Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine were developed by generation-after-generation of royal physicians. When you get acupuncture, you are joining a long lineage of royalty receiving the very best care available.

One of the earliest known texts on acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is called the “Huang Di Nei Jing” or “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine.”

The book is a long conversation between the Yellow Emperor and his physician, Qi Bo. Throughout the text, Qi Bo answers the emperor’s questions about how to restore and preserve health and balance in order to live a long and happy life.

Acupuncture starts with a deep respect for our bodies’ ability to self-regulate. When we are too hot, we sweat to cool off. When we sprain an ankle, it swells and inflames to prevent further injury and infection.

But sometimes those processes are slow to act or they over do it. Sometimes the body just becomes so accustomed to an imbalance that it is accepted as the “new normal,” and we experience chronic symptoms.

These are the cases where acupuncture shines. Rather than taking over (as medication and surgery do), we focus on using acupuncture needles to nudge the body back into functioning normally.

And that’s why there is nothing on or in our needles – it is YOUR body doing the work. We just remind it how.

In fact, we once had a patient say, “Oh, I don’t think the acupuncture helped. I just got better.” And to that we say, “Great! That’s the whole point!”

You wouldn’t use a sewing needle to hammer a nail. You’d use a hammer for that. You’d use a sewing needle to sew.

Conventional medical interventions save lives. If you have appendicitis or an infectious disease or a life-threatening illness, then acupuncture is not an alternative option. You need help from our brilliant colleagues in Western Medicine.

Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine developed over the last 2000+ years to extend and improve the quality of life.

Modern medicine developed over the last 150 years with the goal of saving lives from infectious diseases and catastrophic injuries. And it’s very good at that! That’s why Western medicine always takes an intervention-based approach. Let’s be thankful for this heroic approach and take advantage of it whenever necessary.

If you need emergency care, then a conventional approach is absolutely the best first step.

However, if you don’t feel well and no one can tell you why, think “Acupuncture First.”

If you hear “it must be stress,” think “Acupuncture First.”

If your back hurts or your arthritis is flaring or you just can’t sleep, think “Acupuncture First.”

For more than a decade, we’ve treated patients who came to acupuncture as a last resort when nothing else seemed to help. So many of them quickly say, “I just wish I’d known sooner! I would have started here!”