Acupuncture has been reported to be a form of medical treatment that has been around for 1,000’s of years. Is it good or bad.? Most of the research I have looked at, reports and news releases I have read over the years have had acupuncture showing only an upside. On further research there are some side effects that have been shown to happen which include a lowering of blood pressure, bruising, problems from the improper sterilization of needles to name a few.

The greatest benefit for acupuncture is reported to being the relief from Musculoskeletal pain (pain in the muscles or bones). Acupuncture is reported to aid in other diseases/discomforts from allergies to weight loss basically just about every thing reported the medical journals.

Here is an example of an acupuncture treatment as reported in Wikipedia:

An example of acupuncture treatment

In Western medicine, vascular headaches (the kind that are accompanied by throbbing veins in the temples) are typically treated with analgesics such as aspirin and/or by the use of agents such as niacin that dilate the affected blood vessels in the scalp, but in acupuncture a common treatment for such headaches is to stimulate the sensitive points that are located roughly in the centers of the webs between the thumbs and the palms of the patient’s hands, the hé gǔ points. These points are described by acupuncture theory as “targeting the face and head” and are considered to be the most important points when treating disorders affecting the face and head. The patient reclines, and the points on each hand are first sterilized with alcohol, and then thin, disposable needles are inserted to a depth of approximately 3–5 mm until a characteristic “twinge” is felt by the patient, often accompanied by a slight twitching of the area between the thumb and hand..

In the clinical practice of acupuncturists, patients frequently report one or more of certain kinds of sensation that are associated with this treatment:

1. Extreme sensitivity to pain at the points in the webs of the thumbs.
2. In bad headaches, a feeling of nausea that persists for roughly the same period as the stimulation being administered to the webs of the thumbs.
3. Simultaneous relief of the headache.^[54]

Acupuncture should be considered as an alternative for a persons general health. Do your research and look into it, it just may help.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 6:45 am and is filed under Vitalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.