Acupuncture and specific illnesses

How acupuncture works
Acupuncture helps to reinstate health and well being and thus, in essence, it does not treat specific illnesses. Using the principles of Chinese medicine, the practitioner makes a holistic diagnostic assessment of the patient. This may involve pulse and tongue diagnosis, visual diagnosis and questions about a patient's health. Once a diagnosis is made the treatment begins - with the practitioner monitoring and checking to see if there are improvements beginning to show. The treatment will be adjusted according to the patient's response and how much treatment a person needs depends on the individual, with age and duration of illness influencing the amount of treatment a person might need. Some researchers believe that acupuncture is really a process of re-education or re-learning - and this is why the treatment needs to be repeatedly administered (see Bensoussan, 1991).

Practice based evidence
At Gateway we will use our Chinese medical skills and develop treatment goals together with you. The results of your treatment will be carefully monitored using validated outcome measures so that we can get a clearer picture of whether acupuncture can be of help - in practice. As we build an evidence base from our clinical practice we will invite our patients to tell others about their treatment - especially if they think it could help others to try it.

The following pages provide some basic information about how we might work with specific conditions for which our patients commonly seek treatment including:
Back and Neck pain
Depression and Anxiety
Irritable Bowel Syndrome

More conditions will be added to this list as our service develops and we will try to include conditions for which patients have come to us for help. If you would like further information about acupuncture and whether it is worth considering please do call Alex or Sylvia to discuss how we would approach the condition. Contact York Natural Health on 01904 788411