Easy Acupuncture

New mothers want the very best for their babies, and this care starts long before the baby is born. Expectant mothers are very careful about nutrition and exercise, and a number of them have started taking regular acupuncture treatments. Treatments are normally scheduled once a month for about forty-five minutes. In the ninth month there is a good deal of preparation for the coming of the baby and preparing the mother for labor, and the treatments are scheduled weekly. The treatments during pregnancy keep the mother in the best health possible, and help quickly disperse any toxins the mother may develop during pregnancy. This keeps the environment in the womb balanced, so that the baby can grow and flourish without complications. One of the advantages of having acupuncture treatments during pregnancy is the reduction in morning sickness. Studies have shown that women using acupuncture have shorter periods of morning sickness, and they occur less frequently. One of the more common troubles in the second trimester is heartburn, and acupuncture can minimize that symptom also. Even some of the more serious symptoms such as edema and high blood pressure can be treated with acupuncture, but it is important that a physician is also involved in these determinations, as these could be symptoms of major complications. The last trimester has the usual symptoms of backache and joint pain, as the joints loosen in preparation for labor. Acupuncture will address these, and also influence the energy in the mother’s body to align the baby properly for delivery. Acupuncture can also be used in labor, and can also be used to induce labor for women that are overdue. When a mother uses acupuncture to induce labor, frequently there is a distinct feeling of warmth and relaxation. One reason for this is that acupuncture techniques are also able to release stress and anxious feelings, which is a great benefit to the woman facing labor. Compare this feeling to the feeling when a woman is given an injection of oxytocin to start labor. Acupuncture can also be used to increase the energy of the mother during labor. Once the labor has finished, an acupuncture practitioner’s job is not done. Sometimes women bleed after delivery, and insertion of a needle into the proper acupuncture point can stop the blood flow. Several acupuncture treatments over the course of several weeks after delivery can minimize depression, anxiety, and help the body regain its balance more quickly. More midwives are getting training in acupuncture techniques. Most states have a certification program for acupuncturists, and women considering using acupuncture during their pregnancy should look for this certificate. There is also a certification program nationally for the use of herbs, which is an optional method of treatment in addition to the acupuncture. Many times they go hand in hand, but neither one require the other in order to be effective. Acupuncture is a wonderful tool for the expectant mother, and a well-trained and certified acupuncturist and midwife is a wonderful start for both mother and baby.

What are some extreme cases where acupuncture is useful? Let us talk about a few particularly interesting ones. The first is using acupuncture on a person in a coma. Many times people in comas only receive minimal care. When my father was in a long term care hospital, I often walked by two rooms where the occupants were in comas, one I knew had been that way for at least several months. After treating any conditions that the doctors were aware of, there was little else to do for these patients. The one that was there for months never had any visitors as far as I could see, and the hospital was maintaining him until at some time he might come out of his coma. The practice of acupuncture can help a person in a coma in the following ways: clear the physical senses, calm the spirit, clear the brain, strengthen the heart, and eliminate phlegm. Without getting too specific, these areas are regulated by different organs of the body and the energy from those organs, and insertion of needles at correct points will redirect that energy. Depending on the patient, sometimes the needles might be twirled gently. Western medicine distinguishes comatose patients based on their originating symptom (brain tumor, car accident, etc), but the practice of acupuncture groups the patients by their set of common symptoms. The use of acupuncture for these patients will improve their overall well being, and in some cases the patients revive after a time, though it is not possible medically to determine why they revive. A second use of acupuncture is for someone that is prone to simple fainting. As a caution, a physician should determine if the cause is serious heart trouble. If not, there are standard acupuncture regimes which will regulate energy to allow the blood to freely recirculate through the entire body, including the head. It is also interesting to note that a number of times this physical symptom can be accompanied by a social problem such as overwork, or an emotional problem such as internally rebelling from a situation that the patient wanted to be released from. Acupuncture can restore harmony to both the physical and emotional components of the patient. Another application of acupuncture is for patients in emergency situations. It would be best to have an actual acupuncture practitioner at the scene, but anyone can use these simple techniques. If someone has lost consciousness, apply a strong pressure with your fingernail in the groove between the nose and mouth, about one third of the way down from the nose. This is a simple acupuncture point that may well awaken the patient. Chest-related emergencies can be helped with the acupuncture point on the underside of the forearm, between the two tendons, and about two thumb widths back from the last wrist crease. This may help for people experiencing palpitations, hiccups, stomach pain, and lung problems. Press firmly. These just list a few unusual applications where acupuncture would be useful. There are also acupuncture regimens for people that have gone into shock, a drowning victim that is now breathing but still unconscious, acupuncture support for patients with broken limbs, etc. I hope this has expanded your view on many additional uses for acupuncture.

