Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

Herbal medicine for cold
Many people on the hunt for nutritional supplements are concerned about what kind of herbal medicine for cold sicknesses are offered. From the period of November until March, cold season sets in and it can really ruin your day. While there isn't too...

Hydroxycut- The Best Weight Loss Supplement?
Have you tried all the weight loss supplements known to man only to be disappointed? Well this new revolutionary diet pill called Hydroxycut from Muscle Tech will change your mind and your body forever! They have cut the harmful ingredients to...

Mesotherapy Medicine: Effective Cellulite Treatment or Snake Oil?
Mesotherapy has been practiced in Europe successfully for over a decade and is now becoming one of the hottest new cellulite reduction procedured being requested in American Medi-spas and doctors offices. Along with its rising popularity has...

The Cholesterol Myth
The Cholesterol Myth Cholesterol. What images come to mind when you see this word? Is it positive or negative? Is it health, or is it heart disease? If what came to mind was negative, as something to avoid, and heart disease, then the...

What Makes Americans Hate Their Jobs? This Advice Turns That Epidemic Around
Here are the sobering facts: studies show that almost 70% of all employees dislike or downright hate their jobs. These dissatisfied, disillusioned people have no further career goals. Dreading the workday is a common heartache in millions of...

 
Does Acupuncture Hurt?

I understand the fear of needles. What most people are familiar with is the hypodermic needle of western medicine. They use it to draw blood or inject fluids, so they have to be hollow, and as a result are much bigger than our needles. Ours are solid, and much, much thinner. In fact, they are only about twice the thickness of hair. It's probably more accurate to describe them as filaments, but needles are the usual word.

When I show them to new patients, and demonstrate how easily you can bend them, they say, "how can you make this go straight?" That's just one of the skills of the acupuncturist we learn in school. I actually was able to get through a leather shoe with a 34 gauge needle without bending it.

Most new patients are amazed how little they feel when the acupuncture needle is inserted. Sometimes they ask, "Did you put it in already?" If you feel anything, there may be a quick sharp sensation as it goes through the skin. Then there will be nothing at all, or a dull spreading sensation. This is call "big qi."
That dull spreading sensation isn't painful, but it can be intense depending on the situation or the needling technique.


Some patients are very sensitive, so we don't needle as deeply on them.

A couple other sensations that we don't want are the shooting electric feeling if we hit a nerve, or the sharp feeling of being to close to a vein. Neither does much harm. The worst that happens is you get a small bruise in the area. We never get any residual effect from hitting a nerve. You should tell the acupuncturist if you feel the electric or sharp sensations, and they can change the location or direction of the needle. These are rather rare occurrences, though.

Basically, acupuncture is very comfortable, and what little temporary discomfort might occasionally occur is more than made up for by its relaxing and healing effects.

About the Author

Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com