Treatable Conditions

How can Acupuncture help?

Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine integrates with conventional medicine. They are not substitutes for any conventional medical advice, medications or treatments. Integrating with conventional medicine, acupuncture can treat both acute and chronic problems such as insomnia, digestive and elimination problems, headaches and migraines, sleeping disorders, pediatric disorders, weight loss, facial cosmetic procedures and much more.

There are many styles or types of acupuncture procedures based on the area of Asia it originated. Roxene is trained in Traditional Chinese acupuncture as well as, Japanese, Shoni-shin pediatric, Korean Hand Acupuncture, scalp and auricular acupuncture, dry needling/trigger point therapy and acupuncture point injection therapies. Acupuncture can help to reduce or eliminate the need for medications for many conditions including narcotics and other pain-relievers, but your family doctor must always be consulted in such instances.

Traditional Chinese/Oriental Medicine looks at illnesses from a different perspective than conventional medicine. The basic tenet of Chinese Medicine is that we have a life force that energizes all the metabolic activity in our bodies, and this life forces (often referred to as "qi") is always moving and flowing. When qi flows unimpeded, we are healthy. When qi is blocked, we get pain and ultimately disease. The strategy of the Practitioner of Oriental Medicine is to find the areas of blocked energy, and help remove those blocks, which in turn helps the body return to its natural healthy state.

When you first enter an the office of an acupuncturist, the practitioner will sit with you and do an intake. We are interested in all your symptoms and medical history which helps, which helps us start to determine our treatment strategy. The Chinese medical model is often very effective at treating hard to diagnose problems since it does not rely on having to know the biochemical reason for your condition, which is not known in most cases, particularly where blood tests and MRI's are normal. Even when blood tests show imbalances, it is not usually known why this is happening.

This difference in perspective means that Traditional Chinese Medicine can often make sense of illnesses that Western medicine has difficulty treating. In cases where Western medicine may be limited to prescribing medication for symptom management, acupuncture may be able to intervene and encourage the body in a self-healing process. Acupuncture/Oriental Medicine is currently the fastest growing healing modality in the country.

Evidence for Acupuncture is Growing Exponentially

Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, increasing at twice the rate of research into conventional biomedicine. Over this period, there have been over 13,000 studies conducted in 60 countries, including hundreds of meta-analyses summarizing the results of thousands of human and animal studies. A wide-variety of clinical areas have been studied, including pain, cancer, pregnancy, stroke, mood disorders, sleep disorders and inflammation, to name a few.1

View the full report.

The World Health Organization

In the hands of a well-trained practitioner, acupuncture has much broader applications beyond pain relief. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the use of acupuncture in the treatment of a wide range of common illnesses including:2

  • Upper Respiratory Tract
    • Acute sinusitis
    • Acute rhinitis
    • Common Cold and Flu
    • Acute tonsillitis
  • Respiratory System
    • Acute bronchitis
    • Bronchial asthma (Most effective in children and uncomplicated conditions.)
  • Eye Disorders
    • Acute conjunctivitis
    • Central Retinitis Myopia (in children)
    • Cataracts (without complications)
  • Mouth Disorders
    • Toothache
    • Post Extraction Pain
    • Gingivitis
    • Acute and Chronic Pharyngitis
  • Gastrointestinal Disorders
    • Spasms of esophagus
    • Hiccough
    • Gastroptosis
    • Acute and Chronic Gastritis
    • Gastric Hyperacidity
    • Chronic Duodenal Ulcer (pain relief)
    • Acute Duodenal Ulcer (without complications)
    • Acute and Chronic Colitis
    • Acute Bacillary Dysentery
    • Constipation
    • Diarrhea
    • Paralytic Ileus
  • Neurologic and Musculoskeletal Disorders
    • Headache and Migraine
    • Trigeminal Neuralgias
    • Facial Palsy (early stage, i.e., within 3-6 months)
    • Pareses Following a Stroke
    • Peripheral Neuropathies
    • Sequelae of Poliomyelitis (early stage, i.e., within 6 months)
    • Meniere's Disease
    • Neurogenic Bladder Dysfunction
    • Nocturnal Enuresis (bedwetting)
    • Intercostal Neuralgia
    • Cervicobrachial Syndrome
    • Frozen Shoulder
    • Tennis Elbow
    • Sciatica
    • Low Back Pain
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
    • Back and Knee Pain
    • Fibromyalgia
    • Chronic Fatigue
    • Sports Injuries and Pains
  • Reproductive & Gynecological Conditions
    • Premenstrual Syndrome
    • Dysmenorrhea (menstrual cramps)
    • Spotting and Excessive Bleeding
    • Amenorrhea (Loss of Menstrual Period)
    • Impotence
    • Infertility
    • Incontinence
    • Prostatis
  • Mental Emotional Problems
    • Stress
    • Anxiety
    • Depression
    • Insomnia

    The World Health Organization Interregional Seminar compiled the above list of illnesses that may benefit from acupuncture treatment. The list is only a partial list and is based on clinical experience, and not necessarily on controlled clinical research. The inclusion of specific diseases are not meant to indicate the extent of acupuncture's efficacy in treatment, since all conditions may vary in severity and response.

    Sources: 1. EBA, Acupuncture: An Overview of Scientific Evidence Mel Hopper Koppelman, DAc, MSc, MSc, 2018
    2. World Health Organization. Viewpoint on Acupuncture. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, 1979.