What Can Acupuncture Treat?
Feb 8th, 2007 by Michael Max
It is a common question. I hear it all the time.
All acupuncturists hear it.
All the time.
Can acupuncture treat backache, asthma, assist weight loss, depression……?
Can acupuncture help me with my memory, my lack of energy, my annoying boyfriend……..?
Will acupuncture cure my urinary infection, reduce my appetite, erase my wrinkles, take 20 years off my knees?
These are good questions.
Worthwhile questions.
Sensible questions.
And if you look at the World Health Organization’s list of what they consider acupuncture to be helpful for, you will indeed find an exhaustive list of ailments, discomforts, disease and pain.
But, I want to let you on a little secret…
Acupuncture
does not cure disease!
Surprised?
After all, why would anyone seek us out if they were not experiencing discomfort in their lives?
What is more, if acupuncture does not cure disease, then explain what happened to my Aunt Jody’s back pain after her 6 acupuncture treatments? She no longer gripes about her knees as much either. And what about my brother’s neighbor that found acupuncture can control the numbness in his feet from diabetic neuropathy?
If acupuncture does not treat illness, when why are these people getting better?
It is like this, us Chinese medicine practitioners don’t use acupuncture to treat disease.
We use it to treat people!
.
We don’t just focus on what is “wrong”, we also in our process of diagnosis and treatment look to see what is “right”. In fact, there are plenty of times, simply by boosting what is “right” the body on its own takes care of what is “wrong”.
Increasingly this is becoming a common Western medicine idea as well.
What is better, killing germs with drugs, or having a robust immune system that just does its job, and does it well?
Without resorting to arcane Chinese medical language (even most Chinese people don’t understand that stuff), it can simply be stated that acupuncture does not do anything, other than stimulate the healing mechanisms in your own body to bring it into a state of equilibrium and health.
Acupuncture simply calls forth your body’s own innate and brilliant healing response.
Healing does not come from anywhere else anyway.
That is what cures illness and discomfort.
