Patients are often reminded by their acupuncturists that to remain healthy, they need to practice self-care, self-awareness and undergo preventative therapy. In order to enjoy optimal health, one should know the health benefits that acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine can provide as well as the underlying principles of care.
There is usually a misunderstanding about the therapeutic benefits of acupuncture in Edina. Finishing a proper course of acupuncture treatment could spell the difference between getting relief and continuing to struggle with a chronic health problem.
Good circulation is vital for good health. Blood and Qi Stagnation is a common condition that is usually successfully resolved with acupuncture and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). TCM recognizes Qi as a type of bioelectricity that flows with blood throughout the body. Pain is blockage to the flow of blood and qi hindering the transport of healing agents (within qi and blood) to the problem area.
If you know how the heart pumps blood through the entire body, it will be easy to understand how Blood and Qi Stagnation come about. The heart pumps blood into the arteries. The arteries propel the blood with considerable pressure through the contraction of the heart muscles. The blood coming from the arteries then flows into very tiny vessels called capillaries which send the blood out into interstitial space, which the narrow space between the body cells. The cells extract nutrients from the blood. Injury can damage the blood vessels and block circulation. Circulation can also be impeded by artery clogging meals, poor posture, and muscle tension. An example of Blood and Qi Stagnation is when you squeeze your hand it tends to block the flow of blood in your knuckles. And if you keep on squeezing your hand, you would soon begin to feel tingling and numbness and eventually pain, which means blood and qi flow has slowed down in the hand.
When healing agents in the qi and blood cannot reach to treat the injured area chronic pain arises. Acupuncture can help strengthen circulation and bring back the natural healing abilities of the body. To restore harmony and correct an imbalance in health, treatment usually requires more than one session. It is important to know that acupuncture treatment has certain phases in order to properly apply treatment for the relief of chronic pain and other health issues.
Three Phases of Acupuncture Therapy
1. Relief Therapy: Treatment of imbalance and pain. Requires frequent treatments.
2. Stabilization Therapy: To prevent symptoms from returning, relief therapy needs to be stabilized. This phase requires less frequent treatment sessions.
3. Maintenance Therapy: As the name suggests, this phase helps maintain the results of the therapy. Entails occasional treatments.
It is natural for a newbie acupuncture patient to ask how many treatments are needed to resolve his problem. No acupuncturist will give you a straight definite answer. Each patient is treated with a unique type of treatment that specifically addresses the patient’s own imbalances. The duration and results of the treatment vary according to the health of the patient and the severity of the condition. A chronic illness, for example, may necessitate longstanding care compared to an acute illness. More therapy may be required for a patient with a weak constitution than for someone with a healthy constitution.
Acupuncture needles are solid, sterilized, and very thin. Acupuncture treatment does not entail the injection of substances into a patient’s body.
To stir the natural healing abilities of the body and produce more beneficial and accumulative effects, frequent acupuncture treatments need to be done. The treatment’s therapeutic effects build up in the body making the succeeding sessions more potent. For chronic pain, blood and qi flow is obstructed hindering the delivery of the healing agents to their respective areas. Acupuncture improves circulation which eventually leads to the relief of pain. A treatment plan is deemed successful when it produces a beneficial effect within 10 to 12 sessions. If after a couple of sessions, a patient decides to stop treatment, he/she has not given the body the chance to gain the benefits of the treatment.
To significantly relieve pain and bring back normal function, relief therapy may require two or three sessions each week for several weeks. The acupuncturist will not stop the treatment even if benefits are experienced. During this phase, healing is usually incomplete and so to prevent the recurrence of symptoms, pain stabilization therapy is needed. Treatment may be one treatment every other week or once a week. A patient progresses into maintenance care which could be one session every few months or every month if the acupuncturist sees that the patient’s condition has stabilized.
Acupuncture focuses on the maintenance and promotion of health as opposed to Western medicine’s focus on trauma. An internship for a medical doctor is often done in a trauma focused environment – an emergency room.
Maintenance treatment is very much promoted by TCM and acupuncture practitioners. TCM encourages prevention of health condition through therapies such as meditation, Qi gong, Tai Chi, healthy lifestyle choices, diet therapy, herbal medicine, and acupuncture.