In the first year of studing for my acupuncture degree, whenever one of the students asked a question about Chinese medicine, the answer was very often, ‘Well, it depends’! It wasn’t long before the entire cohort would pipe up, ‘It depends’, when someone asked a question. And as frustrating as the answer was, we students slowly realised that when it comes to acupuncture, it really does depend!

But depend on what?, I hear you cry.

Acupuncture is an individual medicine, which means that two people could come into the clinic with the same health issue, but the treatment for each of them would be completely different – which is just one of the reasons it’s such a marvelous medicine – everyone is treated as an individual!

Which is why it is so hard to say how many treatments someone will need until I have sat down with them and not only gone into detail as to why they’ve come to the clinic for treatment, but also delved into their medical history to find out if there are any contributing factors there.

Just as is often the case in Westen medicine, for example when taking antibiotics, a course of treatment is prescribed. And just as with antibiotics, the length of the course relates to the issue being treated and just like antibiotics, you must complete the prescribed course to gain the full benefit.

After your initial appoinment your acupuncturist should be able to give you an idea of the treatment plan and therefore how many treatments you are likely to need.

So to answer the question, ‘Depends on what’? It depends on you!

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Acupuncture has its origins firmly planted in Chinese Medicine, going back more than 3500 years.  It is the insertion of fine, sterile, medical grade stainless steel, single use needles…

Sorry to cut the paragraph short, but as I sit here on this rather damp and miserable autumn afternoon – ‘Damp’ is a good TCM word, mental note to do a future blog on Damp…more interesting than you’d think!

But back to this afternoon and acupuncture.  Is there really anyone, anymore who doesn’t know what acupuncture is?  Do I actually need to go through the usual spiel and potentially put you all to sleep before I’ve even really got started?  

So, what about instead we have a brief jaunt through history – I’ll keep it light, promise – and find out how this marvellous medicine, took a trip across the lands and oceans of the east, and landed firmly in the west.   

As I mentioned, Chinese medicine has been around for over 3000yrs. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a more standardised version of the Chinese medicine that was practiced before the Chinese revolution, and one of the two branches of Chinese Medicine that is taught in the UK today – the other being Five Elements, more on that another time.  Standardisation just means that students are taught the same things – originally you would have served an apprenticeship under the close watch of a ‘Master’ and the techniques taught, varied depending on who your mentor was.    

Acupuncture came to the attention of the West, by way of two connected events.  The visit in 1972 by President Nixon to China, and the lesser-known trip taken the year before by the first American reporter, invited by the Chinese Government to tour China, which corresponded with Henry Kissinger’s ‘secret’ visit to set the stage for Nixon.  

While there the reporter fell ill and as part of his recovery, he was given acupuncture treatment.  No longer able to cover Kissinger’s visit, the journalist instead wrote an article about his medical treatment in a Chinese hospital.  The article was published on the front page of the New York Times.

President Nixon’s visit to Beijing the following year, further fuelled American’s curiosity for the treatment.  There are reports of acupuncturists in New York’s Chinatown, unable to treat the volume of patients turning up at their clinics.  And as we all know, whatever happens in America, sooner or later finds its way across the Atlantic – and the rest, as they say, is history!

Acupuncture isn’t just about the needles.  In fact, as an undergraduate student of acupuncture, you spend just as much time learning how to diagnose correctly.  An accurate diagnosis is required in order to be able to select the appropriate points ‘prescription’, to bring about the return to health, balance and wellbeing that the patient needs.

TCM and acupuncture look at the root cause of a patient’s symptoms.  Two people with the same issue may have completely different acupuncture points needled.   

I had a great example in clinic just the other week.  Two men, similar ages and build, both presenting with severe headaches.  Both experienced the pain in the same areas of the head.      For one the headaches were the result of referred pain from an old sporting injury, but for the other, the headaches were triggered by stress.  Same symptoms, but different causes, therefore different points.

The ability to treat a patient as an individual is just one of the reasons I think acupuncture is a truly marvellous medicine! 

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