What is Acupuncture?

 

Acupuncture is a system of natural healing which is

over 2000 years old. It is based on the theory

that there are channels which flow as rivers

in the body. When these channels are obstructed,

deficient in proper resources, or excess, 

there is pathology and disease. Needles are

primarily used to stimulate points which are

laid out on these channels. These points create

a response from the body which create movement, and the movement then creates healing in the body. Organs and channels are differentiated based on yin and yang theory. Yin and yang categorizes observable phenomenon in nature which allows a clinician to differentiate similar phenomenon in the body. What is present in nature also exists in the body, this theory is aligned with the symptoms, the tongue and pulse diagnosis. The purpose of an acupuncture treatment is to analyze the signs and symptoms, the tongue, and the pulse and use the points associated with the diagnosis and create movement in the channels which are obstructed, deficient or excess.  

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What can Acupuncture treat? 

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According to the WHO, Acupuncture can be used to treat and is not limited to: ​

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• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever), Biliary colic, Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke), Dysentery acute bacillary, Dysmenorrhoea, Primary epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm), Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders), Headache, Hypertension, Essential Hypotension, Primary Induction of labour, Knee pain, Leukopenia, Low back pain, Malposition of fetus, correction of Morning sickness, Nausea and vomiting, Neck pain, Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction), Periarthritis of shoulder, Postoperative pain Renal colic, Rheumatoid arthritis, Sciatica, Sprain, Stroke, Tennis elbow 

 

• Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm), Acne vulgaris, Alcohol dependence and detoxification, Bell’s palsy, Bronchial asthma, Cancer pain, Cardiac neurosis, Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation Cholelithiasis, Competition stress syndrome, Craniocerebral injury, closed Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent, Earache, Epidemic haemorrhagic fever, Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease), Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection, Female infertility, Facial spasm, Female urethral syndrome, Fibromyalgia and fasciitis, Gastrokinetic disturbance, Gouty arthritis, Hepatitis B virus carrier status, Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3), Hyperlipaemia, Hypo-ovarianism Insomnia, Labour pain, Lactation, deficiency, Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic Ménière disease 

 

• Neuralgia, post-herpetic Neurodermatitis, Obesity, Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence, Osteoarthritis, Pain due to endoscopic examination, Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans, Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome), Postextubation in children, Postoperative convalescence, Premenstrual syndrome, Prostatitis, chronic Pruritus, Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome, Raynaud syndrome, primary, Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection, Reflex sympathetic dystrophy, Retention of urine, traumatic, Schizophrenia, Sialism, drug-induced Sjögren syndrome, Sore throat (including tonsillitis), Spine pain, acute Stiff neck, Temporomandibular joint dysfunction, Tietze syndrome, Tobacco dependence, Tourette syndrome, Ulcerative colitis, chronic Urolithiasis, Vascular dementia, Whooping cough (pertussis) 

 
Source: British Acupuncture Council ACUPUNCTURE: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF REPORTS ON CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIALS Chapter 3, Diseases and disorders that can be treated with acupuncture. 
 

Acupuncture treats the individual and not simply the conditions, all symptoms of an individual is considered in the treatment plan. After evaluating all symptoms, a treatment plan is created to promote balance in the body, which stimulates change in the symptoms.