It’s a question I’m asked a lot.
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!