Frequently Asked Questions

Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific points on the body with needles. The points may also be stimulated with pressure (massage), or with electrical impulses (estim, or TENS). Acupuncture has been used in China and throughout the world for thousands of years as a primary medical system. It is one of five  branches of Chinese Medicine, which includes dietary therapy, exercise, massage, and herbal remedies. (Read more on Chinese medicine here) It is based on the movement of energy through the body. A disruption in the flow of that energy results in pain or disease. The acupuncturist’s job is to re-balance energy and clear blockages by stimulating specific points on the body.

Acupuncture is usually painless when performed by a competent practitioner. The needles are about as thin as a human hair, so there is virtually no discomfort compared with the needles used to administer medicine or draw blood. Occasionally there is a tiny pinch, like a bug bite, but it usually goes away quickly. That sensation occurs when the needle passes through the dermis (a layer of your skin that contains lots of nerve endings). Once the needle is in a bit deeper, the acupuncturist may try to elicit a therapeutic response or sensation. This sensation is often described as heaviness, or a moving sensation up or down from the point of insertion.

More and more people are coming to understand the benefits of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and medical organizations around the world have endorsed the use of acupuncture to treat certain illnesses. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes over 100 different conditions that acupuncture can treat, and in 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a Consensus Statement stating that “there is clear evidence that needle acupuncture treatment is effective for postoperative pain, chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, and nausea of pregnancy.” Critics say there is no scientific evidence that acupuncture works, but that’s not true. Medline, our National Medical Peer-reviewed Research Database, cites many scientific studies of the effectiveness of acupuncture; besides, 85 to 95% of surgical procedures are not verified by clinical studies, and 40-60% of prescriptions written by biomedical doctors are for off-labels uses (i.e., not FDA-approved indications), so the majority of biomedical treatments used in everyday practice do not meet this standard.
There is lots of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture is effective for various types of illness. But western science has never been able to demonstrate how acupuncture works. Medical research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals demonstrates that it works, but not how it works. For that reason, many doctors are skeptical about acupuncture. Because it is based on Daoist theories like yin and yang and the five phases, a Chinese diagnosis may seem strange and unprofessional to western doctors.

Acupuncture is usually associated with pain control. It is often used to diminish pain associated with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, neck and back pain, and joint pain. Acupuncture has much broader applications for the treatment of chronic diseases:

• Lupus: can reduce the frequency and severity of outbreaks
• Migraines: can reduce the frequency and severity of headache
• Diabetes: one study found decreases in blood sugar levels in people with diabetes who got regular acupuncture treatments
• HIV/Aids: studies support use of acupuncture to raise T-cell levels in the blood and boost immunity; other studies show effects of acupuncture on production and behavior of WBCs
• Regulates menstrual cycle and enhances fertility; reduces severity of cramps, PMS, and other cycle-related symptoms
• Digestive disorders: inflammatory bowel disease, spastic colon, gastritis, constipation, diarrhea
• Cancer pain:
• Nausea from chemotherapy, morning sickness, motion sickness
• Respiratory disorders: sinusitis, sore throat, bronchitis, asthma, recurrent chest infections
• Neurological and muscular disorders: headaches, facial tics, neck pain, rib neuritis, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, various forms of tendonitis, low back pain, sciatica, osteoarthritis
• Psychoemotional disorders: Acupuncture is particularly useful in resolving physical problems related to tension and stress and emotional conditions

At Community Health, we strive to make acupuncture affordable by lowering the cost of acupuncture. That means we treat several people at a time in a community setting, and that means we can charge you less per treatment. Acupuncture works best when it is done frequently; several treatments are usually required to make significant progress on a health problem. If you can only afford one or two treatments, you will probably get substandard results and you will think acupuncture doesn’t work very well. If you can afford to get a course of treatment (say 5-10 treatments), you are much more likely to see a significant improvement or a resolution to your condition.

There are no federal regulations governing the practice of acupuncture in the United States, but most states have their own rules. In Michigan there are currently no acupuncture laws, but that’s about to change. In February 2006, Governor Granholm signed legislation that requires acupuncturists to register with the state. The new law also limits the use of the title “acupuncturist” to people who have met certain minimum standards for practicing acupuncture in Michigan. Those standards have yet to be determined, but it is very likely that national board certification will be required. The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) is a national organization that tests acupuncturists and grants certification and has been used by many other states to certify acupuncture competency.

Chinese medicine is an independent system of medicine based on more than 2000 years of observation and testing. Rather than focusing on disease as in biomedicine, the focus of Chinese medicine is on the complete physiological and psychological individual. Health represents a balance of qi (pronounced chee), or energy in the body, and qi is characterized as being yin, yang, or represented by one of the five elements, or phases. Yin & Yang Theory is a fundamental concept in Chinese medicine used to describe functional relationships in the body; for example, your internal organs are more yin (also associated with darkness, cold, and condensing energy), and the more external skin is yang (associated with brightness, warmth, expanding energy). Oriental medicine isn’t easy to understand. It is a completely different approach to diagnosing and treating illness than allopathic or western biomedicine. It has more in common with quantum physics than with western medicine because it uses a systems approach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking) to looking at the world; that means relationships between parts are more important than the parts themselves. Biomedicine uses linear reductionism to categorize and classify parts of the body and to reduce biological processes in the body to linear events characterized by cause and effect. This has been very useful for understanding how the body works, but it is limited. For more on the fundamentals of Chinese medicine and its history, see the entry at Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine).

Traditionally, acupuncture is thought to work by balancing the body’s energy. An imbalance or blockage of energy and blood flow in the body results in disease, physical pain, or emotional disorders. Energy is thought to flow through 14 major pathways (called meridians or channels) in the body, and the acupoints are areas along those channels where energy is accessible and changeable.
Scientific research has led to the development of several theories about how acupuncture works:

• Increases the flow of blood to the needle site: This means more oxygen, plasma, and white blood cells reach the area (a twisted ankle, for example) to improve overall tissue function and to assist with the healing process, including the removal of dead tissue and waste products.
• Stimulates the brain and central nervous system: Research shows that stimulation of acupoints can cause an increase in brain metabolic activity. It also stimulates the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain relievers.  
• Stimulates the endocrine system: Research shows that acupuncture can affect the way endocrine glands are modulated thereby regulating the secretion of various hormones.
• Stimulates trigger points: Studies show that more than 70% of acupuncture points coincide with common trigger points, or sore spots in a taut band of muscle tissue that produce pain and often accompany chronic pain disorders. Trigger points are thought to be caused by acute trauma or repetitive microtrauma.
• Stimulates immune system: Research demonstrates that acupuncture can stimulate or depress an immune response in animals. Experts think it is possible to stimulate an immune response in the treatment of AIDs and to suppress it to treat rhinitis, asthma, and other allergic disorders caused by an immune system that over-reacts.