Acupuncture Works! It's Enjoyable. Not Scary. Promise.
Acupuncture has existed for 2000 years and is now practiced over a larger percentage of the world than at any other time in history. You will find it in the military, hospitals, integrated health clinics, rehab centers, and luxury spas. If it didn't work or was a nightmare experience it would have disappeared by now. The World Health Organization performed a study on acupuncture in 2003 and compiled a list of conditions that acupuncture has been reasonably proven to effectively treat. It is a very long list. You can find it here. The short story is that acupuncture helps your body do its jobs better: manage stress, balance hormones, heal, digest, sleep, fight illness, and procreate. How Does It Work?This is the million dollar question. There is no universally accepted theory explaining how acupuncture is able to do the amazingly wide variety of things it seems to do in the body. From an Eastern Medicine perspective, the needles balance and correct the flows of Qi, Blood, Yin, and Yang within the body. From a Western Medical perspective, the needles stimulate specialized nerve and muscle receptors, distort fascial tissue matrix, increase circulation, alters bio-electric activity in the tissues, and trigger release of neurotransmitters.
Acupuncture doesn't work for absolutely every person or condition, but neither does chemotherapy, knee replacements, cortisone shots, or in-vitro. Acupuncture is effective for most people, and for those people it does help, it is fantastic. If you have been told acupuncture could help your condition, it is definitely worth trying. |
Does it hurt?Acupuncture needles are the tiniest needles you have ever seen. They are so thin that they are flexible, more like fishing line or a hair brush bristle than any needle you might visualize. This is so thin that an insertion tube is used so that the needle doesn't just bow on contact with the skin.
The sensation of an acupuncture needle insertion is very quick as the tube is tapped, like closing a small snap button on clothing. Because most of the sensation is the pressure of the insertion tube on your skin, if you feel the needle at all it is a tiny underwhelming pinch. The needle is then adjusted and you might feel warmth, tingling, or a mild pleasant achiness at that point. The Good StuffCounterintuitively, acupuncture is a very pleasant experience. Once the needles are in, you will be left to "cook" for a little while. Lights are dimmed. Relaxing music is playing. There is often a source of warmth in the form of a table warmer or heat lamp. After about ten minutes the acupuncture effect on your neurotransmitters kicks in and you begin feeling a range of experiences that vary for each person: floating & lightness, sinking & heaviness, falling asleep, not falling asleep but the mind going quiet in a timeless space. I like to call this the reboot; it's your body powering down to integrate system updates. After your treatment you will feel very relaxed and almost sleepy for about half an hour, and then calm, energized, and focussed soon afterwards.
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