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:
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Addictions (Alcohol, Drugs, Tobacco) |
Anxiety |
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Arthritis |
Asthma |
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Bronchitis |
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome |
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Chronic Fatigue |
Colitis |
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Common Cold (Yes, a cure does exist!) |
Constipation |
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Dental Pain |
Depression, including SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) |
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Diarrhea |
Digestive Trouble |
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Dizziness |
Dysentery |
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Emotional Problems |
Eye Problems |
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Facial Palsy / Tics |
Fatigue |
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Fertility |
Fibromyalgia |
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Frozen Shoulder |
Headache / Migraine |
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Hiccups |
Incontinence |
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Indigestion |
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) |
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Low Back Pain |
Menopause |
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Menstrual Irregularities |
Nausea |
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Numbness or Tingling |
Osteoarthritis |
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Pain |
Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS) |
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Pneumonia |
Rhinitis |
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Sciatica |
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) |
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Shoulder Pain |
Sinusitis |
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Sleep Disturbances |
Sore Throat |
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Stress |
Tennis Elbow |
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Tonsillitis |
Trigeminal Neuralgia |
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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:
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“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.
