I am a member of the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (AACP) that is the largest professional body for acupuncture in the UK; a membership organisation of Chartered Physiotherapists, practicing medical acupuncture. The AACP form the Association for the practice of evidence-based, medical acupuncture in physiotherapy. The AACP represent members with law Makers, the Public, NHS, and Private Health Insurers. During your visit for acupuncture treatment, you will be screened and your medical history will be needed to see if you are suitable for treatment. Also, a consent form will have to be signed before the treatment takes place.
What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture involves the insertion of very fine stainless steel needles into the skin. It has been used in China for over 2000 years and often used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and increasingly used in western medicine since the 1970s. Acupuncture is used to treat a wide range of common health problems and reduce pain. For example, acupuncture has been used effectively to treat non-specific low back pain, tension-type headaches, migraines, anxiety, and many more medical conditions. Acupuncture can be combined with other physiotherapy treatments such as exercise, manual therapy, and relaxation techniques. It can also be used when more conventional treatments have failed.
How does Acupuncture work?
Scientific research and clinical evidence has shown that Acupuncture can reduce pain by stimulating the brain and spinal cord to produce natural pain-relieving chemicals such as endorphins, melatonin (which promotes sleep) and serotonin (to promote well-being), to name but a few. These chemicals assist the body’s healing processes and offer pain relief as a precursor to other treatments such as manual therapy or exercise in order to aid recovery. In TCM, they explain that acupuncture points lie along meridians (12 channels of energy) along with QI, the body’s natural flow of energy circulating the 12 channels, disease occurs when QI is disturbed through ‘excess’, ‘deficiency’ or ‘blockage’. This could be interpreted in relation to pain by: acute inflammation, chronic pain/degenerative disease, mechanical dysfunction.
Central to the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine is a holistic approach to health and wellbeing, an approach adopted by many Western healthcare practitioners, i.e. observing the association between lifestyle changes such as diet, stress, and activity levels (psychosocial model).
