Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves placing fine needles into targeted areas (known as acupoints) to stimulate and activate your nervous system and support the body’s natural healing process. It is a perfectly safe, it is a safe and effective treatment modality that is a brilliant addition to a physiotherapy programme. It helps everyone from sufferers of chronic pain to injured athletes reduce pain in a natural, drug-free way.
Benefits of Acupuncture
Intended benefits of treatment:
- Reduction of pain.
- Alleviation of muscle spasm and tension.
- Facilitation of the healing process.
- Induction of local and general relaxation.
- Promotion of general well-being.
- Improvement of sleep pattern.
Possible adverse effects:
The following are the known (based on research evidence) possible adverse effects associated with acupuncture. Your physiotherapist will discuss these with you and explain if you are at any enhanced risk.
- Bleeding and bruising (3%).
- Mild aggravation of symptoms (3% of which 70-85% show subsequent improvement).
- Mild pain at needle site (1%).
- Drowsiness (1%).
- Dizziness (0.6%).
- Paint not at needle site ((0.5%).
- Nausea (0.3%).
- Feeling faint (0.3%).
- Stuck or bent needle ((0.1%).
- Headache (0.1%).
- Allergy or infection (up to 0.2%).
- Pneumothorax (0.0002%/less than 2 per 1 million).