❓ What are the drawbacks of acupuncture?

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❓ What are the drawbacks of acupuncture?

While acupuncture is a widely recognized and effective form of treatment, it operates on fundamentally different principles than conventional medicine. Its perceived "drawbacks" are not flaws in safety or efficacy, but rather reflections of its unique focus on restoring balance rather than suppressing symptoms.

🧭 Acupuncture Restores Balance — Not Just Symptoms

In classical East Asian medicine, acupuncture seeks to reduce what is excessive (瀉) and nourish what is deficient (補). This harmonizing approach means its effectiveness depends on how well the patient’s lifestyle supports internal balance.

👶 A Real-World Case: A Nanny with Persistent Shoulder Pain

One of our long-time patients is a full-time nanny who constantly lifts and holds children as part of her daily work. She receives acupuncture weekly for chronic shoulder pain. After each treatment, she experiences noticeable relief — but the pain consistently returns.

Why? Because while acupuncture helps restore the shoulder’s energetic balance, her daily activity reintroduces the same overuse pattern, disrupting that balance again.

Acupuncture doesn’t numb or block pain like a steroid injection.
It restores dynamic balance.
But when the imbalance is reintroduced repeatedly,
the same symptoms may return.

By contrast, Western interventions like corticosteroid injections may suppress pain for longer periods, but often at the cost of deepening the underlying imbalance.

📝 For a deeper look at this principle, see:
🔗 How effective is Chinese acupuncture?

🧩 Precision Matters — And It’s Not Easy

Another challenge of acupuncture lies in its technical depth. