How do you define medical acupuncture? This ancient practice, part of the group known as TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) has been in use for over 3000 years, and has been used to treat a wide range of symptoms and conditions.
Medical acupuncture is simply a way of referring to the many uses, the many conditions that respond to treatment. Of course medical acupuncture is not a cure-all for whatever ails you, but the list of conditions that have responded positively is impressive.
One of the most common uses is to treat pain. This includes both musculoskeletal pain (back, shoulder, neck, knee pain) as well as headaches, migraines, and trapped nerves. It also has a high degree of reported success with different kinds of kinds of arthritis.
Other issues include those such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and allergies, which can be resistant to western medicine, as well as various kinds of skin complaints, rashes and dermatitis.
An interesting recent development has been the use for treating addictions. It was first used for this purpose in the 1970s with heroin addicts, and is now quite commonly used to help people fight addictions, including smoking. Another area of recent growth is in helping people with weight loss.
Although these areas might not at first seem obvious candidates, if you consider the way the process works, it makes sense. The insertion of needles into key location clears energy blockages in the body's meridians (energy channels), allowing the body to heal itself. Thus the potential uses are almost limitless.
