Part of my job as an acupuncturist is explaining to people how acupuncture works and what it can treat.
I can do the “Bronze age, thousands of years old” bit and then go on to talk about how modern day research is starting to discover about acupuncture’s action on the muscular, circulatory, endocrine and nervous systems of the body. When I get to the part of explaining Chinese medicine, the concept Qi and the balance of energy in the body I always find that part a little tricky.
The important part to remember is that acupuncture works for a whole range of health issues and more and more evidence of it’s effectiveness is being collated by research projects around the world.
Now as for the tricky issue of how to describe how it works to people?… the British Acupuncture Council has produced a snazzy little animated video…… it explains acupuncture so much better than I could!
Hazel Andrews Lic Ac, Member of the British Acupuncture council