How to use Acupuncture
Although Acupuncture has been around in the West since the 1970's its a relatively new modality to most people. As such you can be forgiven for not knowing how to best use your Acupuncture treatments.
Generally Acupuncture use can be divided into three groups, all three will now be discussed.
Symptom Resolution: This is the reason most initial patients will come for a treatment, they have a symptom and want it resolved. For example I see many patients with headaches and migraines, their main reason for seeing me is to stop the migraines. For these patients we advice getting Acupuncture once a week for four weeks. After this time we should be seeing very positive results and so treatments are then moved further apart. For example you may come in once every 2 or 3 weeks for another month. In this way the treatments are slowly moved further apart and after 2-3 months you are left symptom free.
This of course is a generalized situation, sometimes issues can be resolved much faster and sometimes it may take a little longer. Please remember if you've suffered with an issue for 15 years and tried everything else first you may need to give us some time, long standing chronic conditions often take longer to resolve. Just like Western Medicine, Chinese Medicine is not a miracle treatment, although it often does provide some amazing results!
Health Promotion and Wellbeing: This is probably the most important catagory of treatment available. At this point Acupuncture is part of your regular health regime and treatments are received once every 4-6 weeks. This is really where Acupuncture excells, regular treatments over an extrended period of time can begin to have quite a powerful effect over our physical and emotional health and wellbeing. We should notice improvements in over all health,
including digestion, energy, general vitality and emotional stability. In short you'll feel happier and healthier. The reason for this is due to Acupunctures ability to treat the root cause of disease. We all have our own weak areas when it comes to health, understanding this can actually be a huge benefit. If we keep our weak link strong everything else tends to stay strong. Through the unique way we diagnose, your weak link or links can be found easily, regular treatments will thenhelp to strengthen them and thus improve overall health and wellbeing.
Occasional Treatments: This category includes having a treatment once every 2-4 months. This approach can be quite common as patients will often ration their benefits throughout the year. This approach can still be helpful in treating general complaints and creating a feeling of emotional wellbeing. However be aware that it will be hard to really get on top of health conditions when treatments are spaced so far apart. This kind of approach is similar to massage
massage or other Spa related treatments. Its there to give you a helping hand, its a treat that will not only help you relax deeply but also over time treat underlying disharmonies in your system.
All three approaches to treatment are valid and effective. My personal recommendation is to use Acupuncture as part of your regular health regime, in this way Acupuncture can help keep you healthy and active for many years to come.