As a holistic system , acupuncture can help in many ways you may not suspect. It cares first and foremost about whom is the person suffering as opposed to what she suffers from –as allopathic medicine does. It is said to treat body, mind and spirit . The meaning of these statements is discussed below.

The World Health Organisation ascertained through clinical evidence that the following conditions are helped with acupuncture:

Backache

Headache

Migraine

Stress

Depression

Asthma

Insomnia

Arthritis

Irregular and/or painful periods

High blood pressure

Infertility

This list should not be seen as exhaustive. Traditional acupuncture helps all conditions because it treats people and not only their symptoms.

Yes, acupuncture can treat any of the conditions listed above but it can also help you to manage pregnancy or to cope better with any type of chronic disease such as diabetes , gastritis , ulcers , sinusitis , skin problems , psychosis , neurological disorders , etc . It can help to recover better and quicker from serious injuries , from surgical interventions , from accidents , from emotional upsets . It can help you through times of loss, grief or separation but it can also help you go smoothly through demanding times such as moving house , organising a wedding , taking exams , or welcoming major changes in life as it helps greatly to eliminate toxins, stress and trauma .

Below are some thoughts that may help you to conduct your own reflection.

No one can deny the huge benefit that modern medicine has brought to the world with its technology and chemical arsenal. It would be foolish – if not criminal – to lead anyone to believe that alternative medicines can solve all health related issues. Conversely, is it really wise to think that allopathic medicine should always be preferred on the ground that it has the backing of scientific studies (usually funded by powerful pharmaceutical lobbies)?

Nevertheless, nowadays people are disempowered of their capacity of taking charge of their own health and of their ability to reflect on the nature of suffering and healing and revert to taking pills for anything wrong.

In many countries this drug dependency has dire consequences. The economy is crippled –endangering access to free care, and people become more resistant to drugs and less to disease, as the immune system gets depressed and confused by excess of chemical stimulations.

Good sense would suggest only consuming drugs in very serious instances, but fed by cultural and marketing conditioning, bad habits die hard.

As a result, many people whom spent years suppressing their symptoms chemically suffer from unexplained ailments, or 'referred symptoms' for which Western medicine has no names and therefore no answers.

Many, also, have resigned themselves to suffer almost permanently from mildly to severely debilitating discomforts such as headaches, stomach pains, PMT, etc., believing it just has to be part of their life, since no drug could help them, or since their side-effects were worse than the motive for taking them. Disillusioned by medicine, they become ‘someone who has a bad stomach' or ‘someone who always has headaches'. They accept this poor definition of themselves and force it onto their family, friends and colleagues. They forgot that treatments and doctors are only here to help us call upon our inner resources to heal ourselves. Indeed, healing comes from inside, not from outside. Nature has always the last word. That is why acupuncture gives nature utmost primacy in its approach of illness and works exclusively through its powers.