What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is an ancient medicine that today has had the opportunity to be dissected and held to similar testing and research standards of modern bio-medicine. A long time ago ancient Chinese developed a system based on interpretation of disease conditions and certain patterns of sickness in the human body. They knew that there was something beyond what the human eye could see, they had no microscopes and no technology to fully understand the truth in medical science and cellular knowledge, but the development of ancient Chinese medicine we see today overlaps with science.
Leaving behind ancient interpretations, we can now fit acupuncture and herbal medicine into mainstream medicine by uncovering what it was that the ancients were trying to systemize. If we take this analogy, the human body as a military, we will be able to see how acupuncture works on our physiology. If our body was a military, then the brain would be the commander-in-chief.
How does Acupuncture work?
The brain gives orders and directions. Imagine then the needle being like a satellite or a beacon that when placed in a certain part of the body provokes a response from the commander (the brain) and then the commander issues out orders to different branches of the military. The brain tells the red blood cells and the white blood cells which would be like the marines and the army soldiers to respond to that satellite/beacon, the needle.
The needle creates and provokes a deep response in the central nervous system, dilating blood vessels, bringing in a influx of healing elements to the affected area, helping nourish and restore peripheral nerves. This response is very hard to create without acupuncture. Medicine cannot change the internal environment of the body except in few cases like with insulin injections, antibiotics and certain other medications. But the actual tissue change is very hard to accomplish. Acupuncture can do this and that is why it has been so useful throughout history.
Who can Acupuncture help?
The World Health Organization has documented numerous studies and updated research on acupuncture and have completed a list of various diseases, conditions, that acupuncture can help treat, cure and help. Acupuncture is not a meta-physical or philosophical system that has no science as a foundation. Acupuncture is a physical medicine that provokes deep responses in the central nervous system and brain, endocrine, and immune system and therefore creating local and distal tissue activity (soft tissue, hard tissue or organ systems).
Acupuncture has its limits and is not a “fix-all/cure-all” system of medicine, but here are some of the researched and scientifically validated conditions/diseases it can help:
Infertility (men or women)- menstrual disorders
- Chronic pain (idiopathic or diagnosed)
- Autoimmune diseases
- Degenerative diseases
- Depression and anxiety,
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Irritable bowel syndrome and digestive disorders
- Headaches (multiple including migraines)
- Weight loss
- Endocrine disorders
- Childhood behavioral disorders
- Addictions
On a more complicated level acupuncture can access deep healing systems of the body especially the endocrine system. Patients with adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue syndrome, needles act as a catalyst to bring blood and nourishment to the glands affected, and bring them out of a kind of state of dormancy and wake them up so to speak to begin functioning at a healthy level. That makes us able to work with patients who are dealing with different kinds of hormonal issues such as fertility issues (women who have low levels of progesterone/estrogen and because of those low critical hormone levels cannot secure the right variables needed for conception), we can help strengthen the endocrine system (hormone system) and promote the release and increase of sexual hormones. It is really very profound how acupuncture can influence the internal environments of the body.
See how Acupuncture can help you – contact our Monmouth Pain and Rehabilitation office to schedule an appointment with our certified Acupuncturist.
