Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most commonly used medical practices in the world. Its popularity and use has been growing exponentially in the United States ever since a reporter for the New York Times, traveling with President Nixon during his historic visit to China in 1971, had acupuncture anesthesia during emergency surgery.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine involve much more than the insertion of hair-thin needles into specific points of the body to bring about healing.  This medicine also includes diet & nutritional counseling, herbal prescriptions and exercise, when used properly. This is because acupuncture as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine is about living in harmony and balance.

Even if you have never been to an acupuncturist yourself, you probably know at least one person who has. While the majority of people in the U.S. go for the relief of some sort of pain, the conditions which can be treated are as vast as we are different.  This is because Traditional Chinese Medicine evaluates and differentiates disease on a very different, although complementary, system than Western medicine.

In 1979, the World Health Organization (WHO) – the health branch of the United Nations – found acupuncture to be effective in the treatment of over 40 common problems.  Some of the more common include:

Addictions

(Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco)

Anxiety

Arthritis

Asthma

Bronchitis

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue

Colitis

Common Cold

(Yes, a cure does exist!)

Constipation

Dental Pain

Depression, including SAD

(Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Diarrhea

Digestive Trouble

Dizziness

Dysentery

Emotional Problems

Eye Problems

Facial Palsy / Tics

Fatigue

Fertility

Fibromyalgia

Frozen Shoulder

Headache / Migraine

Hiccups

Incontinence

Indigestion

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Low Back Pain

Menopause

Menstrual Irregularities

Nausea

Numbness or Tingling

Osteoarthritis

Pain

Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Pneumonia

Rhinitis

Sciatica

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Shoulder Pain

Sinusitis

Sleep Disturbances

Sore Throat

Stress

Tennis Elbow

Tonsillitis

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)

Vomiting

The National Institute of Health (NIH) conducted its own extensive research in November, 1997, primarily focusing on the biological basis and efficacy of acupuncture.  While they concur with WHO on many conditions and additionally recommend acupuncture as an effective treatment for asthma, the 1997 NIH panel concluded:

“There is sufficient evidence of acupuncture’s value to expand its use into conventional medicine and to encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value.”

NIH, 1997.

Please visit the NIH website @ http://nccam.nci.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/ for more information.

If you are interested in learning if this ancient and progressive medicine is able to help you, I welcome your call. I look forward to working with you to resolve those problems that you didn’t realize could be resolved.