Can acupuncture cure what ails you?

First off, the cardinal rule of medicine (besides do no harm) is to never say you can cure something. Lesson No. 1: If you run into someone claiming they can cure you, they probably haven't been in the business of medicine long enough to know that is such a misleading statement.

What does "to cure" even mean? It means to completely get rid of, to correct, and to permanently fix a problem. To what degree you'd like a problem cured is really a personal decision. I get plenty of patients who come in with back pain and have a big race coming up, and they really just want to get through their weekend race—they aren't looking for a long-term cure, but a quick fix. While I have other patients who have hypertension and they want to really get to the source of their blood pressure issues. They don't just want their blood pressure to go down temporarily, but permanently. Wherever on this scale you reside makes little difference to me—I am in this business to help people with their health goals—however that may be. Some healthcare practitioners, on the other hand, may not be fully aware of their 'idea' of a cure/fix. Acupuncture is a great example. Acupuncture has some great abilities to permanently fix some broken systems throughout the body. However, there are some instances when acupuncture is simply helping relieve symptoms, while changes elsewhere are made to assist in a permanent positive change (like diet change, changing your job or exercising more).

So, what can acupuncture 'cure?' One of the best systems it affects is the hypothalamus and prefrontal cortex of the brain. These systems are responsible for hormone output, emotional response and inflammatory response. Often, people who have allergies, high stress and hormone imbalance do great with acupuncture and acupuncture alone. Using a needle to stimulate nerve bundles (which then directs hormone signaling to change various areas of the brain) is often extremely difficult to effect with other types of therapies (like massage, vitamins/supplements, injections). Now, what about the systems that acupuncture isn't having a curing effect, but is just helping with symptoms? This can be a gray area and individual for each person. In general, acupuncture for pain due to overuse or systemic diseases (such as thyroid problems, hypertension, autoimmune conditions and headaches) is assisting with the relief of symptoms. Acupuncture can certainly get someone's blood pressure down or help with headaches, but what about the cause? Often, diet, lifestyle and outside stressors can cause these conditions to begin in the first place. So, for those people, acupuncture is never really curing them, but is helping them get below a threshold that is tolerable.

The next best step in the ultimate endeavor of fixing yourself is what is called Functional Medicine. This is a whole perspective on health—looking at diet, lifestyle and looking at blood tests. Once an analysis of what food, lifestyle and potential supplementation needs to be added, true 'down to the root' healing can begin. Chinese Medicine pioneered this 'whole-health' idea, but hasn't really mastered integration with modern medicine—hence why the 'new' term is Functional Medicine.

It is always a tricky thing to pick out what therapy is just relieving symptoms and what is actually getting to the core. I saw an advertisement for a medical marijuana store that called itself "Holistic Alternative Medicine." Giving every individual the same 'prescription' is hardly holistic. In fact, that is simply perpetuating our broken modern medicine model of each disease fitting into a 'box' instead of treating each person uniquely and individually. Cure is a strong word, which is widely abused. In fact, antonyms for cure are both "block" and "obstruct." So, by just turning pain off, or superficially reducing a certain isolated problem (like blood pressure), you are, in fact, doing the opposite of curing! And, to cure never indicates the same treatment for each patient. A curing means to find a place where your body (including mind) is in homeostasis, or balance—a place where no pain, no disease and no problem can exist—at least for a long period of time. So yes, acupuncture can, in fact, help you get to a place of complete balance, but it can also just serve as a catalyst, or a piece of many therapies that allows you to get to complete homeostasis. Just more reason to be in tune with what is going on in your own body and ask yourself how far you will go and how willing you are to fix a problem.

Deepak Chopra once said, "Life is like a tree and its root is consciousness. Therefore, once we tend the root, the tree as a whole will be healthy."