Traditional Chinese Acupuncture
Tonic Acupuncture is proud to offer Traditional Chinese Acupuncture for patients living in Longridge, Preston, Blackburn and the surrounding areas.
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What is Chinese Acupuncture?
Chinese acupuncture, also referred to as Traditional Acupuncture, is an area of Traditional Chinese Medicine that is one of the longest established forms of healthcare in the world. It originated in China approximately 2,500 years ago is now practised across the world.
According to The World Health Organisation (WHO), Traditional Acupuncture is the most practised traditional medicine throughout the world. By using fine needles inserted in to specific points on the body, acupuncture helps promote the flow of Qi (pronounced Chi) around the body.
It is the belief that when Qi is blocked, deficient or in excess, illness will develop due to the body being out of balance. it is through acupuncture sessions that these imbalances can be removed, and the body can be rebalanced. Another way to describe it; acupuncture needles send specific healing messages to your body, telling it how to heal and unblock. The needles are like sign posts, redirecting the healing power of the body to where it is needed. After all the body does know how to heal its self, it just gets stuck and lost in life and trauma.
Is Chinese Acupuncture just using needles?
Absolutely not, the therapists are well trained in several additional modalities, including diet and lifestyle advice. This is not a passive treatment, we need our patients to be active in their treatments. We aim to be giving you the tools and knowledge to give you reigns back in your health and well-being.
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What can acupuncture help with?
Practitioners can use Chinese acupuncture to help with a range of conditions and symptoms that affect your overall wellbeing. A growing body of evidence-based research has demonstrated how acupuncture can effectively work in isolation or as a complementary treatment alongside other medicines.
As acupuncture can help you in general to feel better many people use acupuncture as coping strategy against long term conditions that are also being treated with allopathic medicines/therapies.
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The NHS (NICE) currently state that acupuncture shows strong evidence of efficacy in the treatment of Chronic tension type headaches and migraines. They also include that there is potential benefit (limited clarity of evidence) when using acupuncture in the treating of the following conditions –
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chronic pain, such as neck pain
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joint pain
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dental pain
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postoperative pain
Advertising Guidelines (ASA) permit acupuncturists to say that acupuncture can have a some short term positive effects on the following conditions –
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Overactive bladder syndrome
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Tension type headaches
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Migraine headache
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Chronic low back pain
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Neck pain or chronic neck pain
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Temporomandibular (TMD/TMJ) pain
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Adjunctive treatment for osteoarthritis knee pain
With many conditions, it is vital that you seek out advice from your GP before getting treatment with any complementary therapist.
You will never have a guaranteed response from a course of acupuncture, even when the evidence base is strong for your condition, the best way to know if acupuncture will work for you is for you to try some sessions.
At Tonic Acupuncture, your acupuncturist will most certainly advise you if we felt your condition wouldn’t respond, or if we felt a different type of therapy would be more suitable to your health needs.
As many of the government bases of evidence for acupuncture are out of date or, not fit for purpose, the above conditions are very limited. This is despite many acupuncture researchers producing excellent summaries and submitting them for review to NICE and ASA. If you would like more recent evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture, please visit Evidence Based Acupuncture for some very detailed acupuncture study reviews.
What is included in the first session?
Within the first appointment, one of our trained practitioners will begin by going through your health questionnaire answers in more depth, then they will do other diagnostics such as gait analysis, palpation, pulse diagnosis and looking at your tongue.
As Chinese acupuncture is a holistic treatment, we like to focus on the person by taking into account their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing and lifestyle. In doing so, your practitioner will be able to treat the root cause of the issues.
Bringing a good note book is a great idea as you will be gleaming lots of helpful suggestions to help you take back control of your health and well-being.
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The first appointment will typically be slightly longer, usually, 1.5-2 hours. In your first acupuncture session you will receive some acupuncture, this is often just a few points to help assess how you react to the treatment. It would then be most beneficial for you have a follow up session within the next 7 days and we would ideally look to book in appointments for several weeks ahead to ensure you get your preferred appointment slot, so please bring your diary.
Does Chinese acupuncture hurt?
Most patients will not experience any sensation when hair-thin needles are inserted. In most cases, patients will feel relaxed, but occasionally, you may feel a mild pinch, ache, tingle or numbness that will quickly dissipate. Once the session is complete, you may feel tired but this will only last a couple of hours. Many say they it is so relaxing that they feel like they float home after a session. You are safe to drive home, but there is space for you to relax a little longer if you need to before setting off home.
Occasionally needles may cause very small bruises that will fade quickly.
Your practitioner will always recommend drinking lots of water and resting for the day to help your body heal and rebalance. Feeling headachy or tired after a session is a good sign that your body needs space to do the healing the needles have asked it to do.
What is the difference between Chinese Acupuncture and Western Acupuncture?
Traditional Chinese acupuncture is based on TCM teachings that Qi flows through the body, and when this flow becomes blocked or interrupted, illness occurs; acupuncture can be used to restore this flow and rebalance the body. The evidence they base their treatments on is the body producing natural substances, such as pain-relieving endorphins.
Get in touch today
Tonic Acupuncture is proud to offer Chinese acupuncture for various conditions and ailments at our clinic in Longridge. If you would like to find out more about how Traditional Chinese Acupuncture could benefit you and your overall wellbeing, please get in touch with us today on 01772 230969 or email us at clinic@tonicacu.co.uk. To book an appointment, please visit our Longridge Clinic booking page.