UNDERSTANDING ACUPUNCTURE

Please take a few minutes to read this introduction.
It is important that you take from it two things:

(1) Acupuncture works by harnessing some of the body’s own pain relieving and repair mechanisms.
(2) There is a substantial degree of variation in the response of different individuals to acupuncture treatment and this is based on genetics, age, duration of problem and past and future lifestyle choices.

Acupuncture---A Unique Biomedical Therapy

Acupuncture is a unique therapy because it uses fine needles to create very small
“traumas,” or lesions into tissues, which then stimulate many of the built-in survival mechanisms of the body. The needling and its lesions activate multiple self-healing mechanisms, including the release of physical and emotional stress, activation and control of immune and anti-inflammatory mechanisms, acceleration of tissue healing, pain relief and normalization of homeostasis. After the needles are removed the needle-induced lesions continue to stimulate the body. Tissue healing generally takes 24-72 hours although some patients feel the lesion stimulation for up to one week.