Alternative Medicine: Acupuncture and Its Benefits

Acupuncture is one of the oldest form of alternative medicine in Chinese history. The philosophy of acupuncture is based in Taoist tradition where these people meditate and observe the flow of positive energy inside and outside the body. The breakthrough of acupuncture started in the new stone age of Chinese history. Refined stones are used as needles for healing. Acupuncture has evolved over the years but the concept and philosophy remains the same.

Acupuncture has grown popularity among many individuals who are willing to try alternative medicine. These individuals do not want to suffer the long term effects of drugs and intensive treatment like surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Others also turn into acupuncture to incorporate with their conventional treatment in speeding up the healing process.

Acupuncture and other alternative medicine are proven to be effective but its consistency has been questioned by many licensed medical professionals. Until now, acupuncture may provide benefits to a person’s disease or injury but it is very limited and it is not accepted in the standard form of medicine.

Acupuncture uses special kinds of needles in varying sizes. These needles are sterile, and the acupuncturist inserts it to a specific acupuncture points along with the position of the flow of energy. Normally, patients will feel the needles pricking into their skin but they cannot feel any pain. These needles are solid and bigger than the normal size of hair.

People who seeks the unconventional treatment of acupuncture are those people who suffered from a long term chronic pain brought by their long standing condition like chronic back pains that seem to never go away, painful headaches and migraines, cancer, depression, sleeping disorders and other emotional disorders.

There are many benefits that one person can have after an acupuncture.

1. Alleviates pain causes by migraines, arthritis, back pains and other debilitating pains.

2. Releases positive energy that promotes healing, relieves stress and reduces the risk or emotional disorders like depression.

3. Improves the quality of your sleep and also promotes good appetite.

4. Enhances your physical and emotional well-being.

5. It also helps a person’s sexuality because it increases a women’s fertility state, and not only that it enhances your beauty by minimizing your wrinkle lines.

Though many medical and health care professionals opposed the use of acupuncture as form of treatment, many believe its efficiency and its natural way in curing illness and disorders. Because of its growing popularity and some proven benefits, some medical professionals recommend the use of acupuncture to incorporate with conventional medicine.

Before submitting yourself to acupuncture, you need to make sure that the acupuncturist who administer the acupuncture have undergone thorough training and it is licensed to practice. Check your local directory and investigate whether that clinic and their acupuncturist have good reviews from their previous patients. It is better to be sure and safe than be sorry later.

Acupuncture is a good alternative medicine to ease the pain that you have felt for a long time. Access to acupuncture is easy because it is more affordable than the treatments of conventional medicine. Whether it is proven or not, the main goal of acupuncture is to make our lives better.

Karissa C. Dupree enjoys writing for Superiormassagechairs.com and Discountfountains.com which sell indoor wall fountains and wall water fountain as well as hosts of additional products.

Using Acupuncture and AA 12-step program to Stop Relapses and Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome

It takes a lot of fortitude, support, and determination to overcome alcoholism. Using acupuncture, an alternative medicine and AA 12-step program to stop relapses and post acute withdrawal syndrome can sure stack the odds in your favor.

Acupuncture is a form of therapy based on Oriental Medicine that evolved from principles and philosophies that are unique to the Orient. The acupuncturist inserts thin needles into specific points on the skin to change the flow of qi (energy) in the Channels of the body to bring about rebalance in the body’s Qi and healing and a return to good health.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an organization that developed the set of guiding principals known as the twelve-step program. It was first published in a book, "Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism”, in 1939.

Alcoholics Anonymous (4th edition ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services states the twelve steps as being:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

What makes it difficult to fight going back into one relapse after another are the cravings for alcohol that are so difficult to ignore. Acupuncture treatments can take the craving for alcohol away when you follow a concentrated therapy session over a one-month time period (approximately 21 sessions) and then follow that up with a maintenance schedule of weekly follow-up sessions. Acupuncture relieves the cravings for alcohol, and also alleviates other symptoms of alcoholism such as fatigue and withdrawal symptoms such as tremors. It can also reduce the depression or anxiety that those going through detox or withdrawal from alcohol often feel. Acupuncture is safe when it is performed by a trained acupuncturist and has very few side effects.