Medical Acupuncture

Medical Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been used for centuries as a holistic form of medicine to treat many conditions, including acute injuries, arthritis, and headaches. Contemporary Medical Acupuncture is the biomedical and scientific refinement of Chinese acupuncture methods and is based on current concepts of neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and pathophysiology.

Medical Acupuncture is an effective and simple treatment to reduce pain, stiffness, and dysfunction from daily life or performance and sports injuries. Research shows that acupuncture:

• Decreases pain and inflammation
• Increases circulation and promotes tissue healing
• Increases range of motion
• Increases strength
• Promotes rehabilitation of the joints, nerves, muscles, and other soft tissues

How Medical Acupuncture works

As with traditional acupuncture, Medical Acupuncture involves inserting thin needles at specific points on your body, and stimulating them manually or electrically to enhance their effect. Your Chiropractor will take a complete history and perform a physical examination to diagnose the source of your pain or injury and determine the correct anatomical points to help treat it.

The needles target nerves to produce the following effects:

• interrupt the transmission of pain from the injury site to the brain
• stimulate healing at the injury site by stimulating the nervous system to release specific pain controlling and anti-inflammatory chemicals
• relax muscle spasms by fatiguing the muscle through the electrical stimulation of the specific muscle
• increase circulation at the injury site, which helps to decrease inflammation at the site of injury

For more information, see the McMaster University Contemporary Medical Acupuncture Program description.