Can Acupuncture treat X?

Many times over the 20 years that I have been studying acupuncture and Chinese medicine has this question been tossed my way. The short answer, solving for X is yes. No matter the health problem, yes, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine will work. Why? Because we are treating you, not the illness. Let me explain: illness or dis-ease is something that generally develops over time, from a series of events or lifestyle choices (I’m talking about food intake, smoking, alcohol consumption, poor sleep habits, overworking…anything sound familiar?) 

When I was a professor of Chinese medicine, I used to describe the levels of illness like this:

 Level 1: mild symptoms such as occasional headaches with the menstrual period, occasional acid reflux depending on food intake, abdominal bloating sometimes, again depending on dietary choices. No symptoms are too drastic or dramatic, and nothing that couldn’t be addressed with lifestyle changes or good guidance and advice. This level is very amenable to treatment with acupuncture & herbs. You should be good to get back to feeling much better in probably 6-8 treatments.

 Level 2: This is still when symptoms are more functional in nature, meaning that you are uncomfortable, but no scans or labs show anything wrong with you. For example: more chronic headaches, more chronic acid reflux, abdominal bloating all the time, combined with constant diarrhea or constipation. People with more chronic complaints can also benefit enormously from acu/herb interventions. But hey, this will take a bit longer to resolve! You might need 3-6 months of treatments to really get back on track to the best version of yourself.

 Level 3: This is where there are actual organic, cellular changes that are showing up on those scans: that acid reflux? Well now it is esophageal cancer. The headaches? This was the result of untreated diabetes and high blood pressure. The BM problems? Colon cancer. At this stage of illness, there is no dialing back from that diagnosis, but acupuncture and herbs can make the quality of your life much better, hopefully keep you healthier for longer times so you can withstand whatever other more intense medical interventions you are going through.

 As long as you are alive and breathing, and not a jellybean, yes, acupuncture can treat it!