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Acupuncture is one of the oldest known healing methods. Gold and silver needles dating from 200 B.C. have been found in Chinese tombs. Acupuncture knowledge has been built up over thousands of years and been verified and re-verified over this time. Acupuncture is a traditional form of Chinese medicine, and even though Western methods are also used, it is still taught to all medical students in China. In the Western World it is also practised, both privately and in public hospitals and clinics.
Acupuncture works by stimulating the body to heal itself. Basically it is a way of retraining the body’s nervous system and of balancing its energy. The treatment consists of inserting very fine needles at strategic points on the skin. These are the acupuncture points which are sited near nerve endings, and which are connected to one another by lines called meridians or channels.
The insertion of the needle at precisely defined points on the skin has two effects.
- Firstly - it stimulates specific nerves which transmit electrical impulses via the spinal cord and the brain, to the injured area. Nerves control nearly all processes in the body. When stimulated some nerves will increase the movement flow of the intestines, others will retard it. Some will increase, others decrease, the flow of digestive juices. The same principal holds true in the increase and or decrease of the heart rate; the expansion or contraction of the blood vessels; the flow of tears; the secretion of hormones etc. The nervous system can be compared to the electronic control apparatus of some highly complex machine like a telephone exchange, or an automatic pilot.
- Secondly - it stimulates the release of chemical substances encephalin and endorphins from the brain stem and pituitary gland. They are released and carried in the bloodstream, and are the body’s own mechanism for pain relief.
The ancient Chinese believed that Qi (pronounced “chee”) the energy of life, flowed along the acupuncture meridians just as blood flows along the blood vessels and it is this uninterrupted flow of energy which keeps human beings alive and healthy. If it is impeded in certain parts of the body, the result may be disease or painful conditions. So the acupuncturist aims at re-establishing the normal flow of Qi by stimulating these strategic points.
Musculoskeletal acupuncture can successfully treat a wide range of conditions including chronic pain, whiplash, sports injuries, stress related disorders, muscle and tendon injuries, headaches, neck/back and shoulder pain etc.
Insertion of our sterilised disposable acupuncture needles is usually painless. However for effective treatment, sensations such as tingling, numbness may need to be felt by the patient. Such sensations are seldom painful and normally last only about ten seconds.
For best results the patient should be warm, relaxed and not overly hungry at the time of the treatment. People who are physically exhausted, fasting or suffering from bleeding disorders should not undergo treatment. Pregnancy and the use of anticoagulants should be declared prior to treatment. Patients with pacemakers should not have electro-acupuncture.
A few patients may experience a mild reaction after treatment and feel temporarily worse. This is more likely to happen after the first treatment than subsequent ones. The reaction may manifest itself as an aggravation of the patient’s usual symptoms, or sometimes as merely fatigue. This passes off in a few hours or days.
In former times people accepted reactions as part of the healing process, in fact it was considered a good sign, as the aim of medicine was often to increase the body’s strength and resistance. This is rarely the case in Western medicine, so that the uninitiated might be a little alarmed on the rare occasion of a reaction.
Reactions are rare, but with future treatments can be virtually avoided by more gentle acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture is not a one session treatment. The average patient with a chronic condition of several years duration requires about 10 to 12 treatments to achieve the greatest amount of relief possible.
Mild problems need fewer treatments, the really severe ones more. Chronic problems may need spaced maintenance acupuncture at 4-8 week intervals after a set course of treatment. To derive the best possible effect from therapy it is necessary to be mentally and physically relaxed before therapy is commenced. Likewise after a session of acupuncture it is strongly advised that the patient should go home and lie down and rest for at least an hour to derive the best possible result.
Three quarters of the patients who are successfully treated notice a response after the first treatment, usually within seconds or minutes of the needles being inserted. Others will only notice this initial response after several hours or days.
The initial response is often accompanied by an increase of general energy and awareness or by a feeling of pleasant drowsy relaxation. As a rule the depressed patient feels more energetic and the over-tense patient more relaxed. Thereafter the patient may observe that some of their symptoms have disappeared. But this may not last, and may wear off after a few days and the treatment will have to be repeated. However with every repetition the improvement will be more pronounced and of longer duration. Improvement may follow an irregular course, some treatments helping more than others, some even not at all, until finally, by cumulative effect, they achieve a total positive result.
For any further information please arrange a consultation with Mark Johns, who integrates acupuncture with physiotherapy treatment when appropriate.
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