About Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient practice of carefully inserting sterile, ultra-fine needles at specific areas in the body to strengthen, stimulate and relieve symptoms of disease.
What you actually want to know:
Do you feel it?
Yes.
Does it hurt?
No. It feels odd, like no other feeling you’ve had before, but it’s not an “ouch feeling.”
If you are “afraid of needles” should you still try it?
Definitely! Usually, it is my “needle-wary patients” that seem to love it the most. They often fall asleep because it is so relaxing.
Don’t you thinks its strange, to put needles in your body for health?
Sure. It is a little bit strange. I thought so when I first tried it, but I found it hard to forget how effective it was. Acupuncture can be really effective and has been treating patients for a really long time in all parts of the world. If it was not effective, people would have stopped using it a long time ago.
Do you need to be sick and broken to benefit from acupuncture?
While acupuncture can be incredibly effective at treating symptoms, many acupuncture patients come in with “no symptoms” so they can stay that way and prevent problems from arising.
The basics of Chinese Medicine is that Energy (which is called 'qi' in Chinese Medicine) is constantly circulating throughout the body. Qi helps the body function, it helps the blood move and other processes from happening. When the body is balanced and we are living harmoniously then we are without problem and usually feel pretty great! But when there is not enough qi or it is blocked or stagnant, it results in pain, dysfunction and disease.
For example, when you have pain, something has happened in your body so it is not circulating optimally. When an acupuncturist inserts a needle, the body and brain identifies “something is happening” and sends blood to investigate and triggering a whole host of other responses to the needle point and other areas which help the body recover.
Do I have to believe in Acupuncture for it to work?
No. Sure, it always helps if you believe in the treatment you are getting, but many skeptical people have been carried into my clinic in pain and have walked out on their own. I imagine they are glad about it now. And fortunately for you and me, the World Health Organization recognises and recommends Acupuncture for quite a number of symptoms and conditions.
Acupuncture often requires people to look at their health a little differently, it is not about focusing on what is sick or killing a disease. Health in Chinese Medicine is about strengthening the body so it can make use of its abilities to prevent illness, promote wellness and resolve problems it may have. When our bodies are at their peak, we are not sick, in pain or stressed and cranky. Which sounds pretty good!