What is the Scope of Medical Acupuncture?

Acupuncture focuses on promoting the natural healing of one’s body with the aim of improving overall functioning. It is done either by inserting needles or by applying heat or other electrical stimulations to precise acupuncture points.

How Does Acupuncture Work?

It was believed earlier that acupuncture unblocks the various obstructions in the body’s energy flow. Therefore, it was useful and helped correct internal imbalances in the organs as well as facilitated proper circulation of energy throughout the body.

However, the modern explanation has scientific bases and believes that needling the acupuncture points causes the nervous system to release certain chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord or brain. These chemicals may change the experience of pain or may release other chemicals and hormones that will help regulate the body’s mechanism and bring them to proper form.

Acupuncture and Medical Acupuncture, however, are two separate concepts. Acupuncture is an age-old medical technique that originated a long time ago. Its learning and practicing has many different approaches to it. However, when we say medical acupuncture, we are referring to acupuncture performed by a professional, trained and licensed in Western medicine and who has thorough training in acupuncture as their specialty. This kind of a doctor can use one or the other approach to treat people or he can make use of a combination of both, depending on the illness.

Scope of Medical Acupuncture

Now that we know what medical acupuncture is all about, we will address the issue of its scope. What exactly can it be used for and what benefits from it?

Acupuncture is usually widely associated with pain-control. But if practiced by a well-trained practitioner, it can have much wider applications. Acupuncture, as said earlier, may be used as the only treatment for a particular illness or it can also be used along with other medical treatment forms, particularly in medical and surgical disorders.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of medical acupuncture can be seen in a wide range of medical problems. Some of which are mentioned below

• Digestive Disorders –

This includes disorders like spastic colon, constipation, diarrhea as well as gastritis and hyperacidity.

• Neurological and Muscular Disorders –

Acupuncture for Migraine, Headaches, rib neuritis, facial tics, neck pain, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow as well as various forms of tendinitis, low back pain, sciatica and osteoarthritis can be treated by acupuncture.

• Respiratory Disorders –

It can also be treated by acupuncture. This would include sinusitis, bronchitis, sore throat, asthma and recurrent chest infections.

Other Uses:

Urinary, menstrual problems and reproductive problems can also be treated by medical acupuncture.

Medical acupuncture is mostly seen to be effective in resolving physical problems or emotional problems that are related to stress and tension. Therefore, given all this, medical acupuncture is a system that is seen to have a major influence in three important areas in healthcare. These include:

• Promotion of one’s health and overall wellbeing
• Prevention of illness
• Treatment of various medical conditions

However, the scope of practicing medical acupuncture varies depending on the procedures you are allowed to use and the conditions you are authorized to treat. All in all, medical acupuncture has been found to very useful in treating illnesses, thus increasing its scope every day.