Acupuncture

When people think about acupuncture, they immediately think about the needles -- will they hurt and how do they work? Acupuncture (or the needles) is a modality of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the needling part is the last piece of the puzzle. When a physician prescribes a medication, they first have to understand what the symptom is and what is causing the symptom (i.e.: cough medicine works great to treat a cough but not so great to treat back pain). TCM works very much the same way -- to address a symptom, an acupuncturist has to understand what is causing the symptom from a Chinese medicine perspective.

Once that happens, acupuncture points located along energetic meridians of the body are selected to treat the root cause of the symptom -- hopefully not only treating the symptom itself but other imbalances or complaints along the way. Acupuncture is like any other treatment modality in that it is never a guarantee and has its limitations. However, in general, acupuncture has shown to be incredibly effective in treating a multitude of health issues, including pain, headaches, seasonal allergies, menstrual irregularities, anxiety, and depression.