Acupuncture
Acupuncture has been practiced for several thousand years in Asia; it is now an increasingly common treatment choice for patients on all continents. Acupuncture is the stimulation of points on the body with fine, flexible, sterile needles. Vital energy, or qi (“chee”), flows along an intricate system of energy pathways in each living body. Along these pathways lie the points that are traditionally needled, heated or massaged to improve our comfort and health. Acupuncturists check the movement of qi in each patient’s body and adjust its flow during treatment sessions.
Practiced in Asia for several thousand years, acupuncture is one branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the most common discipline of US acupuncture practitioners. Japanese, Korean and Five-Element styles of acupuncture, like TCM-style acupuncture, attend to the delicate interaction of yin and yang. Yin and yang are inseparable, opposing forces that describe the characteristics of every feature of life: personality, symptom, season, plant, food…. Observing the interplay of yin and yang in a patient informs the acupuncturist as a blood test or culture result informs a physician, guiding a treatment plan to restore health. Yin – the cooling, sinking, calm aspects of our experience may predominate in complaints of sluggish function or sleepiness. In contrast, Yang – that which is fiery, rising, or active figures strongly in complaints of tight muscles or irritability.
A course or series of acupuncture treatment is customized to each person and her/his desired result. In each treatment, the selection of acupuncture points reflects a person’s basic constitution/body type (hot-tempered or cool and calm), their daily environment (it might be hot, damp, drafty) as well as the nature or pattern of the symptoms (such as shoulder discomfort or cloudy weather headaches) that had them seek treatment.
Acupuncture is recommended for a wide variety of conditions such as acid reflux, insomnia and fibromyalgia. Research in the US shows strong results in easing conditions such as osteoarthritis, fertility and chemotherapy-related nausea, among others. It is a common choice for patients recovering from accidents or injuries. Dozens of medical centers are adding acupuncture into programs to enhance surgical recovery, physical therapy and stroke rehabilitation outcomes.
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