acupuncture is part of the ancient practice of Traditional Chinese medicine thousands of years ago that involves the insertion of very thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. A key component of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain. Increasingly, it is being used for overall wellness.
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners believe that acupuncture is a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as chi or qi (chee) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.
Although both the philosophic and physiologic basis of acupuncture seems fanciful to Western medical thinking, the results obtained in the treatment of certain disease states cannot be lightly dismissed. Its use in the induction of surgical analgesia may have immediate application for Western Medicine.
What’s the acupuncture Benefits
Acupuncture is a common complementary therapy that can help people manage many different conditions such as:
- used for patients whose bodies do not respond to analgesics.
- relieve pain instead of taking analgesics.
- used to numb people who are allergic to medical anesthesia.
Therefore, it is an important technique and may be necessary for some pathological conditions.
One misconception about acupuncture is that it hurts, but the reality is that acupuncture treatment usually doesn’t cause any kind of pain. because The needles used are very thin and gently inserted.
During the insertion of the needles, the patient may feel a slight tingling, but it is not painful, and that means the treatment is working and the acupuncture point is being activated.
The number of treatments depends on your condition, its severity, and how your body responds.
Some people respond very rapidly while others may need more sessions.
The treatment course can be repeated from 2 to 3 times weekly, and that will be after 2 weeks from the last session. as many as 10 to 15 sessions may be required to achieve a good result.
The acupuncture procedure completing in several steps:
- Examine the patient and assess his condition.
- Ask the patient to lie on his back, stomach, or side, depending on the area where the needles are to be inserted.
- make sure that each needle is sterile and used only once for the patient’s safety.
- Define the appropriate points to insert needles .
- Sometimes heated or electrically stimulated needles after being inserted into the skin.
Typically, session may go for 20 to 30 minutes depending on your treatment.
Acupuncture is used mainly to relieve discomfort associated with a variety of diseases and conditions, including:
- Gynecological diseases
Acupuncture helps treat many gynecological diseases such as (menstrual and reproductive disorders, increases pregnancy chance, and treats bloating breast pain, and fluid retention.
- Relieve Menstrual disorders for women
Acupuncture can be used to help regulate the menstrual cycle, reduce stress, improve blood flow in the pelvic area, and thicken the endometrium to improve the menstrual cycle.
- Migraines:
Acupuncture helps relieve migraine pain, as it is used in conjunction with other long-term treatments
- Respiratory System Including::
(Acute bronchitis, Bronchial asthma, cough, pulmonary hemorrhage, pneumonia, emphysema).
- muscle pain
Acupuncture helps relieve pain caused by muscle spasms and stiffness in the soft tissues of the body
- Gastrointestinal disorders Including:
(Spasms of the esophagus, Acute, chronic gastritis, Gastric hyperacidity, Acute, chronic colitis, Constipation, Diarrhea).
- Back pain:
Acupuncture can be a successful go-to therapy for chronic back pain.
- psychological illness
Acupuncture works to relieve psychological diseases such as (depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and smoking addiction)
- Effects of chemotherapy
Acupuncture can handle very well the chemotherapy side effects such as (nausea, vomiting, stress, and fever).
Cupping is classified within alternative therapies, which are generally performed by placing cups on selected points of the skin depending on the disease to be treated, and creating pressure less than atmospheric pressure either through heat or suction. The aim of cupping is to prevent diseases and treat some of them.
What are the types of Cupping?
Dry cupping: The dry cupping method is mainly based on skin suction. Where air cups are installed on certain points of the body, and these cups are emptied of air by a hand connected to the cup, and the cup is left in this state for about 10 minutes, as this discharge of air results in contraction of the skin and its entry into the cup. This pressure attracts the nerves and collects blood in the cup. this point.
Bloody cupping or wet cupping: The wet cupping method includes the process of suctioning the skin in addition to withdrawing amounts of blood. Its idea is based on causing wounds in certain areas of the body where the level of blood flow decreases and the bad blood is deposited, then air cups are placed on the wound site and the bad blood comes out And sediments in the cup, and often lumpy blood.
In most cases, the patient determines the type of cupping that he would like to undergo, taking the opinion of the therapist for the most correct method.
When do I resort to cupping?
The following pathological conditions are considered the most important cases that can be treated by cupping:
- Musculoskeletal pain.
- Neurological diseases.
- respiratory system diseases.
- Some cardiovascular diseases.
- Viral infections.
- bacterial infections
- Autoimmune diseases
- Secondary amenorrhea.
- diabetes.
- Rehabilitation of stroke patients.
- some skin diseases.
What are the benefits of cupping?
- Reduce inflammation.
- Promote blood circulation, excrete toxins and wastes out of the body, remove harmful substances from the capillaries of the skin and from the intercellular fluid.
- Promote the repair of endothelial cells in capillaries and accelerate angiogenesis in the cupping area.
- Reducing harmful cholesterol levels in men and thus may have an effective role in fighting atherosclerosis
- Cardiovascular disease. It is also known that cupping has a major role in reducing the level of total cholesterol and the ratio of harmful to beneficial cholesterol.
- Relieve adhesions and regenerate connective tissue.
- It also stimulates the peripheral nervous system.
- Control of high blood pressure.
- Regulate the immune system.
- Reducing blood sugar level in diabetic patients.
When is cupping prohibited?
- Areas of veins and arteries, nerves, lymph nodes, varicose veins, dermatitis, skin lesion, body orifices, or eyes.
- Open wounds, broken bones, or areas of deep vein thrombosis.
- cancer patients.
- People with kidney and liver diseases.
- Heart patients and those who wear pacemakers.
- People with blood thinners.
- People with severe infections.
- People who use anticoagulant medications.
- Women in pregnancy and postpartum period.
- People suffering from anemia.
- Children under the age of four, and a doctor should be consulted before performing cupping for those older. Cupping sessions for children are characterized by their short duration.
Massage is known to help relax and relieve stress. It can also reduce muscle pain and improve sleep and mood problems.
What symptoms does therapeutic massage treat?
Therapeutic massage is a type of massage that improves the health of the body in general, and contributes to relieving the pain of some health conditions.
It is used to relieve the pain of many chronic health problems or acute health problems, including:
- Repetitive stress injuries due to standing still for long periods.
- Various headaches, such as:
- sister.
- Cluster headache.
- Tension headache.
- sinus headache
- lower back pain.
- frozen shoulder
- Local injuries of the neck.
- Diseases of the muscles and the temporomandibular joint.
- Sprains and strains in the muscles.
- It is also used as a type of treatment or adjunctive care for cancer patients to reduce their level of anxiety and pain.
What are the contraindications to resorting to therapeutic massage?
There are some cases in which it is preferable not to use therapeutic massage:
- Patients with heart disease.
- Patients with infectious diseases.
- Phlebitis patients.
- Infection with some skin diseases, such as: skin infections