Jeff Rippey

Usually, yes, acupuncture can be a good treatment choice for digestive issues and stomach problems. This is one place where it can be very handy to have a western diagnosis in place first as there are some issues that might require a more invasive treatment.

After ruling out more serious problems, it comes down to what kind of stomach/digestive issue you're experiencing and how good your provider is at dealing what that particular issue.

Unfortunately, there isn't a one-size-fits-all generic point for dealing with stomach aches. Stomach issues can occur for a variety of reasons, each of which might have a different set of treatment points.

If this is something long standing, I'd suggest starting with your primary care physician first. There are a few serious digestive issues which should be ruled out before proceeding with some other type of treatment.

If your MD can't discover a reason for your stomach issue or the reason is relatively benign, I'd suggest finding a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist in your area. You can start with the "Find a Practitioner" look up at NCCAOM.org.

Yes, acupuncture can be a very effective treatment in the management of arthritis pain affecting any joint.

Please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you're not in CA, you can start with the "Find a Practitioner" look up at NCCAOM.org.

Generally, yes, acupuncture can be an effective treatment for arthritis - particularly from the perspective of pain management. If this is rheumatoid arthritis and the patient is already experiencing joint deformation, it's unlikely acupuncture is going to undo the damage already done, but it can still help to manage pain/discomfort.

Please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you're not in CA, you can use the "Find a Practitioner" look up at NCCAOM.org to find local practitioners.

Yes, acupuncture is typically effective for hip bursitis. I have several patients with this particular issue and I usually get very good results for them.

Please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you're not in CA, you can use the "Find a Practitioner" look up at NCCAOM.org to get a list of local practitioners.

Whether acupuncture can help and how much acupuncture can help will depend a lot on how severe your panic attacks are.

For severe and/or frequent attacks, it's a good idea to integrate acupuncture with more conventional prescription medications.

For mild or infrequent attacks, acupuncture can often be a stand-alone treatment.

The "how many treatments" question is one I get a lot. It's very difficult to answer for several reasons:

1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with knee pain but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing the issue for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.

2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.

3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record is with issues like joint pain it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.

4. Sometimes with joint issues, we're looking at a structural problem. Many times, if a structural issue is the cause of the pain, surgery is the best fix; making it important to know why, from a conventional perspective, you're experiencing knee pain. In these cases acupuncture can be used successfully to help manage pre and post-op pain, but acupuncture isn't an effective long-term fix.

I work mainly in pain management and my sweet spot for most pain issues tends to be around 4 or 5 treatments. if you're seeing someone who doesn't work much with pain (or isn't a board certified acupuncturist), you could be looking at more like 8-10 treatments.

The "how many treatments" question is one I get a lot. It's very difficult to answer for several reasons:

1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with leg pain but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing the issue for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.

2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.

3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record is with issues like pain it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.

I work mainly in pain management and my sweet spot for most pain issues tends to be around 4 or 5 treatments. if you're seeing someone who doesn't work much with pain (or isn't a board certified acupuncturist), you could be looking at more like 8-10 treatments.

The "how many treatments" question is one I get a lot. It's very difficult to answer for several reasons:

1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with insomnia but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing the issue for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.

2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.

3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record is with issues like insomnia it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.

My experience treating insomnia is that it either responds very quickly – like in 1-3 treatments – or not at all. Your experience may differ depending on your provider.

Yes, acupuncture can help with seasonal allergy. I have quite a few patients who see me for allergy related issues and they typically get excellent results.

Yes, acupuncture has an excellent track record in treating insomnia. Please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you aren't in CA, you can use the "Find a Practitioner" lookup at NCCAOM.org

Yes, acupuncture can help with asthma. How much acupuncture can help is going to depend on how severe a case we're talking about. For issues like this, it's important to make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you aren't in CA, you can use the "Find a Practitioner" lookup at NCCAOM.org.

Depth of needle insertion is highly variable and can depend on:

1. The style of acupuncture your provider practices. Some systems are more likely to use shallow insertion, some are more likely to use deeper insertion.

2. The location being needled. Some acupuncture locations will support deeper insertion and some will not.

3. The condition being treated. Some conditions are best treated with deeper needle insertion at location that allows for such. Some conditions are better addressed with shallow insertion regardless of location.

4. Patient's body build. Some patients have a thicker build which requires longer needles and deeper insertion. Some patients have a thinner build which requires shorter needles and shallower insertion.

Yes, acupuncture can be done without needles. There are acupressure techniques which can be done either with fingers or a variety of tools. There are also a variety of seeds and press pellets which can be used in the ears and on body points to provide stimulation to address a health concern.

That being said, in my experience, needles give the quickest and longest lasting result.

This is a tricky question to answer because different patients can have different experiences while receiving an acupuncture treatment. In addition, there are some sensations which are desirable but which can be easily mis-interpreted by someone who has never had acupuncture previously.

Some patients may experience a short lived pinching sensation on initial insertion of the needle. This should fade very quickly and any needle that remains sharp or stabbing after a second or two should be removed or repositioned.

Sensations that can occur and are considered desirable are: a short lived pins and needles type sensation that propagates up or down from the needle site, a dull ache around the needle, a dull throbbing around the needle, or a mild distending sensation around the needle. First time patients are often confused by these sensations.

Generally, yes. I say "generally" because I don't know if you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist or some other provider who is offering "acupuncture" under the scope of some other licensing (like a chiropractor or physical therapist).

Certified and licensed acupuncturists are well trained in anatomy and physiology, particularly as those two things relate to acupuncture points. Any other provider's level of training is going to be a question mark - some will be quite knowledgable and some will not, and patients often don't have a reliable way of discriminating.

There is another variable in play - not all acupuncturists will treat a neck issue by placing needles in your neck. I typically get very good results with neck issues by putting needles in the ankles. It's complicated to explain, but it does work well. If you're nervous about having needles placed in your neck, you can call around and try to find someone who practices "distal" or "distant" acupuncture.

If you need help locating a provider, assuming you're not in CA, you can start at the "Find a Practitioner" link at NCCAOM.org.

Acupuncture can be very effective for neck spasm. The number of treatments you may require is going to depend on the severity of the spasm and how long it has been going on.

For the safest, quickest results, please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist. If you're not in CA, you can use the "Find a Practitioner" link at NCCAOM.org to get started.

The "how many treatments" question is one I get a lot. It's very difficult to answer for several reasons:

1. The Chinese diagnostic system takes in to account individual factors in presentation. Three people could walk in to my clinic with "neck pain/neck spasm" but, from the perspective of Chinese medicine, all three could be experiencing the issue for different reasons. Those different root causes will have different treatments. Some root causes respond faster to treatment than others and some people respond faster to treatment than others.

2. There are a variety of different systems of acupuncture. Some of these systems are better for dealing with certain kinds of issues relative to other systems. Without knowing what kind of acupuncture your provider practices, it's hard to know whether or not there's a good fit between that system of acupuncture and your issue.

3. As in conventional medicine, some practitioners are just better with certain kinds of issues relative to other practitioners. There's an add-on here specific to acupuncture: depending on where you're located, there could be providers who offer "acupuncture" without having attended school for Chinese medicine or actually being licensed or board certified as an acupuncturist. Without knowing whether or not you're seeing a board certified and state licensed acupuncturist and what that person's track record with pain or musculoskeletal conditions it is, again, difficult to predict what a course of therapy might look like.

Let's make a few assumptions and try to give some general guidance. Assuming your neck pain/spasm isn't severe in terms of either frequency or pain levels (i.e. you're typically under 5-6/10 on a pain scale and there are days or times during the day where you experience no pain) and assuming you're seeing a board certified, state licensed acupuncturist (as opposed to a chiropractor or physical therapist) and assuming that person works primarily with pain conditions, you may be looking at something like 5 or 6 treatments spaced one week apart to bring the issue, more or less, under control. After that you might be looking at a few treatments with a greater spacing (every other week or every third week) and then you're probably looking at either issue resolution or maintenance.

Maintenance is likewise variable. On the low end you could be receiving one treatment every 4-6 weeks. On the high end you could be looking at one treatment per year.

If we're talking about muscle spasm at the time of treatment, yes, it's possible a needle could do that. Your provider should be asking for feedback with each needle inserted and repositioning or removing needles that are causing a lot of discomfort.

If we're talking about a spasm after treatment - either the same day or days later - maybe.

if muscle spasm is something you experience routinely, you should be speaking to your provider to see if there's something about treatment that needs to be changed. If it's a one-off experience, I'd still talk to your provider and make sure they're aware what's happening.

Depth of needle insertion is highly variable and depends on:

1. The system of acupuncture your provider practices. Some systems routinely use deeper insertion, some routinely use shallower insertion.

2. The location being needled. Board certified and state licensed acupuncturists are very well trained in the anatomy around acupuncture points. Some places cannot be needled deeply due to anatomic structures or limitations.

3. The patients' body type. Thin skinny people have less space between the surface of the skin, the areas we want to reach with an acupuncture needle, and areas we don't want to reach with acupuncture needles. Larger individuals have more space between those structures and sometimes require longer needles and deeper insertion.

4. The condition being treated. In the Chinese medical model, different types of disease require different depths of needle insertion.

So, depending on the system your provider practices, what your chief complaint is, your body type, and where, exactly, the needles are placed, you could be looking at anything from a needle just barely under the skin, to around an inch