Will I feel different immediately after a treatment?

What are the effects of treatment?

After treatment,  it is quite common for the patient to feel energized and vital, but it is probably more common to feel  relaxed and drowsy. This is because the body needs time to adjust to the changes that have been brought about by the treatment. If the patient is suffering from an acute symptom, such as a headache, it is common for improvement to be felt at the time of the treatment. Exacerbation of symptoms is quite a common feature of acupuncture treatment. In this regard, the patient may find that shortly t after treatment,  symptoms may  worse before an improvement sets in. A professional practitioner will always warn the patient of the possibility of exacerbation at the start of a course of treatment. The speed of response varies considerably from patient to patient, and with each disease. Certain patients feel a response within a few seconds of the first needles being in place the first time they come for treatment. Others may need to be treated four or possibly even more times, for the first response to be felt. The effect of a single treatment may be noticed during the treatment or several hours or days later. After a treatment nothing tangible may be noticed. At other times there may be an increase in energy, a lightness and buoyancy due to the stimulating effect of the treatment. In some people there is a great feeling of relaxation that may be followed by a pleasant drowsiness due to the sudden release of tension. The improvement that is noticed during a course of acupuncture does not follow a steady course. As a rule the degree of improvement and its duration increases with each treatment till the stage is reached where the improvement persists and becomes a cure that lasts. The improvement from the first treatment may last minutes, hours or days, the effect lasting longer with each repetition. Some patients improve rapidly at the beginning of treatment but may take a long time to achieve that extra little bit that makes the cure. Others improve slowly at the beginning and then take a sudden turn and are cured hasty. The majority follow an intermediate course. Most often there are various ups and downs during treatment and there is rarely an absolutely steady improvement- nature does not know straight lines. However  frequently there is a setback at some stage of the treatment, which is then overcome by altering the acupuncture points used. Acupuncture can be remarkably effective in many conditions that occur today. The effectiveness is strongly dependent upon a thorough and accurate Chinese medical diagnosis. The needling skills and techniques of the practitioner will also influence greatly the effectiveness of the outcome. The typical pattern in the West has often been to see acupuncture as the last port of call for individuals with long-term chronic problems. Treatment, not surprisingly, has often been slow and in some cases of marginal benefit. However, as acupuncture establishes itself it is becoming the treatment of choice for many people, and the effectiveness of the approach with acute as well as with more chronic conditions is being increasingly recognized. However, in the West, acupuncture for most people is very often a last resort for their long-term chronic conditions, and in such situations progress is likely to be slow, with a large number of treatments being required. This, of course, is not always the case; sometimes acupuncture can produce rapid and dramatic results.

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