FULL CIRCLE HEALTH CENTRE
Often when I write columns I choose a particular area of treatment that acupuncture benefits. With this article I’m going to take it right to the beginning and write about what it is like to have a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or acupuncture treatment. I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk about how they would love to receive all of the benefits that acupuncture can offer but that they would never book a treatment because they are so afraid of needles. So….let’s start with that.
I began seeing an acupuncturist when I was in my early 20s. I wasn’t very excited about the idea of acupuncture because I was a self-proclaimed needle phobe and the type to become faint during routine blood work. It took a lot of convincing from friends that had tried it that acupuncture was nothing like being poked with a hypodermic needle. Acupuncture had worked for them when nothing else had so, like many others, I reluctantly turned to acupuncture as a last resort and, like many others, I wished I had been brave enough to try it sooner.
Needle apprehension is very common and natural, considering that we have been conditioned to associate needles with pain. The association with those needles is the common concern when considering acupuncture treatment, however it is said that almost 100 acupuncture needles can fit inside just one of those hypodermic needles. They are extremely thin, filiform, stainless steel, sterile, single use needles that bend when you touch them. The pain experienced from a hypodermic syringe is because the thickness of the needle is relatively large, and because there is a hole in the centre of the needle for fluid to pass through. In contrast, acupuncture needles are about the thickness of a human hair and are completely solid. This is an entirely different profile from a syringe.
Acupuncture is the most gentle form of needling possible. If acupuncture was anything like getting a shot, I wouldn’t be in business! The needling sensation from acupuncture is so gentle that even kids are fine with it. Sometimes a tiny “prick” may be felt as the needle penetrates through the skin. Sometimes deeper sensations may be experienced as a small ache, tingling, numbness, heaviness, travelling sensation, heat, or cold, to name a few. Any sensation that is felt will generally dissipate after just a couple of seconds and can easily be adjusted if any kind of discomfort continues. Generally, once inserted the needles are left in place for about 10-15 minutes per side (generally front and back). Most people find it very relaxing once the needles are in place and may even fall asleep during their retention time.
Beyond acupuncture, I have a lot of other tools at my disposal. Acupuncture is my most common tool, but it is just one of them. Tending to keep my first session fairly simple if you have never had a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment before, I will often add various other modalities to subsequent treatments depending on diagnosis and treatment principles. I frequently use cupping or gua sha in my practice. Cupping is the use of suction cups on the skin that creates an “inverse massage”, sucking the skin into the cup rather than pressing during massage. I talked extensively on this in my last article. Gua sha is a gentle scraping of the skin for therapeutic purpose and is beneficial for sore or tight muscles or clearing toxins from the system. It has many of the same therapeutic effects as cupping and is easier to apply to smaller areas inaccessible by cupping. Electro-stimulation is sometimes applied to the needles if tight muscles require further releasing, therapeutic litaments and oils are applied as needed, and outside of roasting summer days my infrared heat lamp is often employed to avoid catching a chill. Herbal medicine is also a large part of my practice and can be beneficial in extending the desired results of an acupuncture session between treatments and may be necessary for some conditions. Sometimes Chinese herbal medicine is used in place of an acupuncture treatment where appropriate.
The part that I appreciate the most about acupuncture and TCM is that it considers each individual as a whole person. Often a person may be experiencing a myriad of various symptoms but they may all stem from a single root cause. Various individuals may come in with a similar complaint, but they may display differing manifestations of a similar disfunction.
Because TCM treatment is a patient centred approach, treatment is never meant to feel that it is done to you, but rather with you for the purpose of your healing. You are always in control of your treatment and any good acupuncturist will be willing to work within your comfort levels. It is important that each patient play an active role in their own treatment plan in order to achieve optimal health benefits.
Dove Sprout (R.TCM.P) and her husband, Paul Gaucher (R.TCM.P) co-own Creston Acupuncture & Natural Health. They work at the Full Circle Health Centre, which also offers Physiotherapy, Chiropractic , and Counselling services. For more information or to book an appointment, call the clinic at 250-402-2044. For further questions about what acupuncture and herbal medicine can treat, you can e-mail Dove at acupuncturebydove@gmail.com.