Traditional acupuncture aims to promote all aspects of health and well-being: physical, emotional and spiritual. In traditional Chinese philosophy, our positive state of health depends on the smooth flow and balance of Qi as it moves through a series of channels beneath our skin. Sometimes our flow of Qi can become blocked or unbalanced by physical or emotional factors such as infection, trauma, poor diet, anger, grief or stress, resulting in illness or pain.

In certain cases, traditional acupuncture can be an effective therapy to help restore balance and promote physical and emotional harmony. If acupuncture is an appropriate treatment for you, very fine acupuncture needles will be inserted at special points along the channels of energy appropriate to the condition you are receiving treatment for to stimulate your body's own healing system to restore health and well-being. The needles used in the acupuncture treatment are always sterile, single use only and disposed of in accordance with local authority and the British Acupuncture safety standards.

Current thinking on Acupuncture

Modern thinking on the benefits of acupuncture is backed-up by the growing body of evidence-based clinical research and reinforces what people have been saying for many years – acupuncture works! MRI scans have shown acupuncture stimulates a brain response which leads to the release of powerful neurotransmitters to help pain relief and affect our mood. Research papers report acupuncture can…

• Provide pain relief - by stimulating nerves located in muscles and other tissues to release endorphins and alter the processing of pain in the brain and spinal cord (Pomeranz 1987; Zhao 2008)

• Reduce inflammation - by promoting the release of vascular and immunomodulatory factors (Kim 2008; Kavoussi 2007; Zijlstra 2003)

•  Improve muscle stiffness and joint mobility - by increasing local microcirculation (Komori 2009)

What conditions can Acupuncture treat?

Many people turn to acupuncture for relief from specific aches and pains. For example, osteoarthritis of the knee, migraines, low back pain, or for common health problems like an overactive bladder. Other people choose acupuncture when they feel their bodily functions are out of balance, but they have no obvious diagnosis (think of it as like having and MOT). Some people have regular treatments because they find it so beneficial and relaxing (forgive another car analogy, but this is more like having a regular ‘service’).

Treatments people seek help for include:

• Infertility and IVF support
• Stress, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue
• Digestive disorders
• Women’s health – irregular, painful periods, menopause, PCOS
• Aesthetic facial enhancement
• Weight-loss
• Pregnancy discomfort and labour induction
• Pain
• Sports injuries
• Migraines (NICE, the body which approves treatments on the NHS, recommends that GPs send patients suffering with migraines for a course of 10 acupuncture treatments.
• Substance withdrawal

Visit the British Acupuncture Council website where you will find detailed and unbiased information on the many conditions treated by acupuncture and which the evidence-based research supports.