How to Choose the Best Acupuncture Doctor
When you decided to choose an acupuncture clinic first thing you should do is to make sure your acupuncturist has state acupuncture accreditation as well as check if your acupuncture doctor is a member of the AAMA (American Academy of Medical Acupuncture). This way you’ll know that doctor has completed at least 200 hours of training in acupuncture.
The functions of all individuals are governed by the fundamental energy that is the basic underpinning of all Asian medicine. Qi, as it is known, is believed to flow through the whole body, along lines known as meridians, which connect the body’s major organs.Throughout the body there are certain points, along these meridians, which are located close to the skin’s surface. These points have been carefully mapped over the thousands of years that acupuncture has been practised: it is into a combination of these points that the acupuncturist places the needles. According to Eastern medicine, the Qi can be influenced through the stimulation of these points, re-balancing the energy so that if flows freely. According to Western medicine, when an acupuncturist stimulates these meridian points an effect occurs on the biochemical and metabolic condition of the body, enabling the brain to release endorphins.
Acupuncture is becoming so much part of mainstream medical practice that it is being widely recommended due to its proven efficacy in reduction of chronic pain through the release of endorphins which are known to be more than 200 times stronger than morphine. In fact, studies carried out by Harvard Medical School on how the stimulation of the meridian points in acupuncture affected the activity of the brain went a long way in proving this fact. In this particular study they used 13 healthy individuals between the ages of 27 and 52 years of age, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to check on the brain’s activity. The acupuncturist inserted the first needle into the Hegu point between thumb and forefinger with the result that each candidate was found to have a calming effect exerted deep in the structures of the brain – in the hippocampus, hypothalamus and amygdale. At the same time, the sensory area of the brain’s cortex was stimulated.
Acupuncture is particularly effective for conditions that produce pain such as arthritis, sciatica, fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions such as lower back pain. The list of conditions that can be treated with acupuncture is quite extensive, but apart from pain acupuncture is very effective for everything from hay fever to poor eyesight; anaemia to high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome to food allergies, morning sickness to Lupus. Addictions such as smoking, drugs and alcohol are also successfully treated with a course of acupuncture treatment. There is, in fact, a huge range of human conditions can be treated effectively with acupuncture that, it is always as well to arrange a consultation at an acupuncture clinic if you are suffering from mental, physical or emotional problems that you would like to have treated.
When selecting an acupuncture clinic that has a Western medical doctor in its staff, ask if he is licensed. Each american licensed acupuncture doctor will have letters L.Ac. after the his name.
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