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I have used it for at least 10 years. It helps a lot. Depending what your needs are.
Talk to a few practioners,I advice going to a Chinese Clinic,I don't know where you are,I hope you can find one.
I'm an OMD (Doctor of Oriental Medicine) and use it in my practice along with massage, acupressure, herbs and energy work. Like any modality, it works for many but not all.
The nice thing about it is that if it doesn't work, the chance of bad side-effects are just about zero...and try to find a practitioner who is an LAc (licensed acupuncturist) or OMD, NOT an MD who has taken an acupuncture course. Legally, a regular MD can take a 200-hour course and practice acupuncture, whereas the others must take at least 2,000 hours - a big difference in results.
I tried acupuncture for migraines (I went to a Chinese MD who had learned the practice of acupuncture in China and then come to the US), and it didn't help me. I had no side effects, and it was certainly worth a try. My acupuncturist treats people weekly at the local cancer center and apparently most of them get decent relief of their pain.
I have an accupuncturist in San Antonio, and he has done wonders for me! I was skeptic but had such bad neck and jaw pain I was going insane.
There are types of accupuncture. Traditional chinese and anatomical. I had anatomical. He was able to put needles into these giant knotts in my neck that were causing all my issues. Sometimes I'd have 25 needles in my sholders, neck, jaw trying to cure this horrible pain. There were only a couple needles that hurt, and the same ones hurt everytime. I asked him why, and he said that's where the knotts were the worst. Each visit they hurt less, about six visits later all my pain was gone. Not just the needle pain, but ALL of it. I went back to a pain free life.
He said that the knots in my neck were pulling so tight that they were pulling on my jaw, and the jaw muscles were too weak to fight back so they started to hurt. Anyway, when he sticks a needle in the knot, my body is like, "OMG, I'm injured! Gotta send the adrenaline and ephinephrine" or whatever, all those chemicals for injuries... and then my body goes to work on the injured site, subsequently healing itself. It's not really able to recognize long standing muscle knots as injury, so the accupuncture basically reminded my body to start healing itself and breaking up the injured muscle knots and removing lactic acid.
I also went to an acupuncturist for migraines. It helped a little bit and didn't hurt and was relaxing and different. It helps, I think, to be open minded to the experience.
I have an accupuncturist in San Antonio, and he has done wonders for me! I was skeptic but had such bad neck and jaw pain I was going insane.
There are types of accupuncture. Traditional chinese and anatomical. I had anatomical. He was able to put needles into these giant knotts in my neck that were causing all my issues. Sometimes I'd have 25 needles in my sholders, neck, jaw trying to cure this horrible pain. There were only a couple needles that hurt, and the same ones hurt everytime. I asked him why, and he said that's where the knotts were the worst. Each visit they hurt less, about six visits later all my pain was gone. Not just the needle pain, but ALL of it. I went back to a pain free life.
He said that the knots in my neck were pulling so tight that they were pulling on my jaw, and the jaw muscles were too weak to fight back so they started to hurt. Anyway, when he sticks a needle in the knot, my body is like, "OMG, I'm injured! Gotta send the adrenaline and ephinephrine" or whatever, all those chemicals for injuries... and then my body goes to work on the injured site, subsequently healing itself. It's not really able to recognize long standing muscle knots as injury, so the accupuncture basically reminded my body to start healing itself and breaking up the injured muscle knots and removing lactic acid.
I'm heartened that you found relief with your treatment, but if I may I'd like to defend my profession for a moment here...
Comparing anatomical acupuncture to TCM acupuncture is like comparing Paris Hilton to Sophia Loren. Yes, they both share a single trait (a needle in acupuncture, gender in the lady's case) but that's all. AA has been hotly contested among the more traditional acupuncturists as having left the core principles of acupuncture and indeed TCM as an entire field of medicine.
Traditional acupuncture works on meridians and channels in the body that carry qi (chi, ki), the Chinese term for the body's natural energy; inserting and manipulating the needles changes the flow of that energy. AA is just another attempt by Western practitioners to dumb-down the Eastern modalities by refusing to acknowledge the existence of qi, the importance of the acupoints and the entire Taoist philosophy of TCM. It's basically "slightly invasive surgery", but because they use needles it's termed a form of acupuncture.
It isn't. At least, not to traditionalists like myself. Again, I'm glad you found relief from your condition, but please don't lump AA in with TCM.
I have used acupunture. Originally I went to see her for my hair loss. TCM believes (what she explained) that hair loss is often caused by blood deficiencies. Acupuncture can definitely help as well as herbs. I really enjoyed the whole process. She would ask me in detail about my sleep patterns/bowel movements/night sweats/menstrual cycle. She would then treat me with either back treatment or front treatment depending on the time of the month. It never hurt. It was actually very relaxing and pleasant. She would also use seven star needle. I would also take herbs. Unfortunately I do not use her as often as I should and therefore it is hard for me to tell if it works as my hair loss problems has not improved. I am starting to think it's genetic as my mother had thinning hair all her life.
The calming herbs that she gave me are fantastic though. Nothing helped me as much as her tincture.
One time, I was late with my period by 2 weeks. I happened to have an appointment the day I was 2 weeks late with no signs of period to come. I was nervous, I took pregnancy test that came negative. After her appointment, I got my period within few hours. Isn't it weird?
Anyway - I do think that acupuncture has it's place and it does work on many occasions. It definitely has no side effect besides emptying the wallets as if it's not covered, it could be very pricey.
It definitely has no side effect besides emptying the wallets as if it's not covered, it could be very pricey.
There are 19 acupuncturists listed for Brooklyn here.
Rates seem to range from $50 - $120 / session - the upper end seems kind of high, but it's at Cornerstone Healing in Carroll Gardens - they have several practitioners there and the founder is a DAc (Diplomate of Acupuncture), so the pricing might be justified.
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