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Acupuncture is an ancient healing system that originated in China and has been used throughout Asia for over 3000 years. Acupuncture is part of the traditional medical practice of China, otherwise known as  Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The term "acupuncture" describes a variety of techniques and procedures that are designed to stimulate key areas of the body. The most common acupuncture technique involves the insertion of thin stainless steel needles into specific locations on the body, in order to alleviate many ailments and conditions that we face in our day to day lives. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) consider acupuncture to be a viable treatment option for over 73 conditions. Many of these conditions are called "functional disorders", because they have a "functional" basis and lack a known cause.

 

Does Acupuncture Hurt?

Acupuncture needles come in all different sizes, thicknesses and lengths. Some acupuncture needles are not much thicker than a human hair and their insertion is almost painless. Other acupuncture needles are much thicker and their insertion is most more noticeable, often producing sensations of pressure, especially when inserted into areas of chronic injury and pain. 

The style of acupuncture that we use extensively in our office, is called "Acupuncture Physical Medicine" or "Connective Tissue Needling". This style of acupuncture uses much thicker needles to punch through and break up the calcification and connective tissue adhesions that almost always accompanies and precipitates not only pain and dysfunction, but also chronic autonomic dysregulation.

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Acupuncture Needles are Different than Hypodermic Needles

Acupuncture feels nothing like receiving an injection from a hypodermic needle. A hypodermic needle is a rigid hollow tube with a sharp blade at tip. This results in tissue damage and the burning, stinging pain that people typically associate with injections. In contrast, acupuncture needles are thin pieces of flexible wire that have been shaped into a needle that flexes and bends as it penetrates through the body. This avoids the tissue damage and pain that typically accompanies hypodermic needle injections.

In some cases, you won't even know the needles are in place. In others, there may be warmth, tingling, heaviness, pressure, or a feeling of "energy" moving up and down the channel. Many people find acupuncture extremely relaxing and will fall asleep during treatment.

 

What To Expect During and After Treatment

To receive maximum benefit from acupuncture, it's recommended that you postpone treatment if you're excessively fatigued, hungry, or overly full. You should relax and tell your practitioner if you experience anything unusual. It's important that you be comfortable throughout the entire treatment and that you tell your practitioner if you are not. Please do not change your position or move suddenly after the needles have been inserted.

Patients can often experience dramatic results after the first treatment. Some patients experience an immediate total or partial relief of their symptoms, which may last or the symptoms may return at a later time. In some cases, there may be no immediate change, only to notice diminishing of symptoms over the next few days. On rare occasions, you may notice an exacerbation of your symptoms. Although this is often a good sign, it does indicate that things are changing and you should inform your practitioner as soon as possible. Generally, you should expect to feel better.

 

Side Effects and Risks

​Since acupuncture involves the insertion of needles into the skin, people sometimes worry about infection and side effects. My office uses only sterile, single use, disposable needles, in compliance with FDA standards.
Relatively few complications from the use of acupuncture have been reported to the FDA, in light of the millions of people treated each year and the number of acupuncture needles used. Occasionally, when someone with chronic debilitating musculoskeletal pain receives acupuncture, their pain may be exacerbated. If this occurs, it means that that the problematic area has been addressed but more treatments are required. It's analogous to attacking a hornets nest without exterminating all the hornets. Even if 80% of the hornets are exterminated, the remaining hornets are now aggravated, extremely reactive and far more problematic than they were prior to being attacked. Connective tissue dysfunction operates on the same principle. 

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How Popular Is Acupuncture?

Acupuncturists (L.Ac), Doctors of Oriental Medicine (DOM) and Acupuncture Physicians (AP) are fully licensed health care practitioners. Their educational curriculum includes extensive training to improve physical and psychological health through acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutritional medicine and hands-on therapy. Today, over 20,000 acupuncturists offer the American public a unique alternative to conventional medical care. Acupuncturists typically attend college for 6-8 years. During their four years of acupuncture education, they study basic science and receive two years of clinical training in school clinics, out-patient offices and certain hospitals. They also complete one or more years of clinical internship at an approved facility.

Their training covers Pediatrics, Gynecology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Orthopedics, Emergency Medicine, and all aspects of Internal Medicine. Board Certification may be taken in Acupuncture and or Herbal Medicine.

