Does Acupuncture Hurt?

Acupuncture needles are very tiny. They are not hypodermic needles. If you were watching TV and I performed acupuncture on you, you would most likely have no idea, it is the anticipation that can be scary for some. Most of my patients say they can’t feel it at all. Every single needle comes prepackaged and gets disposed right after use.

Why do I bruise after cupping?

A bruise itself is an immune function. Your body sent blood to injured tissue to heal it. Cupping is facilitating healing with the same principle. Very dark marks are left if the patient has a lot of blood stasis, which means blood has been sitting in one place for a long time not circulation. Blood stasis can be very painful for a person and is usually a result of trauma. Many of my patients who were in car accidents have a lot of blood stasis around the neck and shoulders. So the mark is darker because it is lifting out so much stagnant blood which means it’s allowing new fresh blood into the tissue and speeding up recovery.

Does Acupuncture work for depression?

Acupuncture is very popular for depression. Science has proved that acupuncture causes the mid brain to dump endorphins into the blood stream which gives all patients no matter what they are being treated for a since of euphoria, but depression in Chinese medicine could be from many different reasons, imbalance of energy, physical pain, sluggish digestive system, weak lung function, a block in one of the meridians. So once the acupuncturist figures out the reason for a patient’s depression they can cater all treatments to that person’s specific needs.

Is it true acupuncture is alien technology?

This is my favorite theory but I will tell you all the theories and you can decide for yourself: Acupuncture was a byproduct of battle. Soldiers would get hit in the stomach with an arrow and then notice their headache was gone, then they tested this new revelations on prisoners.

Taoist monks received all information about acupuncture through hours and hours of meditation and shamanistic traditions involving oracle animal bones. 

Lastly Acupuncture was first written in the ancient text “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine. The Yellow Emperor, also known as Huang-Di, was a king who ruled for over 100 years. His existence is still debated among scholars. He was described as a king who was not human but half-god who came to earth in thunder on a metal dragon. Which is not different from many other ancient cultures like the Egyptians whose kings were half-gods who descended from the sky. After his 100 year rule the metallic Dragon was said to descend from the sky and take him away. The dragon was described as a device that could take its passenger in one day what would normally age a man 2,000 years. Also in the book it says Huang-Di invented a device that is translated to “tripod,” it was said to be filled with energies and able to store data and record life, Huang-Di would take the tripod to a mountain range and point it at particular star that he was said to be from, the Syuan Yuan Star.

How many sessions do I need to be cured?

It depends. Sometimes for an acute injury one session is all that’s needed. It is not a therapy that requires you to come for the rest of your life, although that would be ideal to maintain optimal health. Acupuncture builds on itself, so I like patients with more serious pathologies to come in for 3 to 6 sessions close together and then wean down to once a month for maintenance until the problem is gone.