Acupuncture has been shown to have great success in treating pain, stress, and a number of diseases. Acupuncture has a number of different techniques, and one of them is to apply a very low-level electric charge to the needle. This particular technique is creating interest in a field that was started in America in the 1930s and 1940s, but lost support soon afterward. This field is how to use low levels of electricity as a tool for medical therapy. The initial discovery of acupuncture points on the body was by centuries of observation of the tender spots on the skin when a patient had certain symptoms. These acupuncture points can now be discovered and duplicated by scientists. They can find these same acupuncture points (given in any standard diagram) by using electrical apparatus. Scientists can also use infrared photography to find the temperature differences between these acupuncture points and the surrounding skin. So the acupuncture points have a different electrical behavior than the surrounding cells when the patient suffers from the associated symptom. Several claims for acupuncture seem to get some support from other research using electricity. One scientist, Becker, has had tissue regrown by animals when he applied a low-level electric current to the site of the tissue. Even heart tissue has been restored without any scarring. Low level electric pulses have also been used to make bone fractures heal significantly faster than fractures left to heal on their own. How do these two previous experience relate to the fundamentals of acupuncture? The basis of acupuncture is the correct distribution and flow of energy throughout the body. When energy is depleted, regrowth and stimulation and vitality do not occur. An acupuncture treatment restores the energy needed to a specific area. This research (especially the bone research) supports the claim that acupuncture sessions are of significant benefit for those with broken arms or other broken bones in the feet, ankles, and wrists, or other locations. Acupuncture has been known as an effective treatment for patients with heart palpitations, and the EKG results scientifically support that claim. Patients that are attached to an EKG machine and undergo an acupuncture treatment show a difference in the structure of the heartbeat, which is controlled by electric impulses from the nerves. When an acupuncture needle is inserted into the skin, there is an electrical activity at that point, since the cells at that point are disturbed, and cells by their structure have various electrical charges within them. This is also shown by such techniques as Kirlian photography, where the photograph after a needle is inserted has a very different energy shape than before the needle insertion. This exploration of the interaction between electricity and acupuncture has come back to expand the techniques used in acupuncture. The most basic technique for an acupuncture treatment is to use needles inserted into the skin of the patient. The location of the insertion, its depth and technique, bring about the results from the treatment. An additional technique is the application of heat, or moxa, which we will not go into. A third addition may be the use of herbs, either at the point of insertion, or given to the patient separately. A technique directly related to the above research, and also harkening back to the experiments of the 1930s and 1940s, is to affect the acupuncture points by a low voltage electric current. This is used in place of the needle. All these results and new ideas make research in acupuncture an exciting field to be working in and reading about.

Let’s follow Susan as she goes to her first acupuncture treatment. Susan is a little hesitant, thinking of many needles sticking out of her in funny places so that she can’t find a place to sit easily. Her friend Marie had recommended this acupuncture clinic as a possible help for Susan’s recent problems of sleeplessness and depression. Susan was very surprised that Marie had ever visited an acupuncture clinic, as Marie didn’t seem to be someone that would visit something this unusual. And anyway, Marie always seems so remarkably healthy, attending the gym on a regular basis and still having lots of energy to spare. Susan was surprised to find out that Marie had been going to this acupuncture clinic for more than three years. She was even more surprised to find out that the first visit was suggested by Marie’s doctor – her family physician. Susan had no idea that a regular doctor would recommend a visit to an acupuncture clinic. It turns out that a few years ago Marie had very intense cramps, and after a discussion with her doctor, they decided acupuncture might help to reduce or eliminate these. After having that treatment, Marie had discovered that some people visit the acupuncture clinic periodically just to keep in good health. Marie really enjoyed the way she felt, and so continued with the periodic visits as a kind of “tune up,” as she called them. Though this is Susan’s first treatment at the acupuncture clinic, it is her second visit. Her first visit was to sit with the acupuncture practitioner to take several vital signs and to have a long discussion about her symptoms. Susan explained that she was hoping to get relief from the sleeplessness and depression through the treatments at the acupuncture clinic. She was surprised at the number of questions that she hadn’t thought about. She hadn’t noticed if the sleeplessness was the same on every night, or if she got to sleep more easily on some nights. She hadn’t noticed if she easily returned to sleep if she was awakened once she was asleep. She hadn’t thought about whether the sleeplessness started after they turned off the central heat in the house, now that spring had come. There were so many questions about that. There were questions she had expected, like that her depression could be related to the fact that her best friend at work had left for a new job. There were also surprising questions about patterns that she noticed about any previous depressions that she might have had. Once all the questions had been answered, Susan was asked to return another day for her first treatment in order to obtain the most beneficial results. Susan pulled into the parking lot, still a little nervous. The acupuncture practitioner was a very nice and calm woman, but still… Twenty minutes later, Susan was sitting in a comfortable chair with about 18 needles at various points on her arms and ears. She was very comfortable, and inserting the needles did not hurt at all. After sitting there for 15 minutes, the acupuncture practitioner came in, removed the needles, and that was it. Susan was amazed! A sequence of 6 treatments had been prescribed initially, and they agreed to revisit Susan’s symptoms when these were done. She was so happy it was so easy!

