore them, but we don’t want drugs or surgery either.
Well, we have
an alternative for you! Acupuncture is
effective for many types of routine injuries or concerns that don’t really demand
the sort of treatment you will get if you go to the doctor.
The goals of
acupuncture and Western medicine are the same:
Both want you to feel good and be healthy. It is just that acupuncture works with your
body to help your body deal with the issues.
It is a longer term, less drastic, more holistic way of helping improve
your health. It is not magic in the way
drugs or surgery are, but it is effective nonetheless.
Acupuncture is a terrific alternative for dealing with issues of concern that you don’t want to take drugs for, but where you feel a need to do something. Check it out!
It is a little funny in our society to describe the method of treatment as using these lines of life force. We are not typically comfortable with that. So, please feel free to describe it this way: The modern scientific explanation is that needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord and brain. These chemicals will either change the experience of pain, or they will trigger the release of other chemicals and hormones that 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. (Holy Cross Hospital: http://www.holycrosshealth.org/svc_acupuncture_how.htm)
What is the point?
On
occasion someone will ask about acupuncture in a way that doesn’t really allow a
good answer. For example, they might ask "where is the acupuncture point for a
headache?". Their assumption is that their body and acupuncture work like a car
and your mechanic. Something goes wrong, you stick a pin in it!
You may have guessed, but it
doesn’t work that way. In Chinese medicine there are general points for some
things, ie headaches. But this avoids the real question. The reality is you
need to diagnose why someone has headaches and treat the root cause. The
headache or specific symptom is just a manifestation of the disorder. We want
to treat the cause of the symptom not just the symptom itself
This perspective on treatment is
consistent with the general practice of oriental medicine. The most successful
treatments incorporate your overall wellness, and utilize your own body’s
defenses to provide relief of your symptoms and a general overall improvement of
your health.
Diet and Exercise
Acupuncture is a great tool for improving your
health. It works with your body’s systems to improve how you feel, how you
look, and how you work.
It is
quite a bit different from Western Medicine, which appears to have an emphasis
on fixing things. But one thing we all agree on is that what you eat, and how
much you exercise, have a huge impact on your health. You need to eat right and
exercise regularly to feel good. Neither drugs, surgery, nor acupuncture can
provide significant health benefits if you are abusing your body.
So please, get off the couch, get
out of McDonalds. Eat well and exercise regularly and you will feel better than
ever. Come in for acupuncture too, and feel the best you ever have.