Acupuncture is safe when practiced by a licensed practitioner. The side-effects and adverse reactions are minimal, they may include but are not limited to: occasional bruising and slight bleeding. We are trained extensively to know the areas of caution, needle depth and insertion angles needed to practice acupuncture safely. The risk of infection is very small as we use sterile, one time use needles that are disposed of properly after each use. Acupuncture is natural and non-toxic to the body.

Acupuncture can be utilized in many ways and, in many instances, for problems that a cure or treatment has been difficult to come by. Acupuncture addresses your sypmtoms (the branch), however, the focus is on treating the cause (the root) of the imbalance (the disease). We can work together to bring your body into balance by:

  •taking an in-depth health history

  •asking specific questions regarding the symptoms of your chief complaint

  •treating the root cause of your imbalance

  •offering nutritional & lifestyle advice

A person does not always need a diagnosis from a primary care physician to receive acupuncture treatments. We are however, available and able to work with your primary care physician or specialist to help provide you with the most comprehensive healthcare possible. Stress relief is a positive side-effect of acupuncture, regardless of what you are being treated for. Even if you consider yourself to be healthy and symptom free, acupuncture can still be beneficial to you.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has many things to say about the effectiveness of acupuncture. Below is a list of diseases, symptoms or conditions that the WHO states acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment for.

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Depression
Depressive neurosis follow stroke
Dysentery
Dysmenorrhoea
Epigastric pain: in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm
Facial pain
Headache
High and low blood pressure
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Pain in dentistry & TMJ disorders
Arthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow

Below are diseases, symptoms, or conditions that the WHO states acupuncture has a “therapeutic effect” for, but further proof is needed. This means that you might very well receive relief of symptoms or improvement of overall condition, but that more data is required before definite statements are made.

Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
Acne vulgaris
Alcohol dependence and detoxification
Bell’s palsy
Bronchial asthma
Cancer pain
Cardiac neurosis
Gallstones, chronic, with acute exacerbation
Craniocerebral injury, closed
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
Earache
Bloody Nose, simple
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Female infertility
Facial spasm
Female urethral syndrome
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
Gouty arthritis
Herpes zoster
Hyperlipaemia
Insomnia
Itching
Labour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Low functioning ovaries
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Ménière disease
Neuralgia, post-herpetic
Neurodermatitis
Obesity
Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
Postoperative convalescence
Premenstrual syndrome
Prostatitis, chronic
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Raynaud syndrome, primary
Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Retention of urine, traumatic
Sjögren syndrome
Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Spine pain, acute
Stiff neck
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
Tietze syndrome
Tobacco dependence
Tourette syndrome
Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Urolithiasis
Vascular dementia
Whooping cough (pertussis)