Extensive Guide to Acupuncture in Modern Times

It depends on how you define “healthy”. Modern city life poses lots of challenges to our life and can easily throw us off our natural balance. Many people may not have abnormalities in their lab tests or other medical examination reports, but they still feel their health condition is sub-optimal. For example, always feeling tired even after sleeping enough; hands and feet are cold and it is easy to get a cold etc. These ailments are the signs that your body has some imbalances. From a TCM point of view, these suboptimal conditions (亚健康状态) can be corrected by regulating the qi and blood in the body and enhancing the visceral function. This is where acupuncture can be helpful.

There is practically no age limit for patients. For younger kids under 2 years old, TCM massage (instead of needle) will normally be used on the acupoints and meridian to achieve the same treatment effect.

Pregnant women or women in their menstrual periods can also be treated using special precautions in the choice of points. It is important for the patient to communicate with the practitioner on their conditions before the acupuncture sessions

Our Chinese medicine practitioners will check the patient’s conditions and medical history before conducting the session. Special caution will be paid to those who have bleeding tendency or clotting disorder, immuno-suppression, epilepsy, acute infections or skin diseases.

As a word of guidance, qualified acupuncturists can make sure whether acupuncture is the right treatment for your individual condition. Instead of recommending or denying it for certain conditions in general, it is a case-to-case basis. This means it is important to openly tell the acupuncturist about any issues you have so the practitioner can treat you optimally.

First, you will have a consultation with our Chinese medicine practitioner to assess your health conditions. Based on the diagnosis, a treatment plan will be developed and discussed. In some cases, other treatment modalities (e.g. cupping, moxibustion, and herbal medicine) will be used in conjunction with the acupuncture treatment.

The needles are usually left in place for between 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the conditions being treated. In most cases, both the anterior and posterior side will be treated. The removal of the needles usually causes no discomfort and only rarely is there any very minor bleeding from an insertion point. The inserted needle may also be stimulated manually or using an electric pulse in various frequencies and intensities to achieve a particular effect. All the procedures will be discussed with the patient in advance and can be adjusted according to the patient’s reaction to the actual manipulation to minimize the unnecessary discomfort.

Most people find acupuncture a pleasant and deeply relaxing experience. Patients may feel a tingling sensation during the needle insertion. When the needle is in the body, some patients may feel heavy, throbbing or jumping at some particular acupoints or feel numbness at the point of insertion. These all denote the energy is moving. Some patients may even feel an energy transfer along the meridian to another part of the body. All these sensations may cause some discomfort to the patients, but normally are very transient.

The treatment will change the state of the energy of the body that affects the nerve, blood vessels, lymph vessels and muscles. With this, it is best to avoid heavy physical work or excessive excitement or stress (alcohol, tobacco and coffee) after a treatment at least for a day. It is also prudent not to have acupuncture on a full or empty stomach, and not to have a bath two hours after treatment. Avoid alcohol and food and drinks which alter the color of your tongue just before you have your treatment.

After acupuncture, you will feel relaxed or even slightly sleepy, so please take care not to tackle anything strenuous for a few hours following your treatment. It is also suggestable to drink 300-400 ml of warm water after the session.