From its inception over 2,500 years ago in China, acupuncture has been used to improve general health, diagnose, treat and prevent diseases. The concept of acupuncture has been widely misunderstood throughout by a lot of people. It is only seen as an act of inserting fine needles into the body to target specific body locations to alleviate pain and not as a form of physiotherapy. Contrary to that belief, acupuncture is a medical procedure that is aimed at correcting energy imbalance in the body.
Acupuncture is essential for improving the body functionality and enhancing its natural healing process by targeting specific anatomy points. This can be achieved by inserting fine, sterile needles gently into the skin. The process can be enhanced by heat, pressure or electrical stimulation. Other techniques used for targeting acupuncture points include manual massage, cupping, and heat therapy.
Although there is no scientific proof, the effectiveness acupuncture can be traditionally described as the art that modifies the flow of energy (Chi) throughout the body. Research has shown that the effect of acupuncture needling is the ability to activate the adenosine in the skin to ease pain after an injury. This explains why people experience relief from pain as a result of the benefits of acupuncture. Modern medicine has focused on the pain relieving aspect of acupuncture rather than the traditional energy balancing aspects of it to provide a wide range of answers to the question of overall health and well being.
When acupuncture is performed by a skilled therapist, there are little to no side effects and can be effectively combined with other modalities like massage therapy; can control some specific kinds of pain, and it can help ease the pain for patients that don’t get relief from drugs. Acupuncture can also help patients stop taking medication altogether!
The benefits of acupuncture are numerous, and it is breaking a lot of ground as it relates to medical science, physiotherapy and overall health.
Some of the benefits of acupuncture include:
Headaches and Migraines
Studies have shown that acupuncture may reduce the frequency and intensity of pain from patients suffering from chronic headaches and migraines. We have proved this in clinic, 1 patient comes to mind who surrers from headaches, this particular patient has acupuncture at our Chelmsford clinic once a month and the effects of treatment with acupuncture has settled down her headaches completely.
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain can be as a symptom of numerous conditions including arthritis. It can manifest in different ways and different parts of the body especially the neck, back, shoulders and knees.
Studies show a clear difference between patients receiving treatment and those that were not. This study showed that acupuncture is breaking new grounds in physiotherapy and medicine.
Insomnia 💤
Although acupuncture cannot provide a remedy to insomnia, when combined with other treatments, it can work wonders in providing a solution to sleeplessness. It is proved that acupuncture can alleviate pain and aid sleeping. It further goes to speculate that its benefits can help patients suffering from anxiety and HIV.
READ MORE ON BENEFITS OF ACUPUNCTURE HERE
As you are aware that most therapies like massage and soft tissue therapy have advantages as well as risks. Some of the possible risks of acupuncture include bleeding, bruising and soreness at the insertion points; infections due to improper sterilisation can create a life-threatening situation if patients have a bleeding disorder and on rare occasions, it can lead to a collapsed lung if needles are inserted deeply into upper chest or back. Although saying that, at our clinic in Chelmsford, all needles are individually sealed and sterilised at source, where we purchase them from and our therapists are highly skilled not to insert the needles deeply into a high risk anatomic area like the ribs.
Regardless of the reason for requiring acupuncture treatment either to alleviate pain or for general health well being, it has proven to be an effective treatment method at our chelmsford clinic due to the low risks and side effects associated with it.
If you wish to give acupuncture a try then book in with one of our physiotherapists registered with the AACP or a qualified soft tissue therapist who has qualified in acupuncture.
