Auricular (ear) acupuncture is very effective because your ear is a microsystem of the human body. A microsystem is where you superimposing an image of the whole body onto a smaller part of the body. There are more than 70 acupuncture points found on the ear. These acupuncture points correspond to all the major parts of the body. If you have knee pain, there is a place on the ear just to treat your knee. If you have digestive problems, there is a Stomach point I could choose on your ear. So how do you map the human body on an ear? Imagine if I flipped you upside down and shrunk you down to the size of an ear (so your earlobe is now your head). This is how we image the human body on the ear. That little ridge inside your ear that sticks out? That is where we image the spine in auricular acupuncture, so if you’ve had back surgery there is usually a small line that is visible or dented in slightly along that ridge that corresponds to where you had surgery. This blows my mind every time I see it. Pretty cool. I do this in case you have an itch or need to adjust a little. It’s difficult to relax during an acupuncture treatment if you feel like you can’t move at all. I used to be the worst about this. Whenever I would get an acupuncture treatment, I would not move a muscle once the needles were in place. Then I realized I could ask the acupuncturist to not place needles in one arm. This helped ease my anxiety tremendously.
Remember, during an acupuncture treatment, tell your acupuncturist if something doesn’t feel right or you’re not comfortable. We want you to get the most out of your treatments and for you to feel safe and relaxed is important to us. Yes! Even though I won’t be able to put needles into the injured area if there is a cast, I can place needles into the “healthy” arm and it will still help the broken arm heal faster. This is because almost all acupuncture channels run bilaterally on your body. If an acupuncture channel goes down one arm, it will also go down the other arm.
I have had many patients ask me why I’m putting a needle into their left arm or leg when it is the right arm or leg that hurts. With acupuncture, we often needle the opposite side of body, not always where it hurts or is injured. This technique still works because the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa. There’s a neat little article about that here. I have a bad back and it hurts to lie down. Do I have to lie down on a table for treatments?6/13/2016
No, you don’t always have to lie down for an acupuncture treatment. I have a lot of patients who prefer to sit in a chair.
I am flexible. If you prefer to lie down, lie down, if you prefer to sit up, sit up. What is most important is that you are in a comfortable position for about 30 minutes. Because of the different style of acupuncture that I do, most of the acupuncture points I choose are located are your arms and legs (usually from the elbow down and the knee down), so it is not necessary for you to lie flat on your back for treatment (though, some like to lie down because they get so relaxed that they fall asleep during their treatment). Again, your comfort is what’s important. |