Acupuncture

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) views health as a balance between our internal and external environments. It seeks to achieve balance via integrative modalities such as acupuncture, herbal formulas, Tui Na, moxibustion, cupping, gua sha, mind-body exercise and nutritional and lifestyle guidance.

Acupuncture, like other TCM treatments, facilitates the body’s innate healing abilities. It involves the insertion of fine, sterile, single-use needles into specific points along the body’s energetic pathways, or “channels.” The needles allow an acupuncturist to access and regulate the body’s energy, or “Qi” to affect the endocrine, immune, cardiovascular, digestive, nervous, reproductive, lymphatic and musculoskeletal systems.

Benefits range from increased immunity and pain alleviation to mood moderation and accelerated healing. Historically and clinically, acupuncture is effective in the treatment of acute, superficial musculoskeletal pain as well as deeper, more chronic conditions such as diabetes and depression. Currently, the World Health Organization recognizes – and is furthering research on – acupuncture as an effective treatment for numerous diseases.

An important aspect of treatment is a frequent reevaluation of symptoms. Most acupuncture treatment plans start at twice a week and can be reduced once a patient’s symptoms begin to subside. Each session averages one hour but may be modified based on the reason for entering the clinic or progress in the treatment regimen.