| About Acupuncture
What Is Acupuncture? Is Acupuncture Right for Me? How Do I Choose? | Glossary
Treatment Applications Types of Acupuncture Credentials |
Is Acupuncture Right For Me?
Acupuncture can treat a wide variety of maladies. If you suffer from headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, or back pain, acupuncture may help where other treatments have failed. According to the World Health Organization, acupuncture can successfully treat allergies, dental pain, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, and asthma. Acupuncture can even help to combat addiction and depression.
Research suggests that acupuncture may be particularly helpful in alleviating musculoskeletal pain, or in reducing nausea and vomiting after surgery or chemotherapy. You might consider acupuncture if you're experiencing pain but conventional medical treatments aren't working for you, or if you prefer a more natural, holistic form of healing to taking painkillers or anti-nausea medication in pill form. You should recognize that like all medical treatments, acupuncture involves risks. And people who are afraid of needles probably should not seek acupuncture treatment.
There are many different kinds of acupuncture, each with its own areas of emphasis and philosophical principles, including auricular acupuncture, five-element acupuncture, Japanese acupuncture, Korean acupuncture, Vietnamese acupuncture, and trigger-point acupuncture. All are based on traditional Chinese acupuncture, which is still the most commonly practiced form in the United States.
In clinical practice, acupuncture treatment is usually highly individualized and based on philosophical constructs rather than controlled scientific research.
