How does acupuncture work?

Although there is current research in acupuncture, we still can rarely answer questions based on a Western scientific-evidence-based model. Western allopathic Medicine treats diagnoses that are often established by fairly objective impersonal standards. Oriental Medicine’s approach, on the other hand, treats the individual as a whole, not a diagnosis.

In November of 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) convened a conference on acupuncture to determine what answers we do have from a rigorous scientific standpoint (The Consensus Statement on Acupuncture). So far, modern research has described various physiological shifts following acupuncture, such as beneficial changes in the body's own natural painkillers, anti-inflammatory agents, immune system functions and hormonal activity. Acupuncture is definitely one of the best and safest types of treatment you can have. The focus is to stimulate your body's own healing power. In the human body there are twelve primary meridians (natural energies flow in the body) along which, messages are sent from the acupuncture points to various parts of the body. The meridians are stimulated by needles or other instruments, to create an even flow of energy throughout the body. It is believed that all the various parts of the body are interdependent and must all work together harmoniously if good health is to be maintained.