Choice of:

• Two Acupuncture Treatments with Intake and Follow Up
• Four Acupuncture Treatments with Intake and Follow Up
• Six Acupuncture Treatments with Intake and Follow Up

The Science of Acupuncture: Pinning Down the Source of Relief

Acupuncture can be used to treat pain, stress, insomnia, digestion, and many other conditions. Check out Groupon’s exploration of how tiny needles put the body back in harmony.

Hair-thin needles are inserted along pathways on the arms and legs, and energy in the depths of the digestive system is freed, thereby improving digestion. That’s the theory, anyway. Acupuncture has over a 2,000-year history, but science is still working to understand how its effects are produced. Traditional Chinese acupuncture theory maps invisible channels of energy - known as chi - on the surface of the body. Practitioners use these channels to connect to the body’s vital organs, and stimulating points along these pathways gets blocked energy flowing to restore balance to the entire body.

How does this ancient wisdom connect with modern knowledge of human anatomy? Advanced imaging techniques offer tantalizing hints of how relief might be produced. Doppler ultrasounds have shown that blood flow increases where the needles are inserted. Thermal imaging has revealed that inflammation subsides during treatments, and neuroimaging studies suggest that acupuncture affects the brain’s pain receptors and releases endorphins. Western doctors have noted that many of the hundreds of acupuncture points across the body correspond with nerve bundles and muscle trigger points, or that they follow major vessels and nerves. Whether by simple trial and error or by working from a grand theory of the natural world, ancient Chinese healers may have foreshadowed some of Western medicine’s understanding millennia ago.