Your Path to Healthy Living and a Healthy Life

The Healing Art of Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a therapeutic method used to encourage natural healing, reduce or relieve pain and improve function of affected areas of the body. Acupuncture is safe and effective and is often successfully used as an alternative to medications or even surgery. Relief is often obtained when traditional medical therapy has failed.

Acupuncture involves the insertion of very fine needles through the skin and tissues at specific points on the body. The treatment itself causes minimal discomfort. Chinese medicine practitioners believe that acupuncture promotes the proper flow of vital energy through the energy channels called meridian. Western doctors believe that acupuncture stimulates the body to produce its own pain relieving chemicals called endorphins. These chemicals mimic morphine by attaching to opiate receptor sites found throughout the nervous system. Endorphins help to block pathways that relay pain messages from the body to the brain, resulting in relief of pain, general relaxation and biochemical restoration of the body’s own internal regulation systems.

The improved energy and biochemical balance produced by acupuncture stimulates the body’s natural healing abilities, reducing inflammation and promoting physical and emotional well-being.

The World Health Organization has acknowledged that acupuncture is beneficial in the treatment of a wide range of medical problems including:

• Digestive disorders: gastritis, hyperacidity, spastic bowel, constipation, diarrhea
• Respiratory disorders: sinusitis, bronchitis, asthma
• Neurological and muscular disorders: headaches, neck and back pain, neuralgia, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, tendonitis, sciatica, arthritis
• Urinary, menstrual and reproductive disorders
• Addiction and insomnia

In treating any illness or affliction, a correct diagnosis by a qualified physician is important before any decisions are made regarding therapy. Please talk to Dr. Yim at your next visit for advice on whether acupuncture is appropriate in your case.

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