FAQs
NCCAM – Acupuncture – Get the Facts.PDF
Q: What is Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine?
A: Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine are healing modalities with a history of over 5,000 years. Acupuncture & herbs have been used in the USA for the past twenty years to treat a variety of chronic and acute ailments.
Acupuncture involves the use of very fine, sterile and disposable needles into energetic points on the body which stimulate a healing energy flow in the body to assist in the healing process. In Chinese Medicine, we refer to this energy flow as Qi/Chi. Chinese Medical Practice believes that Qi gives us our capacity to think, feel, work and most Importantly heal.
Practitioners of Chinese Medicine use Acupuncture, Herbs and other healing modalities to “coax†the Innate healing abilities that are within us all.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has endorsed the use of Acupuncture for the treatment of over 100 conditions and has reported, Acupuncture has proven to be effective In the treatment of pain, stress headaches, addictions, chronic fatigue, anxiety, dysmennorhea, fibromyalgia, allergic sinusitis / rhinitis, depression, insomnia, asthma, chronic cough, gallstones, Belle’s Palsy, women’s and men’s health care, weight gain, weight loss, digestive disorders, kidney disorders, skin disorders, stroke recovery, skin disorders, decreased immunity and countless other ailments.
Q: Does Acupuncture hurt?
A: Most of the time there is no pain, There is a normal feeling of distention or tightness around the needle.
Q: How safe is Acupuncture?
A: Extremely safe. We only use brand new, sterile, Individually wrapped disposable needles with every patient. We also clean any area to be needled with disposable alcohol pads before any needling takes place.
Q: Can Acupuncture help symptoms of depression?
A: Yes, acupuncture treatments can relax and calm the mind to help depression, anxiety and sleep disorders as well as improve energy to relive fatigue and related negative symptoms. The common symptoms of depression are feeling sad, irritable or anxious, crying easily, lacking self-confidence, having low self-esteem, poor concentration, indecisiveness, negative expectations, hopelessness, helplessness, fatigue, insomnia or hypersomnia: Some patients may have other kinds of pain.
Q: Who gets HOT FLASHES?
A: Eighty-five percent of the women in the United States experience hot flashes of some kind as they approach menopause and for the first year or two after their periods stop. Between 20 and 50% of women continue to have them for many more years. As time goes on, the intensity decreases.
The faster you go through the transition from regular periods to no periods the perimenopause or climacteric the more significant your hot flashes will be. Hot flashes are severe after surgical menopause, and they can also be quite difficult after a chemotherapy-induced medical menopause.
Dietary and environmental triggers that can start a bout of hot flashes include alcohol, caffeine, and cayenne or other spicy foods, hot food, hot tubs, saunas, hot showers, hot beds, hot rooms, hot weather or smoking.
Q: How many people experience problems with infertility in the USA?
A: There were 6.1 million people infertile in the USA in 1997; 9.3 million in 1998 (American Society of Reproductive Medicine). 2 million new cases are reported every year. 10.1% of the reproductive age population were infertile in the USA 1997 (American Society of Reproductive Medicine). Infertility equally affects men and women in the USA (American Society of Reproductive Medicine).
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) costs are $8-10K per treatment cycle. Women undergoing fertility treatment could have their chances of success boosted by acupuncture. German researchers said they have increased success rates by almost 50% in women having in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Q: What is infertility?
A: Infertility is a disease that affects the reproductive organs of both men and women. It impairs one of the body’s most basic functions the ability to have children (American Society of Reproductive Medicine).
Q: How does the Chinese medical practitioner diagnose what is out of balance in a person’s body?
A: This is done by using the ‘Four Examinations,’ a method of diagnosis which dates back over three thousand years. Observing, Listening and Smelling (Listening and Smelling are counted as one of the Four Examinations), Questioning and Palpating make up the ‘Four Examinations’. The subjective, interpretive and objective evidence of an individual obtained by the ‘Four Examinations’ leads to the discovery of the causes of a disease while at the same time becoming aware of the ‘Whole Person”, thus revealing where in the individual’s life the development of the disease started and what initiated it.
