Acupuncture is a 5000-year-old art which originated in central Asia. In the early 1970s, acupuncture became popular in the Western world after President Nixon’s first visit to China.
However, acupuncture had been used in the Western world some 400 years earlier when it was first brought back by missionaries returning to Holland from Japan.
Acupuncture usually consists of the placement of fine stainless steel needles into specific locations on the body’s surface. These locations were developed by the Chinese over thousands of years and have been simplified and their scientific basis established over the past twenty or so years.
Acupuncture may involve the placement of needles into body points and limb points, or ears and other parts of the body.
It is totally painless as there is no sensation from the low-powered light source used in this treatment.
The most common conditions treated effectively with laser acupuncture are soft tissue injuries leading to myofascial pain syndromes such as whiplash, chronic low back pain after lifting injuries or falls and migraine headaches. Other conditions said to respond to laser are trigeminal neuralgia (facial pain) and post herpetic neuralgia (shingles pain).
Acupuncture with needles Acupuncture with needles cannot be said to be totally painless. A certain degree of discomfort is almost inevitable for acupuncture to be beneficial if, as is now commonly believed, acupuncture requires the closing of the ‘gate’ within our nervous system.
Acupuncture, with needles, is also sometimes associated with hand manipulation or electrical stimulation of the needles.
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