You may have heard of acupuncture or even tried it. Some Ontario Chiropractors, Physiotherapists and other healthcare providers have extra training to provide acupuncture under their respective health insurance categories (i.e. chiropractic acupuncture goes under chiropractic benefits). Healthcare providers have been offering acupuncture for decades, but what many don’t know is that there’s a new health profession in our province.
Last year, acupuncture became a regulated healthcare profession in Ontario. The title “Acupuncturist” or “Registered Acupuncturist” is now reserved for healthcare providers who are regulated by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario, or CTCMPAO for short. Many people have acupuncture health insurance under a separate category and can benefit from Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncture.
The most common use of acupuncture in North America is for pain-relief or healing injuries. Acupuncture helps promote the body’s natural healing mechanisms and studies show it is effective for reducing pain plus a number of other health concerns.
Case-controlled clinical studies have shown that acupuncture has been an effective treatment for the following diseases, symptoms or conditions:
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic (abdominal pain from gallstones)
Depression
Dysentery (intestinal infection)
Dysmenorrhoea (menstrual pain/cramping)
Upper GI pain including peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis
Facial pain (including TMJ disorders)
Headache
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Hypotension (low blood pressure)
Induction of labor
Knee pain
Leukopenia (low white blood cell count)
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction (i.e. breech, etc)
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Dental pain
Periarthritis of shoulder (limited range of motion and inflammatory issues, such as ‘frozen shoulder’)
Post-operative pain
Renal colic (abdominal pain from kidney stones)
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow
(this is not an exhaustive list)
As you can see, there certainly are a number of pain syndromes that have been deemed by medical research to be effectively treated with acupuncture, but a variety of non-pain conditions as well. If you are curious if your condition is treatable with acupuncture or by a Registered Acupuncturist, feel free to send me an email. I’d be happy to assess if I can help.