People have many concerns about acupuncture. Aside from "does it hurt?" I believe the most common question is "how many treatments will it take?" I really wish there was a set answer for this question and I'm pretty sure acupuncture would be a lot more popular if I could truthfully say "one treatment and you will be cured!" Alas, this is not the case at least 95% of the time. Answering the question "how long will it take" is not a simple as it seems.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which includes acupuncture, is based on the idea that energy and blood flows throughout the body. When our body is in harmony then a state of health exists. When our body is out of balance we begin to exhibit symptoms of distress ranging from the relatively benign, such as neck tension, to the extremely serious, cancer for example. Most of us fall somewhere in between and thankfully closer to the neck tension side of things. Acupuncture is used to correct these imbalances in the body by placing needles in specific places called acupuncture points. Correcting an imbalance involves correcting an underlying cause of a problem and this takes time. Yes, ibuprofen may take away a tension headache in 30 minutes, but it doesn't address the underlying imbalnce(s) that caused it.
You're still waiting to hear how long and I promise I am getting to it. Let's address acute vs. chronic imbalance. In general, it is much easier and faster to correct a condition where there is an excess of energy and blood than to correct a deficiency. And example of excess is acute pain, which is an imbalance of energy and blood becoming stuck in an area obstructing flow of energy and blood. Imagine a painful ankle sprain - the injury occurs and immediately swelling and shortly thereafter pain and bruising - congestion of energy and blood. In relatively few acupuncture treatments the pain and swelling will be greatly reduced. Now compare this to a poorly functioning thyroid gland. In this imbalance the body experiences a state of not enough energy flowing through the body resulting in fatigue and often weight gain. It takes a lot longer to correct a problem such as hypothyroidism - so one would need acupuncture over a long period of time. So excess conditions generally take less time while deficient conditions take longer.
Now it's time to address the goals of the patient. Let's use chronic low back pain as an example. If a patient comes in for acupuncture after he has experienced an acute flare up of this chronic low back pain the question becomes what does the patient hope to accomplish. Does he want to get over this flare up and get on with his life? Or is he willing to make the commitment to corrective care - correcting the underlying imbalance that allowed this flare up to occur? Or is he willing to go beyond even corrective care and engage in preventative maintenance? Most of the time patient's choose the first option, eventhough it's probably the least efficient and cost effective way of dealing with this problem over the long term. Many patients will cease treatment once the pain is gone, only to have to return and start all over again or perhaps decide on a more conventional and potentially costly route. Why does this happen? To be frank, it's because I did not do a good job at educating my patient. Really, the best and most cost effective care an acupuncturist can give her patient is over the continuum of acute, corrective, and preventative care.
So the million dollar answer to the million dollar question is - it depends. It depends on whether the problem is excess or deficient. It also depends on whether the patient tends to be robust or frail. And it depends on the goals of the patient. In my experience and that of many of my colleagues one or two treatments is almost never enough. Somtimes it takes several treatments before a patient experiences a change in their condition (this to be addressed in a future commentary). If the patient has acute pain and that's all they intend on correcting then I'm going to have to ballpark it at about 5 treatments over 10 days to 2 weeks. For more chronic conditions and corrective care it's going to take more time. In most clinical studies showing positive results for acupuncture, the patients are treated 2-3 times per week for 5-6 weeks. That's 10 treatments minimum. In my own clinical experience, those patients who are committed to at least 10 treatments tend to either see longer lasting results or are pleased with their progress and decide to continue treatment toward a preventative maintenance program.
I hope I was able to clear up this question in a somewhat satisfactory manner. The above information is merely meant to serve as a guideline and should not be taken as a rule or a guarantee of results. However, before a treatment plan is devised the acupuncturist should ask and the patient should make clear what her goals are and what level of commitment she is willing to make toward her recovery.
Yours in Health,
Heather Brookman, RN, LAc
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which includes acupuncture, is based on the idea that energy and blood flows throughout the body. When our body is in harmony then a state of health exists. When our body is out of balance we begin to exhibit symptoms of distress ranging from the relatively benign, such as neck tension, to the extremely serious, cancer for example. Most of us fall somewhere in between and thankfully closer to the neck tension side of things. Acupuncture is used to correct these imbalances in the body by placing needles in specific places called acupuncture points. Correcting an imbalance involves correcting an underlying cause of a problem and this takes time. Yes, ibuprofen may take away a tension headache in 30 minutes, but it doesn't address the underlying imbalnce(s) that caused it.
You're still waiting to hear how long and I promise I am getting to it. Let's address acute vs. chronic imbalance. In general, it is much easier and faster to correct a condition where there is an excess of energy and blood than to correct a deficiency. And example of excess is acute pain, which is an imbalance of energy and blood becoming stuck in an area obstructing flow of energy and blood. Imagine a painful ankle sprain - the injury occurs and immediately swelling and shortly thereafter pain and bruising - congestion of energy and blood. In relatively few acupuncture treatments the pain and swelling will be greatly reduced. Now compare this to a poorly functioning thyroid gland. In this imbalance the body experiences a state of not enough energy flowing through the body resulting in fatigue and often weight gain. It takes a lot longer to correct a problem such as hypothyroidism - so one would need acupuncture over a long period of time. So excess conditions generally take less time while deficient conditions take longer.
Now it's time to address the goals of the patient. Let's use chronic low back pain as an example. If a patient comes in for acupuncture after he has experienced an acute flare up of this chronic low back pain the question becomes what does the patient hope to accomplish. Does he want to get over this flare up and get on with his life? Or is he willing to make the commitment to corrective care - correcting the underlying imbalance that allowed this flare up to occur? Or is he willing to go beyond even corrective care and engage in preventative maintenance? Most of the time patient's choose the first option, eventhough it's probably the least efficient and cost effective way of dealing with this problem over the long term. Many patients will cease treatment once the pain is gone, only to have to return and start all over again or perhaps decide on a more conventional and potentially costly route. Why does this happen? To be frank, it's because I did not do a good job at educating my patient. Really, the best and most cost effective care an acupuncturist can give her patient is over the continuum of acute, corrective, and preventative care.
So the million dollar answer to the million dollar question is - it depends. It depends on whether the problem is excess or deficient. It also depends on whether the patient tends to be robust or frail. And it depends on the goals of the patient. In my experience and that of many of my colleagues one or two treatments is almost never enough. Somtimes it takes several treatments before a patient experiences a change in their condition (this to be addressed in a future commentary). If the patient has acute pain and that's all they intend on correcting then I'm going to have to ballpark it at about 5 treatments over 10 days to 2 weeks. For more chronic conditions and corrective care it's going to take more time. In most clinical studies showing positive results for acupuncture, the patients are treated 2-3 times per week for 5-6 weeks. That's 10 treatments minimum. In my own clinical experience, those patients who are committed to at least 10 treatments tend to either see longer lasting results or are pleased with their progress and decide to continue treatment toward a preventative maintenance program.
I hope I was able to clear up this question in a somewhat satisfactory manner. The above information is merely meant to serve as a guideline and should not be taken as a rule or a guarantee of results. However, before a treatment plan is devised the acupuncturist should ask and the patient should make clear what her goals are and what level of commitment she is willing to make toward her recovery.
Yours in Health,
Heather Brookman, RN, LAc
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