Acupuncture is a well-established and increasingly accepted treatment procedure for pain, for emotional troubles, and for an ever increasing number of physical ailments. More and more traditional physicians are referring patients to acupuncture clinics for a certain set of problems that may be treated more effectively, and without the side effects of medication. Also, individuals may decide to use an acupuncture clinic as the first choice to heal a disease. The length of a treatment varies widely from person to person, depending on the particular symptoms, the age of the patient, how long the condition has existed, and the environment of the patient. There also seem to be patients that are naturally responsive to acupuncture, when all the other factors are similar. A patient that is responsive to acupuncture may only require one or two visits, as is the case with a number of children. Adult patients that are responsive generally require one to six visits for a particular symptom or set of symptoms. In other cases, up to twenty visits may be required, depending on the severity and length of time the symptoms have persisted. But even some remarkable cases such as recovery from paralysis may come about after a very long series of treatments. For some conditions, such as for chronic pain, daily treatments are recommended until the pain subsides. The same is true for clients using acupuncture as a means to help stop drug addiction, which require daily treatments in order to keep the cravings at a minimal level. In a few patients, the initial treatment may aggravate the symptoms. A similar possibility is that there is a marked improvement after the first treatment, which may be followed by an aggravation of symptoms at the next few treatments. These should be reported in detail to the acupuncture practitioner, who may revise the locations of needles for the treatment, depending on the particular patient. It is always a good idea to consider an acupuncture practitioner for whatever health problem you might have. Some problems respond exceptionally well with acupuncture. Acupuncture has a very good success rate for such symptoms as headaches, head congestion, cramps (menstrual, muscular, or intestinal), pain, depression, fatigue, hemorrhoids, and children’s nervous disorders. Acupuncture treatments have frequent success in the following areas, though not quite the same success rate as in the areas above. These include diarrhea, painful menstruation, eczema, gastric problems, kidney and gall bladder malfunction, nervous disorders, palpitations, rheumatism, shingles, autonomic nervous problems, especially following surgery. There are a number of other conditions that acupuncture can be effective for, and for these a practitioner should be consulted, as new results are coming out frequently. Currently, it is thought that acupuncture is more helpful for symptoms rather than curing such diseases as tuberculosis, infantile paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease. Acupuncture treatments are sometimes surprisingly effective after traditional medicine has been tried without success. Lets look at two simple cases. In the first, a lady suffered with pain in her ankle for three years, and no standard medical treatment helped. Careful observation of her symptoms by an experienced acupuncture practitioner cured her in three treatments. The second case was of a farmer who had a low grade fever (about 100 degrees) nearly every night for a number of months. Regular physicians could not determine a cause, nor a solution. Regular acupuncture treatment was not effective. The acupuncture practitioner then applied the treatments at the optimal time (very early AM, not during the normal clinic hours), and the fever disappeared permanently. I hope this introduction to some uses of acupuncture may help you or someone you know to better health.

When you normally think of acupuncture, you think of a person sitting with several needles inserted into their skin, into parts of the body like the ear, the arm, or the wrist. This is a good picture of a patient that is having an acupuncture treatment. These treatments last anywhere from a very short time up to thirty minutes or more, depending on the symptoms that are being treated. These needles are more frequently inserted just far enough into the skin to firmly keep them there, though an acupuncture practitioner may insert different needles somewhat further in depending on the treatment plan. Sometimes the needles are twirled in place, sometimes they are warmed before insertion, or have heat applied to them during insertion. Generally there is no discomfort when a needle is inserted, manipulated, or removed. Occasionally a slight twinge may be felt, but not more than that. Often during treatment a patient may feel more relaxed than when they came in, slightly warmer, or possibly feel a rush of energy during the treatment. Some patients feel no change during the acupuncture treatment, but their symptoms gradually change over a longer period of time, such as several weeks. There are variations of acupuncture that do not rely on the use of needles. The ideas behind these are identical with standard acupuncture technique. The knowledge of acupuncture points, the organization of the body, and the importance of proper energy flow for a healthy body are all exactly identical to standard acupuncture therapy. The main difference is that the needle is replaced by a different technique to manipulate the acupuncture point. In sonopuncture, a device that produces sound waves is applied to the point at which a needle would normally be inserted. In addition to the device that produces the sound waves, other devices that vibrate may also be used, such as tuning forks. There is a good deal of activity in this area, but results using these devices is not as well established as the results with traditional needle based acupuncture. Another technique that has been in use since the middle of this century is to apply a low voltage electric current to the acupuncture point. Sometimes this is done together with insertion of a needle, sometimes it is done just by touching a small wire to the surface of the skin and connect a very low electric current. The feeling of the current is a very light tingling, and not any very noticeable or painful reaction. This technique using electricity was pursued independently in America and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, but interest in the technique as a part of western medicine waned after that time. Another variation of acupuncture that many more people have heard of is the use of acupressure. In this technique no instrument is used, just the technique of pressing a finger on the acupuncture point. This technique can be incorporated into such manipulations as shiatsu massage. This technique is also easy for a layman to do, and many have seen little cards with diagrams of pressure points on the hands and feet. Though these may be useful, the best use is made when the person understands more of the entire system of acupuncture rather than just where the acupuncture points are. Acupuncture therapy has been extended beyond needles, and interest is continuing in using other instruments. Other techniques include the use of heat (a very traditional choice), friction, magnets, suction, and to the ultra-modern use of laser beams. Acupuncture is a very adaptable therapy, which yields very good results.