I understand that this is a real concern for those on blood thinners and through my years of practice, I have treated a lot of patients on blood thinners and they did fine with their acupuncture treatments.
So can you get acupuncture if you are on a blood thinner? Yes, unless your doctor has advised otherwise. Acupuncture needles are so thin that if they happen hit a small capillary or get a drop or two of blood, the hole closes quickly behind the removal of the needle. As I am removing needles, I always have a cotton ball in one hand so if I see a little drop of blood, I quickly apply firm pressure and it will stop within a few seconds. Easy peasy! Feel free to check out this short little article here too. How long do the needles stay in?
There is no hard rule when it comes to how long needles stay in. This varies from person to person. For our smaller folk (children & animals) and older folk, the needles are retained for a shorter amount of time- maybe 10-15 minutes. For everyone else, I usually leave the needles in for 25-30 minutes. There are always exceptions and sometimes people are really sensitive and don’t like to have the needles in as long. That’s okay too. Can needles be left in too long? Yes, I believe they can. If a patient tells me that after the treatment, they felt great, but about 3 hours later, they were wiped out or extremely tired the next day, then that lets me know that the needles were left in too long. Basically, a lot of energy was drained out. We don’t want that. I want to fill you up with energy, not the other way around. I get this question a lot. Tons. Also this question:
“Why don’t you needle where it hurts?” Sometimes I do, most of the time I don’t. Why? In my experience, placing acupuncture needles into areas that hurt can be difficult and uncomfortable for people (due to swelling or tight muscles in that area or possibly there is a cast covering the injured area). Let me quickly explain that there are two common types of acupuncture: 1. Local needling- needling right into the area that hurts or is injured 2. Distal needling- needling into a different part of the body away from the area that hurts. For example, if you have shoulder pain, I may needle your lower leg, not your shoulder. I do mostly distal needling in my practice. I find it gets quick response and the acupuncture points are easy to access (the patient doesn’t have to get undressed and can sit comfortably in a chair if they want). Acupuncture and Chinese medicine have a holistic view of the human body-everything is connected. I can needle your ankle for hip pain and it will still help. I also use a lot of homologous images and structures when choosing where to place an acupuncture needle. Example: I can choose acupuncture points on your feet to treat hand problems and vice versa because your hands and feet look similar. I can use points around your knee to treat elbow pain because both your elbow and knee are hinge joints. I have a longtime patient who admitted to me that she was afraid to come and see me initially for her chronic neck pain because her neck hurt so bad and the thought of me putting acupuncture needles into her neck was too much for her. Luckily she called me first and when I explained to her that I don’t do that for neck pain and that I would needle down around her ankle, she was so relieved she booked her first appointment. And now you understand why I may not put a needle right into the area that hurts and it will still work because of how everything in your body is connected. Acupuncture works in a series of treatments. You can’t have your appointments too close together, but you can have them too far apart. Acupuncture works cumulatively. Each treatment will build on the one before. You may see slow progress at first, then all of a sudden you will start feeling better and stay better for longer periods of time.
To see the fastest results, I recommend two times a week for the first two weeks, and as long as your symptoms are improved and stay at that level between appointments, then we’ll back off to once a week. When people tell me they tried acupuncture and it didn’t work, I feel bad. Because acupuncture is amazing and it does work. I then ask them how many treatments did you have? One or two treatments isn’t going to cut it. If you come for a treatment but before your next treatment a week later, your symptoms start to slowly creep back in, then we’ll be back to square one. You don’t want a sea-saw effect of your symptoms improving, then getting worse, then improving, then getting worse. I want steady improvement. Once your symptoms are basically gone, then many of my patients do come in once a month for a “tune up”. I strongly recommend this. Why? Acupuncture is great preventative medicine. You don’t want to let something get out of hand-nip it in the bud. And besides, who doesn’t want more energy and less stress? Acupuncture is terrific at helping you feel more relaxed and energized. |