Jeff Rippey

Honestly, hit and miss. Ringing ears (tinnitus) is something several of my patients complain about. I've tried a variety of different approaches to this particular issue and none of them has given me results that I would consider spectacular.

How long any given treatment might last has a lot of variables - how severe is the pain, how good is the provider, what kind of response does the patient have to acupuncture, how far into the treatment plan are we? Right now, I don't have the answers to any of these questions, so it's hard to say how long a single sessions' results might last.

Here are some generalities:

1. About 5% of the population won't respond to acupuncture at all. Usually the first 3-4 treatments are about A) treating the patient and B) making sure they're not in that 5% group.

2. I specialize in pain management. It's unusual for my patients not to experience some level of pain relief on a first treatment. Other providers who are not well trained in acupuncture/Chinese medicine or who don't specialize in pain may get differing results.

3. Acupuncture is rarely a one-and-done type of treatment. Patients need to be prepared to attend at least 3-5 sessions before they decide whether or not acupuncture is working. A full course of therapy might be something like 10-12 treatments. Some people go longer, some experience resolution more quickly.

4. Acupuncture treatments are cumulative - the treatment effect is improved and extended with each subsequent visit.

I usually tell prospective patients that we may get some pain relief on the first treatment and that relief might last 24-48 hours.

A lot is going to depend on how severe the pain is, how long it has been going on, and what, specifically, is causing the pain. Without knowing those things, it's hard to say whether or not resolution is a realistic expectation.

Generally speaking, acupuncture is a very good choice for pain management. Inside that, there are two end-points - either we eliminate the pain and it doesn't return or we reduce the pain to some manageable level where it can be maintained with sporadic treatment.

With the information I have, I can't predict what you should expect.

Much will depend on the severity of the allergy. Acupuncture can often help with mild to moderate food allergies. More severe, anaphylactic type, reactions are a lot more difficult to work with.

For bronchitis you're going to want to at least see a primary care physician and, possibly, get on a course of antibiotics. Acupuncture may be able to help with any lingering symptoms like cough or congestion, but I wouldn't use it stand alone in this case.

I'm not aware of any pressure points/acupuncture points that would have any effect on snoring. There are lots of reasons why you might be snoring - some of those may be treatable via Chinese medicine and some of them may not.

For many, snoring can be related to weight. Losing weight will often improve the situation. Acupuncture/Chinese medicine can be some help in this regard, but they're not going to overcome poor food choices or poor eating habits.

Much will depend on what, exactly, you're looking for from treatment. Acupuncture can help with fluid issues (ascites or fluid accumulation in the abdomen is a common problem in cirrhosis). Acupuncture can sometimes help with liver enzymes or pancreas/spleen issues that result from liver cirrhosis. Is acupuncture going to reverse the cirrhosis? Unlikely.

This is a case where you're going to want to combine care - a good L.Ac. can supplement your primary care provider.

We have several studies showing acupuncture exerting a regulatory effect on blood sugar and insulin levels. In my experience, that effect can easily be undone by poor food choices or poor eating habits. In other words - acupuncture rarely overcomes dietary issues all by itself, you need to change your diet/eating habits if you plan to get a handle on type 2 diabetes.

I do quite a bit of work with allergy patients, so yes, acupuncture can be an excellent treatment for this issue. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, acupuncture can be an excellent choice for pain management including elbow pain. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, acupuncture is an excellent choice for pain management including ankle pain. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, I help people manage neck and shoulder pain all the time. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed as an acupuncturist in your state.

Why not both? A lot is going to depend on what, exactly, is wrong with your neck. My experience with pain patients and massage has been that acupuncture provides longer lasting pain relief.

Acupuncture has been shown to help manage cravings, blood sugar, and insulin levels. That being said, acupuncture isn't going to overcome poor food choices. Patients hate to hear this, but most weight loss happens in the kitchen. My suggestion would be to couple acupuncture with a dietician and, possibly, a therapist.

The word 'cure' takes on a very specific meaning in a medical context. No treatment can claim to 'cure' any condition unless the FDA says it can. Since the FDA doesn't evaluate acupuncture, we can make no claims around 'curing' anything.

Let's shift the language a little bit: can acupuncture help improve food allergies?

The answer is going to depend greatly on how severe a food allergy we're talking about in this case. Since you didn't indicate severity, I have no way of knowing whether or not acupuncture might help.

For a mild allergy, it's possible that a combination of minimizing the food item and using acupuncture to down regulate the immune system might ultimately bring you to a place where the food item irritates your system less than it does now.

If we're talking about an anaphylactic type reaction where your life is endangered by the food item, then acupuncture is going to be of less benefit.

Impossible to give an accurate answer to this question. There are a lot of variables that go in to answering 'how long' or 'how many' and I don't have all the pieces to that puzzle.

I specialize in pain management and here's what I tell prospective patients: hopefully we get reduction in pain on the first treatment, but you need to be prepared to attend at least 3-4 treatments before we decide whether or not acupuncture is working. A full course of treatment might be 10-12 - some people go longer and some people go shorter. After that, especially with chronic pain, you're probably looking at some level of maintenance. On the more frequent side that could be 1 treatment every 4-6 weeks, on the less frequent side that could be 2 treatments per year.

The "how long" question is one I see a lot. The problem is there are a lot of variables that go in to formulating a reasonable answer and I don't have all the pieces to that puzzle. Here's my best answer:

Acupuncture is rarely a one-and-done type of therapy. Generally speaking, patients are looking at a recurring series of treatments. I specialize in pain management, and I tell new patients that it might be 3-4 treatments before the pain starts to go down. It might be 10-12 treatments before the pain comes fully under control. The pain may increase a little bit before it goes down. Sometimes the pain may move around before it goes down. In other words the line from A to B is often not a smooth curve of ever decreasing pain, and patients need to be prepared for that potential experience.

The other thing that both providers and prospective patients should keep in mind is: there is about 5% of the population who won't respond to acupuncture. We don't know why this is and we have no way to predict in advance whether or not any given individual is in that 5% group. If patients aren't seeing any changes by treatment 4 or 5, it's a strong possibility they're in that 5%. At that point, continuing acupuncture is mostly a waste of time and money.

"Liver problems" covers a lot of ground. I'd need a lot more information before I could tell you whether or not acupuncture is a good treatment choice, much less whether or not you could expect some sort of resolution to your issue.

Here's my suggestion: go out to NCCAOM.org and use their 'Find a Practitioner' lookup. Get a list of board certified providers local to you, then call around and see if any of them offers a free consult. Bring any lab results or imaging with you to the consult, let the provider look over where you are and ask questions, and see whether or not they think acupuncture or Chinese medicine will be helpful in your case.

It is extremely difficult to predict how long it might take acupuncture to work for any health issue. There are a lot of variables to the 'how long' question, and many of them are impossible to know up front. Hair grows very slowly, so I suspect you'd be looking at a month or two at least before you could even tell a difference.

Acupuncture is an excellent choice for most pain management, including knee osteoarthritis. For the best results, please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed in your state to practice acupuncture.