“Health is what makes you feel that now is the best time of the year.” In this year in which we have realized how important health is, acupuncture offers a wide range of effective solutions to diseases and ailments, either alone or as a complement to conventional medicine.
What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a form of treatment that consists of inserting very thin needles through a person’s skin at specific points of the body, at various depths.
Research suggests it can help relieve pain and is used for a wide range of other discomfort.
It is unclear how acupuncture works scientifically. Some people say it works by balancing vital energy, while others believe it has a neurological effect. It is a form of medicine that is still very controversial today among Western doctors and scientists.
The procedure is that an acupuncturist will insert needles into a person’s body to balance his energy. It is claimed this can help improve well-being and cure some diseases. The conditions for which it is used include different types of pain, such as headaches, and severe blood pressure problems, among others.
Treatments and specialties
The World Health Organization proposes a long list of possible indications for which acupuncture can be useful.
The Society of Medical Acupuncture of Spain (SAME) says that What is practiced today in the field of medical acupuncture is a technique of Neuromodulation, an adaptation of the ancient traditional Chinese acupuncture, but on the updated knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology centered on the principles of evidence-based medicine. It is never an alternative to the conventional medical system but is part of it and is considered a complementary treatment for improving the quality of life of patients.
Pain is probably the most widely used field and in which more clinical studies have been conducted. This alternative method is very effective against back pain, sciatica, low back pain, cervical pain, painful shoulder of different causes, arthrosis, neuralgia and facial paralysis, tendinitis, or epicondylitis. Likewise, acupuncture is gaining more and more adepts as an additional option for the medical treatment of migraine.
Many studies show their effects on both the duration and frequency of migraine attacks. In the case of carpal tunnel syndrome, it avoids surgical procedures on many occasions, reducing pain and inflammation of the structures involved.
It has also been effective in patients with fibromyalgia and has applications in sports medicine. Sprains, contractures, etc. are very effective with very few sessions.
Another of the fields of action in the practice of acupuncture is in gynecology. It has been successfully shown to work for both menstrual pain and endometriosis, menopause, fertility, or pregnancy, and to treat nausea, low back pain, insomnia, fetal malposition, or depression.
Likewise, acupuncture improves mood, enhances the immune system, and decreases tiredness.
Pain is probably the most widely used field and in which more clinical studies have been conducted.
The truth is that acupuncture is used a lot today as an aid in cancer patients and is credited with abundant scientific research. SAME points out in this regard that the sum of evidence available at the clinical level grows exponentially. As of today, 29,054 articles indexed in PubMed are published, of which 4,953 are clinical trials, 8,756 reviews, and 526 meta-analyses.
In the United States, the most prestigious hospitals such as Dana Farber Hospital in Boston or the Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in New York, include acupuncture in their care to the oncological patient. In Spain, it is included in the Hospital San Joan de Deu (Pediatric Oncology) in Barcelona.
Acupuncture supports the patient physically and emotionally so that he can better respond to chemotherapy treatments, does not interfere with them, and has scientific evidence, according to the Department of Integrative Oncology at Memorial Center Hospital in New York, the leader in cancer treatment at the international level.
In pathologies such as depression, anxiety, or stress, the effectiveness of acupuncture is important and there is also scientific evidence.
In a sideway, there is another important therapeutic effect of acupuncture that occurs in all treatments: the simultaneous improvement of the patient’s general state. This means that the therapeutic effect of acupuncture is not only limited to improving the health problem but always produces a general, broader biological effect on the organism. That is, the chemical molecules that are released in acupuncture treatments decrease pain, and inflammation and regulate hormones; but, in addition, simultaneously, they also improve mood, enhance the immune system, and improve sleep, explains Dr. Teresa Pascucal, an expert in acupuncture.
Then why Choose Acupuncture?
Without departing from his Western medical training, doctors who exercise acupuncture consider it a highly valuable therapy. First, because it expands the range of treatments and allows you to have one more option in cases where the use of medication is problematic; secondly, because it has two very important virtues: it does not injure the body and, in most patients, it can be combined without problems with conventional treatments. Not presenting interactions with medications, can often complement them and allow them to decrease medication, says Dr. Pascual.
In the same sense, the expert adds that there is another appreciable characteristic of acupuncture: treatment conceives and treats the sick human being as an inseparable whole, body, mind, and emotions. Acupuncture doctors always have, as a basis, the patient’s Western medical diagnosis, and we assess whether acupuncture is indicated by taking into account current scientific studies. We value each patient whether acupuncture can be applied alone or as a complement to conventional medicine. This approach guarantees our patients effective, safe, and responsible medical practice, Dr. Pascual adds.
It has two very important virtues: it does not injure the body and, in most patients, it can be combined without problems with conventional treatments.
Although it is based on traditional Chinese medicine, current medical acupuncture has incorporated the anatomical, biochemical, and neurological knowledge provided by scientific research. This allows you to better know how acupuncture works and to be able to apply such knowledge in the different treatments.