Conditions Treated by Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been proven effective at treating many of the ailments that affect the body and mind.

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Chronic pain in the muscles and joints can make life miserable. Standard treatments like ice and heat, anti-inflammatory medications, physical therapy, and appropriate exercises can often ease the pain. But when they don’t, acupuncture is an option with a good track record that’s worth considering. Acupuncturists insert hair-thin needles into the skin at specific points around the body. Inserting the needles helps to correct imbalances in the flow of energy in the body, affecting neurotransmitters, hormone levels, and the immune system. Correcting imbalances helps reduce chronic pain.

Acupuncture is used to support patients through the acute phase of withdrawal, improving your success at kicking the nicotine habit. Commonly, patients experience a decrease in cravings, changes in sensory perception as the taste and smell of cigarettes becomes intolerable, and an increased state of calm and relaxation. The withdrawal symptoms, such as: multiple withdrawal symptoms that one can experience, including: insomnia, fatigue, feeling jittering, cough, tightness in the chest, dry mouth, constipation, irritability, depression, anxiousness and lack of concentration; are addressed during the treatment plan.

If you are experiencing indigestion, irritable bowels, constipation, bloating or pain (in the stomach or intestines), acupuncture can be a tremendous resource for feeling better now and maintaining those improvements over the long term. Acupuncture improves the body functions of digestion, absorption and metabolism. It also reduces ulcers and neutralizes excessive stomach acid. Acupuncture calms abdominal distention and helps the body balance as to reduce or completely eliminate IBS symptoms. Acupuncture even addresses overeating and sugar addictions.

Scientists have been able to determine the role acupuncture plays in boosting the body’s immune system by enhancing the production of natural killer cells, which is the primary defense mechanism against organisms that make us sick. It also acts on a complex immune building system that regulates white blood cells directly linked to the fight against infections, allergic reactions, and even autoimmune disorders. For patients who are seeking to boost their immune system to protect them from getting sick, oftentimes a multidisciplinary approach is best. Acupuncture can easily be incorporated into your conventional treatment plan, working in tandem with your physician. You do not have to wait until you are sick to benefit from the immune-boosting benefits of acupuncture. You can begin regular acupuncture visits now as part of your preventative regime to ward off colds and the flu.

Chinese medicine practitioners often use acupuncture, Chinese or Western herbs, sinus washes/steams, and massage as basic treatment. Acupuncture can help immediately for clearing the sinuses and relieving pain. Nutrition, including diet and nutritional supplements, are also a major part of the treatment plan.

Weight loss treatment for a patient will include a multi-targeted approach. Acupuncture can be used to work on reducing cravings for certain foods or to encourage a decrease in natural appetite. A benefit of acupuncture weight loss treatment is that unlike certain medications, there are no harmful side effects and no chance for addiction. It is a perfectly natural means of boosting the patient’s weight loss efforts.

Postoperative pain management remains a significant challenge for health care providers. Acupuncture is widely used to treat pain and other conditions. Studies have shown a significant decrease in pain among the patients receiving acupuncture. In addition, the acupuncture patients required less morphine and other opioid pain medication, and thus reported fewer medication-related side effects, including nausea, dizziness and drowsiness.

Natural remedies such as acupuncture can clear symptoms of allergies, asthma, emphysema and bronchitis. By decreasing the bodies reactivity to substances allergic responses can be reduced. The acupuncture stimulus produces anti-inflammatory agents naturally that move to decrease the inflammation while at the same time affecting the sympathetic nervous system to ease the muscular constriction of the smooth muscle and therefore constricted airways.

In an official report, Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials, the WHO (WHO) has listed the following symptoms, diseases and conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture:

low back pain
neck pain
sciatica
tennis elbow
knee pain
periarthritis of the shoulder
sprains
facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
headache
dental pain
tempromandibular (TMJ) dysfunction
rheumatoid arthritis
induction of labor
correction of malposition of fetus (breech presentation)
morning sickness
nausea and vomiting
postoperative pain
stroke
essential hypertension
primary hypotension
renal colic
leucopenia
adverse reactions to radiation or chemotherapy
allergic rhinitis, including hay fever
biliary colic
depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
acute bacillary dysentery
primary dysmenorrhea
acute epigastralgia
peptic ulcer
acute and chronic gastritis[/tab][/tabs]