Exploring Some Health Benefits Of Acupuncture

There are many known health benefits of acupuncture.

Originating from China, acupuncture has been used for hundreds of years and is now a common alternative treatment all around the world.

Traditional Chinese medicine states that the acupuncture needles, inserted around the body during treatment, are placed on specific meridian points on our body. These meridians are channels through which vital energies flow. By placing the needles onto these points, blockages in the body are cleared and vital energy is allowed to flow again.

The spots have been found to be on important points on the body – areas where the nerves and muscles connect and acupuncture stimulates these points very effectively. Below are some of the most widely reported health benefits of acupuncture.

Pain relief

One of the best benefits of acupuncture is its ability to relieve many pains, even chronic ones. It is commonly used to help people who suffer back pain, headache, migraine, period pains and even dental pain.

In 2012, in a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, it was found that people who received acupuncture to control chronic back pain reported 15% improvement in their pain level. The study included participants from the UK, Germany and the US and was one of the larger studies conducted to look into acupuncture.

For conditions like arthritis and chronic headaches, acupuncture was also found to be twice as effective as physical exercise or medical drugs.

Nausea relief

Studies have also found that acupuncture can benefit people who suffer from nausea and vomiting. Nausea can often be an unwanted side effect, for example from cancer treatments such as chemotherapy. A review study published in the journal of American Cancer Studies found that people undergoing radiation therapy found help from acupuncture in relieving their feelings of nausea.

Nausea and vomiting can also be experienced after surgery and a study published in Cochrane Library in 2009 found that stimulating a point in the wrist helps as very good nausea relief.

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