Your first visit will include a discussion of your health concerns, a review of your medical history and a physical exam. Then your practitioner will formulate a treatment plan that may involve herbs, nutritional counseling and lifestyle modifications in addition to acupuncture. Including the acupuncture treatment, your first visit may last up to two hours. Subsequent appointments are typically one hour to one and a half hours long.

For most people, the procedure is painless. Some feel a prickle similar to a mosquito bite when the needle is inserted. “Oh. Is that all?” is a common response to the first needle being inserted. Some people feel warmth or heaviness around the points during treatment. Others do not feel anything at all. Many people fall asleep during treatments and all report a deep sense of relaxation.

Very few side effects have been associated with acupuncture treatments using disposable needles. Occasionally patients may develop a small local bruise or feel light-headed for a few moments. As with any type of treatment, you should always tell your practitioner what medications you are taking and describe health conditions you may have and those you have previously experienced. You also should tell your practitioner if you are or could be pregnant. Providing this information will help your practitioner choose the best type of treatment for you.

Acupuncture alleviates many typical pregnancy-related complaints, ranging from nausea to sciatica. During each stage of pregnancy, certain points should be used and others avoided. Following these guidelines ensures safety of both the mother and the baby.

We only use sterile, single-use disposable needles in our clinic. Each needle is removed from its sterile wrapper just before being inserted. Once removed, needles are immediately placed in a medical waste container, which is disposed of according to OSHA regulations.

By all means, yes! All of the acupuncturists at Energy Matters are licensed by the California Acupuncture Board. This means that after completing our required education, each practitioner passed the acupuncture licencing exam for the state of California. In order to maintain our licenses, we each must take at least 50 hours of continuing education classes every two years.

Acupuncture school is a 3-year full time master level program, involving over 3,200 hours of classroom and clinic study. We studied biology, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, 400 acupuncture points, 300 individual herbs, 200 herbal formulas, Chinese medicine theory and eastern nutrition.

Central to Chinese medicine is the concept of life energy, referred to as —qi—, flowing through the body along pathways called meridians, bringing vitality to all the organs and tissues. Injury, stress, nutrition and lifestyle choices can block or deplete energy flows, resulting in physical or mental pain, disease or disharmony. Your practitioner determines how your energy flows are out of balance and then creates an individually tailored treatment plan to restore the healthy flows of energy and assist your body in healing itself.

Although the placebo effect plays a role in all medical treatments, acupuncture seems to work more from the body to the brain as opposed to the mind down. Positive results are seen not only with highly dubious people, but also in studies of the effects of acupuncture on animals, where it is safe to assume the placebo effect does not come into play.

This varies tremendously. In general, a recent injury or acute ailment may respond within one to three treatments. Long-term problems take longer to treat, though improvements can be expected within four to six weeks.

No, Chinese medicine includes a wide range of modalities in addition to acupuncture, all aimed at stimulating and working with the patient’s qi. These include nutritional counseling and herbal remedies, cupping, qigong and tui na (massage).