Why use acupuncture and Chinese medicine?

People come to us for many reasons. Sometimes it’s because “nothing else has worked.” Sometimes it is because they have witnessed transformation in a friend or family member. Sometimes a physician or therapist recommended it. Sometimes it’s to have an understanding of how to maintain better health—simply for curiosity’s sake. All are good reasons!

One particularly good reason is because Chinese medicine offers another way of understanding our bodies and our lives. In this medicine, we look at everything in context, and every part is interdependent within the whole. This perspective is helpful in understanding the interplay of diet, exercise, stress, the environment, and our relationships on our well-being. Well-being is achieved, then, not by fighting against a disease but by cultivating harmony in our lives.

Chinese medicine provides us with a comprehensive understanding of the body. Acupuncture, the use of fine, sterile needles inserted to help restore balance, is a tool and one branch of the medicine. Some of the other branches of the medicine are Chinese herbal medicine, dietary therapy, cupping, tai chi, tui na (Chinese medical massage), meditation and feng shui.

What makes Chinese medicine different?

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a medical system of prevention, diagnosis and treatment that has been practiced for thousands of years. The underlying theory of TCM describes the body in terms of organ systems that are all interconnected. The concept of Qi is used to describe the proper function of these systems. Disease arises when the system is out of balance, and these imbalances are often expressed in terms of “deficiency” or “stagnation” of Qi. The initial cause can be external, like what we would think of as catching a cold after being exposed to a virus. Or the cause could be an internal imbalance like a lack of blood flow, poor nutrition or hormonal imbalance. This is just a small list of many potential causes for internal disease, which is usually more chronic and more difficult to treat. Through careful observation and clinical experience, practitioners have developed treatments to restore proper function to the body systems and return balance to the body as a whole.

The language of TCM uses metaphors to describe the body systems, disease, and treatment strategy. For example, when we talk about a disease of the Liver, it does not necessarily refer to the organ as we understand it in Western biological terms. This disease “pattern” refers to the TCM description of the function of the “Liver system” and how it relates to the rest of the body. Even though the terminology does not always correlate with Western medical terms, there are real physiological changes that take place during treatments that can restore function and relieve the symptoms of disease.  

The medical research to support acupuncture and TCM as effective treatments for pain relief (including migraines, joint pain, and fibromyalgia), depression and anxiety, hormonal imbalances and allergies has been around for decades. New research looking into how acupuncture affects the body has shed light onto some of the biological responses to treatment. As a new frontier of research, studies are showing how acupuncture affects the activity of neurotransmitters, modulates immune response, increases blood flow, and stimulates new connections in neurological pathways. Your practitioner will consider both traditional TCM theory and the most recent developments in research when determining your diagnosis and treatment.

Our mission is to deliver compassionate, individualized care and provide education to promote health and harmony that goes beyond the treatment room!