 

Finding A Qualified Practitioner

Most states require a license to practice acupuncture. However, education, training standards and requirements for obtaining a license vary from state to state. Although a license does not ensure quality of care, it does indicate that a practitioner meets certain standards regarding their knowledge and use of acupuncture.

It is important to find an NCCAOM board certified practitioner. ​The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine(NCCAOM) establishes, assesses, and promotes recognized standards of competence and safety in​ acupuncture​ and ​Oriental medicine​ for the protection and benefit of the public.
Additionally, most physicians, chiropractors and physical therapists who use acupuncture are not board certified. These practitioners complete a simplified 130 hour training program that is very different than the 2500 hours that board certification requires. Non-board certified acupuncturists typically denote their credentials as C.Ac.

 

Possible Reasons Why Acupuncture Doesn't Help

​Although most people are familiar with the notion of acupuncture, there are actually many different styles of acupuncture and not every style is equally effective for every medical condition. This explains a lot of the discrepancy among those who've benefited from acupuncture and those for whom it did nothing. 
Another reason why acupuncture may not be helpful for a particular problem, is that many conditions aren't amenable to acupuncture as an isolated treatment approach - sometimes it works but equally often, it doesn't. 

 

The Difference In My Approach

​My philosophy and approach to acupuncture are considerably different than other practitioners. I use the same points and needling techniques, but my extensive use of hands-on and mind-body integration therapies make my sessions quite different and in my opinion, much more effective than using acupuncture as a stand-alone modality. 

For more information about what makes my approach to acupuncture different than other practitioners, see the page on Somatic Integration.

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Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a very sophisticated medical philosophy that consists of both diagnostic procedures therapeutic procedures. While acupuncture is the most well known intervention, other interventions include: Manual Therapy; Herbal Medicine; Dietary Therapy; Meditation; and Physical Exercises. 

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The Science Behind Acupuncture and TCM

As a 3,000 year old medical philosophy, Chinese Medicine is a very broad and fascinating field of study. It is mostly a pre-scientific form of physical medicine with a lot of different approaches, styles and techniques. It also has a lot of theories and concepts to explain how and why dis-ease happens and how to remedy it. 

My focus here isn't to discuss the ancient pre-scientific theories of Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, but rather, to give a modern and scientifically updated overview about how this incredibly fascinating and sophisticated medical paradigm actually works. 

Aside from the pre-scientific theories and explanations that the ancient Chinese developed, largely through experiential analysis, there are three different mechanisms by which Acupuncture works. Moreover, these three mechanisms are not limited to only acupuncture. They account for and explain how all therapeutic modalities work, no matter how seemingly divergent. If a technique or discipline is helpful, it's largely due to one of these three mechanisms.

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The first mechanism occurs at the local tissue level. Whether we're talking about movement, massage, joint manipulation, stretching, use of heat, cold, mechanical pressure waves, phototherapy, injections, or the insertion of an acupuncture needle, local tissue responses largely involve beneficial changes within the local connective tissue, including scar tissue infiltrate and adhesions. This is the primary mechanism of Physical Medicine Acupuncture and Dry Needling.

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The second mechanism involves the inhibition of facilitated spinal cord segments and reflexes. This mechanism plays a role in functional movement systems, applied kinesiology (muscle testing), reflex inhibition techniques, and the use of spinal, auricular, facial and scalp acupuncture to inhibit excessive cranial nerve irritability.

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The third mechanism involves the central processing of information within the brain itself. This is the the most obscure and poorly understood mechanism, and largely contributes to the seemingly mystical experiences that people frequently attribute to acupuncture and other subtle healing arts modalities.  

As different parts of the body are stimulated, with either gentle hand contacts or the gentle insertion of acupuncture needles, the brain's internalized map of the body is stimulated and awakened. This internalized map provides the brain with "self-image" of the body and is technically referred to as the brain's "somatotopic map". When this somatotopic map is activated, it has a direct effect on firing sequences and neural processes throughout the entire mind and body. 

Of the three different mechanisms, central processing is the most difficult to understand and delineate, simply because everyone's neural wiring is uniquely different.

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