Acupuncture

What is it?

Acupuncture is a treatment that involves piercing the skin with extremely fine needles. It is used to relieve symptoms of some physical and psychological conditions and may encourage the body’s ability to heal itself. It has been used in China for over two thousand years, and has increasingly been used in the West since the 1970s.

Over the past thirty years there has been considerable scientific research into acupuncture, and we are now beginning to understand how it works. We can be sure that the effects of acupuncture are not all in the mind. It s increasingly being used alongside conventional medicine.

The distinction between complementary, or alternative, medicine and orthodox medicine is becoming blurred as the benefits of acupuncture become accepted by conventional doctors. Acupuncture is used in the vast majority of NHS pain clinics and is being offered by an ever increasing number of GPs and hospital doctors.