Acupuncture

Acupuncture

MASSAGE MODALITIES // November 1, 2014

Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most respected alternative medical treatments in the world. It originated in China over 5,000 years ago and has a proven history of effectiveness. More than eight million Americans have used acupuncture to treat a variety of common health conditions. Acupuncture treatments are holistic and preventive, treating the entire person, not just the part that hurts.

Chinese medicine utilizes acupuncture needles to access and balance a person’s qi or vital energy, by stimulating points along energy paths called meridians. To strengthen your overall health and vitality, an acupuncturist will offer suggestions for lifestyle improvements in diet, supplementation, exercise, sleep, and stress management.

Acupuncture is best known for its ability to successfully treat pain and its causes. In Chinese medicine, pain is viewed as an obstruction of qi energy and blood in meridian energy paths due to injury, muscular tension, inflammation, sprains, or pathogenic invasions of cold and damp. Acupuncture alleviates pain by raising endorphin levels and diminishing the nervous system’s sympathetic response. Also acupuncture decreases inflammation and swelling, relaxes muscles to prevent spasms, and increases energy and blood circulation to the local area.