Acupuncture

WHAT IS ACUPUNCTURE?

Acupuncture involves inserting very thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. Acupuncture is a key component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and is most commonly used to treat pain. It is increasingly used for general wellbeing including stress management.

Acupuncture is a minimally invasive method of stimulating nerve-rich areas of the skin surface, which creates a cascade of positive changes in the body in order to promote physiological functions, self-regulation and self-healing powers of the body. In other words, acupuncture relies largely on the body's own regulatory state in order to realize its therapeutic proposals. If the body's own natural healing abilities do not improve the state of health, other alternatives should be used in good time.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) explains acupuncture as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life - known as Qi (Chi), which is believed to flow through paths (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners rebalance your energy flow.

Your mood, mental health, and general well-being all affect your physical health. Acupuncture therefore aims to help people achieve balance or qi (chi) and, as a result, alleviate many diseases.

Acupuncture works in three ways: as an analgesia, as a regulator of the physiological system, and as an amplifier of the immune defense system.

APPLY TO:

Acupuncture is primarily used to relieve ailments associated with a wide variety of diseases and conditions, including:

• Chemotherapy-induced and postoperative nausea and vomiting
• Toothache
• Headaches, including tension headaches and migraines
• Labor pains
• Lower back pain
• Neck pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Menstrual cramps
• Respiratory diseases such as allergic rhinitis

In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed a number of conditions for which acupuncture was shown to be effective. These include: