Acupuncture is a form of therapeutic modality in Chinese Medicine which utilizes needle or needles to promote and regulate self healing. It is an ancient art that’s been practiced for thousands of years and has been adopted and utilized in the western culture since the 1970’s during Nixon’s era.
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In our body, there’s this flow of life force or energy we called “Qi”. Qi travels in a comprehensive network of pathways, we called Meridians or Channels. Acupuncture points are energy pockets, switches, gateways located on the Meridians/Channels. Acupuncture treatment works with the flow of Qi, to direct, harmonize, regulate, and expel excess conditions in the human body to maintain homeostasis.
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Everything in nature has a “way”, our body has a “way” as well. The “way” is that it has the intelligence of knowing what, when, how, where to operate and heal with and without intervention(s) when it is allowed to. It means that our physical body reflects our state of health. When our body senses conflicts or distress, it creates symptoms to projects these internal imbalances. The body signals for attention. Therefore developing a keen awareness of challenges in our daily life can prevent further progression of these symptoms and avoid dealing with exacerbated issues. Your commitment and cooperation to change either your lifestyle or way of thinking contributes greatly to the rate and effectiveness of your improvement.
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Our body usually can heal from a common cold, heal a cut or a wound, heal bone fracture after bone-setting. Our body can automatically heal itself without a conscious command. Imagine IF we have given conscious commands or directing energies to these concerns; it would unquestionably facilitate our healing process. Remember a time when you or someone you know didn’t want to go somewhere (IE: school, work, traveling, or any unpleasant events) and ended up sick so plans had to be changed? This is a negative example but imagine if it was used in a positive scenario? This is how closely our body works with our mind. Some call it mind over matter; you are what you think etc.
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Now, let’s answer some common questions about the technical material in acupuncture procedure, like the needles. Modern acupuncture practices employ super fine filiform needle(s) to acupuncture points for treatment. If there’s any concern regarding contamination or cross-contamination, please rest assured that clinical-use acupuncture needles are sterile and one-time use only.
What does Qi and Meridian mean in English?
According to modern researches, acupuncture stimulates the brain to produce and release endorphins to reduce stress on the body; it interrupts pain messages to the brain to mitigate overloading pain signals, ignites the mid-brain to heal chronic issues; externally, it induces muscle relaxation, increases and improves blood circulation, and reduces inflammation. In short, acupuncture serves as a means to alter and pacifying the state of distress in the body caused internally or externally.
What is Acupuncture good for, in terms of western or conventional medicine?
From modern research and traditional functions, acupuncture can be beneficial for various conditions and symptoms. Widely suggested for issues with pain; neurological pain such as headache, postoperative pain; musculoskeletal pain such as arthritis, neck and lower back pain, tennis elbow, shoulder pain, sport activity induced muscle soreness and muscle cramps, etc. Besides pain, acupuncture is also great for anything that deal with cycles, such as gynecological issues such as PMS, menstruation issues, menopausal symptoms, infertility, seasonally allergy and jet-lag. It is also known as a supporting treatment to stop addictions such as smoking cessation.
Another popular application with acupuncture is for emotional support; stress, depression, PTSD (post-traumatic conditions), any acute trauma – from car accidents, fights, injuries, anger management, anxiety, and insomnia etc. In Chinese Medicine, emotional issues usually affects the internal organ that it is associated with: Lung with grief/sadness, Kidney with fear/fright, Liver with Anger/Frustration, Heart affected by all types of emotion, and Stomach (GI system) with worry.
Wait, there’s more; it also modulates the immune system to recover from conditions induced from weak bodily defense from common cold to Bell’s palsy (acute facial deviation), to shingles.
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Finally, what is acupuncture good for? If there’s a need for improvement in your mind, body, and/or spirit, you can use a dose of acupuncture. Acupuncture has many more benefits. Feel free to contact us for a brief consultation regarding your concern and see if acupuncture would work to you.
What is acupuncture?
