Acupuncture and TCM

Acupuncture is based on the premise that bodily functions are regulated by the flow of energy throughout the body, called Qi ( “Chee” ). Qi’s balance greatly influences the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional part of the self. Disruption of this flow is believed to be responsible for the rise of symptoms and disease. Acupuncture treatment focuses on correcting imbalances in the flow of Qi by stimulation of specific anatomical areas under the skin called acupuncture points. These acupuncture points are connected by channels known as meridians. Acupuncture is used to encourage natural healing, improve energy, reduce or relieve pain and improve function of affected areas of the body.

​The western view on acupuncture is that it affects neurotransmitters, reduces inflammation, balances hormones and therefore has a positive effect on the many systems of the body. Acupuncture has been clinically proven to help with digestion, mental health, hormonal imbalance, infertility, headaches, muscle pain, inflammation, joint pain and more. If you search online, you will find many studies supporting this.

​Pain BC has an excellent webinar about acupuncture: https://painbc.ca/health-professionals/webinars/acupuncture-and-chronic-pain

Acupuncture Healing Reactions: This doesn’t happen every time, but a patient may notice that their symptoms get temporarily worse before they feel better, with acupuncture. This can even happen during acupuncture treatment (for example, a treatment for stress and frustration that makes you feel restless and frustrated that you can’t move during treatment). This usually doesn’t last long (a few hours to a couple of days) and usually the person feels much better afterwards. This is usually a sign that long term stagnation is beginning to break up – which is a good thing! This is not a very common result of acupuncture treatment, though it is not rare either.

No change: A person might not notice much has shifted after their first acupuncture session. This is not unusual especially if the issue being treated is a chronic one. It can sometimes take a few acupuncture treatments before a patient notices improvement. This is most common for chronic illness, complex internal issues, and when treating multiple issues at once.

Change That Doesn’t Last Long: Results after the first acupuncture treatment or two might be short lived – this doesn’t mean you won’t ever get long term results. Healing is a process, and the first few treatments are helping to move your health in a new direction. Continued acupuncture treatment will result in bigger and longer lasting results. This is also one of the reasons we ask patients to come in for treatments spaced about 1 week apart in the beginning, as this will help the process move faster.

Significant Change: It is not uncommon to get feed back from new patients who can’t believe just how awesome they felt after acupuncture treatment! That’s always great to hear, but it is important to note that not every single treatment will result in the same mind-blowing results. Some treatments will seem more subtle then others, and some will seem more profound – this is all normal! Healing is rarely a straight line from injured to healed: Sometimes it can be a much more varied experience.

How often you come in for acupuncture and for how many treatments in total, will depend on a few factors; The more concerns you have to address, the severity of your concern, how long you’ve had your concern, your daily activities, and your general overall health are all factors that will impact the number and frequency of treatments your Acupuncturist suggests.

For example, a generally health person in their 20’s or 30’s who recently twisted their ankle may only need 1 or 2 treatments to get better. On the other hand, if this same person continues to run long distances everyday, doesn’t eat enough calories, and refuses to do their home care, it might take as many as 6 or more treatments for their ankle to fully recover.

Likewise, a person in their 60’s/70’s who has hormonal imbalances, weight issues, diabetes, and a sedentary lifestyle will require more acupuncture treatments to address the same ankle injury as the person described above. This is because we are not just treating the ankle in this person’s case. Acupuncture is holistic in nature, so its hard (if not impossible) to treat things in isolation. While the treatment will be focused on the ankle injury, it would also be necessary to start addressing the health of this person as a whole. After all, how is your body supposed to help heal an ankle injury if it is suffering from poor nutrition, slowed metabolic processes, hormonal chaos, the general wear-and-tear of 60+ years of life, et cetera?

Generally speaking, a typical course of acupuncture treatment for concerns such as anxiety/stress, allergies, digestion, reproductive health, chronic issues, and general internal medicine complaints will require between 3-6 treatments spaced about 1 week apart, another 3+ treatments, spaced about 2-3 weeks apart, and then maintenance treatments every 4-6 weeks. This is a very general picture of a typical course of treatment – your acupuncturists should be reassessing you each time, and modifying your treatment course accordingly.
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And please remember – some treatment is better than no treatment at all. Not everyone is in a position to come in for treatment as often as you or your Acupuncturist might like. That doesn’t mean that acupuncture won’t be helpful for you!

Follow up treatments are typically shorter in length and will follow a treatment plan determined by your needs and therapeutic goals. Since the effects of acupuncture are typically cumulative, you should plan to come back once a week for at least 3 consecutive visits. Your acupuncturist may also recommend some lifestyle changes, herbs or homecare practices.

What Are The Five Elements?

Read the full Five Element Acupuncture Article HERE.

The Elements:

Each Element helps to generate the next Element in the cycle, and each Element helps to control another Element from moving or growing out of control.

This is shown in the picture to the left. The outer circle shows the generating cycle, and the inner star shows the control cycle.

​Each Element is associated with a seemingly endless list of of emotions, parts of the body, aspects of the world in general, and even weather patterns! For the purpose of this article the correspondences listed are those most commonly considered during treatment. ​

Wood Element:
Just like a tiny seed that stops at nothing to grow towards the sun, Wood Element corresponds to our drive to move towards a goal regardless of the obstacles in our path.

Emotions:
Wood is associated with the emotion of anger. While most people tend to think of anger as a negative emotion, an appropriate amount of anger can be a strong force pushing us towards our goals. On the other hand, a lack of anger can result in an inability to stand up for yourself, and too much anger can lead to violence.