by Philp Babitsky

Created on: May 26, 2009

Acupuncture is a growing alternative form of medicine all over the world. This is partly due to the mysticism and unproven claims that accupuncture can treat almost anything. This often clouds the judgment of people, who in fact need to turn to orthodox medicine for beneficial health results. With big promises, people often forget, that there are certain risks invloved in accupuncture, some of which have a high reoccurance rate. Therefore, it is advisable to seek opinions of others and ask the practitioners for advice as to what may happen and what are the best preventive measures.

Needles used in accupuncture need to penetrate the skin in order to reach the certain levels of qi. This is aninvasive procedure and therefore, injuries from stricken nerves, blood vessels and other things do happen. These things can be avoided if the practitioner has vast experience and exact knowledge of specific points, the location of nerve bunches and more. The risk of infection through needles is quite rare but still exists due to some practitioners breaking the law by either reusing or forgetting to steralise all needles. However, differeing techniques imprive safety by avoiding needles penetrating the skin at all, as practised in Japan, where pressure is relied upon more than penetration. An example being the Totohari approach of meridian and qi stimulation.

Many studies have been conducted to work out the risks of accupuncture. Once such study was conducted in Japan, where about fifty five thousand treatments were administered over a period of five years. The results were staggering as almost 99% of the treatments did not have any major side effects and a few very rare minor side effects. Other independent studies done in the United Kingdom of about sixty thousand treatments had just over one hundred minor health effects. While a total of one hundred and twenty thousand administered treatments resulted in almost no health effects whatsoever. It had been detected that the most adverse and common side effects of accupuncture were:

a) Dizziness, which results from the fear of needles, which decreases blood pressure.

b) Some bleeding due to needles missing the their target points and hitting small blood vessels or capilaries.

c) Hematoma, which is evident by bruising.

More serious risks invloved with accupunture needles are:

a) nerve injury, from puncturing or severing nerves.

b) Transmission of diseases, when needles are not steralised.

c) Endangering unborn children through the activation of the bodys immunity into overdrive.

d) Kidney damage from needling in the lower back.

e) Brain damage, when accupuncute is performed on the cranium.

There are many more major and unforseen risks that are involved with accupuncture. However, one of the most important risks involves replacement of science based western medicine, by the hopes of alternative medicine such as accupuncture. This could lead to inadequate diagnosis and treatment of potentially serious conditions which standard, mainstream medicines have been proven to treat. Therefore, accupuncture remains as a complimentary or alternative medicine in the western medical circles. Some practitioners misstreat people for increased visits and incrased financial spending.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture#Criticism_o f_TCM_theory

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