Fun Facts You May Not Know About Acupuncture

Chronic pain can make the simplest tasks in life miserable. Here at Mayflower Acupuncture, we take pride in the art of acupuncture and the wonderful benefits it can have on your body. It balances your body’s systems, reduces stress, and helps you recover faster from injury, illness or surgery. It also helps those with chronic pain manage their conditions. However, there is so much more to acupuncture that people do not know! In this blog post, we share some fun facts about acupuncture that we are certain you didn’t know before:

1. When planning a course of treatment, your acupuncturist may feel your pulse and then look at your tongue to gather information about your health. A healthy tongue has a nice pink shade; if it is red or swollen this may indicate an allergy or an infection. Also, a smoother than normal tongue may indicate you’re deficient on nutrients like iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12.
2. A lot of schooling is required to become a licensed acupuncturist! After a rigorous 3 to 4 year graduate program, an aspiring acupuncturist must then complete over 2,000+ clinical internship hours to gain their license and maintain a continued education just to keep it. You can rest assured that Dr. Paine is highly qualified to be treating patients like you!
3. Did you know that your insurance most likely covers acupuncture? A study done in 2004 showed that nearly 50% of Americans who were enrolled in employer health insurance plans were covered for acupuncture treatment! If you aren’t sure about your insurance, just ask us.
4. Today’s acupuncture needles are extremely tiny and don’t hurt! Many people are scared to try acupuncture thinking it will be painful. The needles are about as fine in thickness as two human hairs. However, acupuncture originally began by inserting needles that were made of stone, bamboo and bone. Can you imagine?!
5. Acupuncture may help other conditions. There is medical evidence that it may be an effective treatment for insomnia and digestive issues such as nausea and vomiting even when associated with chemotherapy and surgery. There is also a link to the use of CAM therapy for depression. That is pretty remarkable!

We hope these fun facts have inspired you to give acupuncture a try, if you haven’t experienced it before! If you would like to experience a relaxing, healing experience in a setting much more like a spa than a doctor’s office, give us a call for a risk-free, no obligation consultation! You never know, having an open mind may just result in finding the cure you have been looking for!