Chinese Medicine Is More Than Just Acupuncture. Click to below to learn more:
Although 4000 years old, acupuncture and Chinese medicine is an ever evolving healthcare system. Known mostly for its ability to alleviate pain, Chinese medicine can help with many other health concerns such as digestive issues, menstrual irregularities, neurological problems, menopause, allergies, auto-immune syndromes, emotional imbalances, colds/flu, headaches, and so on.
Acupuncture and other Chinese medical therapies are not one time treatments. Rather, these therapies can create immediate relief in the short term and also sustained therapeutic change over successive sessions. In doing so, these therapies both buy us time to make a lifestyle change and can also become a vital part of managing our health in the long run.
How does Acupuncture Work?
Instead of getting bogged down in Chinese medicine jargon, let's aproach this question broadly and conceptually. When you look at an acupuncture mannequin or diagram showing all the acupuncture points and channels upon which they reside, what does it look like to you? To me, it appears very akin to a circuit board. Acupuncture is indeed kind of like an electrical interface into the inner functioning of the body. Each point has multiple treatment indications, like keyboard commands to which an acupuncturist may regulate and balance voltage, tension, hormones, fluid balance, temperature, inflammation, mood, etc.. Some points even work together when combined for additional therapeutic effects.
As Chinese medicine practitioners, we look at all the symptoms a patient may be experiencing, asking questions about sleep, digestion, stress, eyesight, memory, pain, and so on. All of these symptoms when combined paint a pathological "pattern".
This is precisesly why acupuncture may often have successes with complex diseases and syndromes where conventional treatments fail. Because Chinese medicine physicians treat the individual pattern you are experiencing - not the label of a disease or disorder.
Additional resources for a quick & practical undertstanding of Chinese medicine:
Dr. Leslie Smith (MS, MA, LAc, MD) giving a lecture to Western med students on Chinese/Asian medicine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86H_xXuwebQ
Interactive article on the "interstitium": The newly discovered organ that may be thephysiological basis of how acupuncture works.
Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine
