Acupuncture is the traditional form of Chinese medicine which involves basically inserting needles into the skin at specific points, in an attempt to combat pain and disease. Although this form of medicine has been in existence for centuries, it has only recently begun to attract interest from practitioners in the San Francisco. Chinese Medicine in short is “a whole medical system that originated in China. It is based on the concept that disease results from disruption in the flow of qi and imbalance in the forces of yin and yang. Practices such as herbs, meditation, massage, and acupuncture seek to aid healing by restoring the yin-yang balance and the flow of qi.” If you want a more complete introduction to acupuncture

Many studies have now been carried out into the practice, without any definite conclusions being drawn.  But, a few studies like the one done by M. Fink, E. Wolkenstein ¹ ,  M. Karst ² and  A. Gehrke, titled “Acupuncture in chronic epicondylitis: a randomized controlled trial” shows promising signs of acupuncture being effective.

Use of Acupuncture to Treat Obesity, here is Professor Han Jisheng from UCLA explaining his research:

The obvious questions of “Is Acupuncture really effective?” and “Does Acupuncture Actually Work?” are impossible to answer with a simple yes or no. Even after repeated studies have been carried out, there is still no answer as to whether the improvements in health which were reported were due to the treatment itself, or the placebo effect. Certainly, there has been nothing reported which was so spectacular that it convinced the doubters of the efficacy of the technique. The official stance is that the technique could be effective in treating pain and neurological conditions.

Besides the many studies, we have the word of many of San Franciscans that have experienced firsthand the effectiveness of Acupuncture in the many clinics and places around San Francisco. We are going to use a top rated place in Yelp in San Francisco for Acupuncture treatment, “San Francisco Community Acupuncture.”

Muriel had a positive experience with Acupuncture at the San Francisco Community Acupuncture :

“The person who worked on me was Daniel, and I decided to schedule my appointments with him.  Daniel is great, I really feel that the acupuncture is working for me, he listens with compassion and interest, and if I ask a question about acupuncture in general or part of my complaints we are working on, what part of the herbs or tea pills are for what, he always explains everything to me, and I think that helps a person be a better patient, and to know what types of things are important to mention in the ‘intake’ part of the treatment.  For instance you may be there to work on a specific health complaint but your emotional state is also important because of the whole “mind-body” connection.  “(Yelp Review)

On the other hand, there are a few complaints from frequent goers to different places but they are mostly because of the location and how the staff behaved.  My recommendation is to find a good deal in Groupon and give it a try.

In many countries acupuncture is not a regulated practice, meaning that there are no official bodies to oversee the practice of the technique and make sure that everything is done properly. There are no registers of licensed practitioners, which would make potential patients feel more at ease visiting an acupuncturist. There is, of course, some protection from the law in the fact that all needles need to be either new or sterilized, but even so it is virtually impossible to police this law unless something actually happens to draw attention to a practitioner.

Acupuncture has a long history in China, and is now being brought to San Francisco by those on a quest to find alternatives to the often invasive and dangerous medical systems of conventional medicine. If you do decide to use this form of treatment for your condition, be aware that you will be something of a guinea pig, and that science has not yet fully come to terms with the potentials of this treatment system, which too many scientists is new and revolutionary. More research is needed, as it is with so many of the techniques of Chinese medicine, and this research promises to tell us so much in terms of its potentiality.

The main hazards from this system of medicine come from the fact that it needs to be invasive to a degree. While there are no large incisions cut into the skin as there in conventional medicine, there is still an incision of sorts made by the needle. Any qualified acupuncturist will make sure that the needles are in the best condition possible; in fact it is best if they are brand new. They can be sterilized, but anything less than this will not be legal. The main difficulty that acupuncturists run into is with piercing the skin at the wrong point. There have been cases of nerves being damaged, sometimes irretrievably, by the acupuncture needles, even though the practitioner had been careful. In San Francisco you can find many qualified acupuncturist we will keep adding to the site a list of qualified acupuncturist that practice safe and are knowledgeable of what they are doing.

One of the main questions people ask, after “Does Acupuncture Work?” is “Is there any alternative which gives the same potential for healing, without the risks involved in having needles put into my skin?” The answer, of course, is that there are so many more Chinese medical techniques which are only just starting to be investigated in the Western world. Some of these are similar to those an acupuncturist would use, while others are involved with diet and exercise. The whole of Chinese medicine needs to be studied thoroughly in the light of Western discoveries, because there is much to be learned.

There are other techniques which are substantially similar to acupuncture, such as acupressure which seeks to use the same meridians of the body in a safer way. As the skin is never broken, this is a non-invasive treatment and is therefore inherently safer. Not only does this technique avoid the risk of infection from needles, it also avoids the possibility of nerve damage from pierced skin. How acupressure varies in terms of efficacy remains unknown, as more trials are needed into both this technique and acupuncture.