Acupuncture. It’s all about getting stuck with needles right? Sounds painful and you are not even sure why it would work? Well, there is a lot more to acupuncture than that and, believe it or not, in the 21st century it does not even have to involve a single pinprick.
The Origins of Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the oldest healing techniques known to the world. Some people do know that it was first practiced in Ancient China but don’t realize that by that term historians mean over 5,000 years ago. The first acupuncturists used needle carved from bamboo and stone, as metal hadn’t actually been ‘invented’ for medical use at that point.
The Ancient Chinese explanation for making use of acupuncture is a fairly simple one. It states that is that channels of energy – known as meridians – run throughout the body, a little like rivers – nourishing and irrigating tissues. A blockage in one of these meridians caused, they believed, all kinds of health problems. By tapping specific points with their ‘needles’ the blockage could be removed.
Modern acupuncture practitioners understand things a little differently, thanks to thousands of years of medical and scientific advancement. In their opinion, stimulating the acupuncture points causes the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord, and brain. These then either change the experience of pain or trigger the release of chemicals and hormones which influence the body’s own internal regulating system, promoting better physical, and even mental and emotional, well-being.
What Can Acupuncture Be Used to Treat?
Acupuncture can, in the hands of a trained professional, be used as an excellent tool to help relieve many kinds of physical pain. It can be especially effective when used to help treat neurological and muscular disorders like headaches, neck pain, back pain, tennis elbow, various forms of tendinitis, sciatica, osteoarthritis and more.
Those are not the only benefits of acupuncture though. It can also be used to help treat digestive disorders, repository issues, including sinusitis and allergies, depression and anxiety and can be used as a form of addiction recovery support. And all of these uses for acupuncture – and more – are recognized by the World Health Organization.
Non Needle Acupuncture
A fear of needles is far from an unusual thing, and it is often this fear that prevents many people from considering acupuncture to treat their health condition. It is for this reason that needle-less acupuncture was developed and it is an evolved form of the ancient art that at Hopkins Family Chiropractic we are very well versed in.
Needle-less acupuncture, as the name suggests, is a method of stimulating acupuncture points without the actual use of needles. Instead, a laser is used to provide the necessary stimulation and it is not only painless but the skin is never even punctured at all.
To learn more about our innovative approach to acupuncture via non needle acupuncture and what it may be able to do for your health and overall well-being contact us today. We’ll answer your questions and arrange for a personal consultation to discuss how acupuncture can be utilized to help with your needs.