Holistic health practices: What is acupuncture?

What is acupuncture? It is an alternative medicine that may help millions.

Acupuncture is a treatment that has been used for centuries. It is known as an alternative method for pain relief. It is not a widely used treatment thus far, some are most skeptical. Doctors agree that temporary treatment is proven to work. In most cases acupuncture gives temporary relief of pain symptoms that could be related to such illnesses or aliments as asthma, low back pain, heats, which could be tension or even migraine, menstrual cramps, and fibromyaliga. This treatment is more effective if used with other pain treatments as well. Massage therapy and acupuncture tend to go hand in hand. In most cases with acupuncture treatment it is effective from fifty to seventy percent in short term relief. About twenty percent get long term relief. Less then ten percent get no relief at all.

The acupuncture treatment involves a series of small needles put into spots on the body called trigger points. The needles are very thin, almost as thin as a strand of hair and are inserted anywhere from a fraction of an inch to a full inch. The treatments usually start out by having them very frequently. Possibly five to seven times per week. As the treatment starts to help, they taper them down to less frequent visits. There are several altered versions of the original acupuncture. There is the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and a westernized version. Most practices however stay with the Oriental way of acupuncture. The different types vary in small ways.

Some believe that acupuncture is simply a psychological treatment. In a study done recently there were some people that got a fake acupuncture treatment. Fifty percent of

them believed the fake treatment to have worked. It is proven to help alleviate pain on a short term basis, still other’s believe it is a useless practice. People who bruise easily should not partake in this practice. Also people that have diseases that cause excess bleeding should not.