Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does acupuncture hurt?
Generally speaking acupuncture is not a painful experience, rather a relaxing one. You will feel sensations such as a dull ache or a “running” of energy along the channel. These sensations are normal and show the acupuncture points are working! Very often patients state they do not feel anything with their first needle. Some people are more sensitive to needles, and in this case the acupuncturist uses smaller needles and checks in with the patient’s sensitivity.
Acupuncture needles are ultra fine needles. For reference, on average 17 acupuncture needles fit into a hypodermic injection needle (used for shots).
2. What does acupuncture do?
Acupuncture stimulates and balances the nervous system, opening circulation, helping rebalance the body’s natural healing ability. Stimulation of your acupuncture point protocol improves the physiological functions required to heal your symptoms.
3. How long does it take to see and/or feel results?
Results to start feeling a change can range from immediately to around 6 treatments. To give you a general idea of how long it will take to treat your condition (do note it varies per individual):
- for more recent/less severe conditions around 6 treatments
- chronic/more severe conditions 10 treatments or more
Acupuncture works cumulatively. It takes time to produce lasting healing results, similar to going to the gym.
4. What happens in an acupuncture visit?
Kate welcomes you to your treatment room and has you settle in comfortably. The first visit starts with a thorough health history consult, including planning your treatment protocol and a check of your tongue/pulse for internal diagnostics. Then you’ll receive the treatment scheduled. This is followed by recommendations and scheduling following treatments.
5. Why am I being asked about sleep when I came in for neck pain?
In a thorough first consult there may be questions asked that seem irrelevant. Chinese medicine diagnosis uses a different theory thousands of years old to find the appropriate pattern related to your particular issue, as well as your constitutional strengths and struggles. These answers help the acupuncturist to have a clear understanding of your system’s overall functioning to provide the ideal point prescription for your condition.
Western medicine is a few hundred years old, in comparison to the thousands of years Chinese medicine has been provided and developed.
Chinese medicine not only treats the symptom, but also the cause of the symptom by re-regulating the nervous system.
Chinese medicine works with your body in healing, causing a cumulative effect, as opposed to causing a reliance on an external factor such as Western medication drugs may do.
Chinese medicine does not cut into the body like Western surgery which can cause permanent tissue damage.
Chinese medicine also takes into consideration the mind body spirit connection - for example the effects mental stress can have on the physical body.