A UK trial showed patients who received ten acupuncture sessions were far more likely to be pain-free after two years than those who didn’t.
An American study saw 60% of back pain sufferers experience a significant improvement after acupuncture.
The word “acupuncture” means “needle piercing”. It is a traditional Chinese medical treatment using very fine needles, which are inserted into the skin at any of the 800 specially-designated points. It originated from a Dutch physician, William Ten Rhyne, who had been living in Japan during the latter part of the 17th century and it was he who introduced it to Europe.
It works by manipulating the body’s energy flow, or Chi, to help the body to balance and heal itself. Legend has it that acupuncture was developed when it was seen that soldiers who recovered from arrow wounds were sometimes also healed of other diseases from which they were suffering.
I am a true believer in acupuncture and regularly have this for not only my lower back pain but also my neck pain, and have seriously thought about learning the techniques so that I could apply the needles to myself. When my daughter was young she was terrified of needles but after she had an Acupuncture session for pain in her neck she overcame her fear of needles.
There are a number of good sites on this therapy, but a good starter is
Acupuncture UK and an excellent book is
‘The Acupuncture Handbook – How acupuncture works and how it can help you’, by Angela Hicks, which is available from
Amazon and other good book shops.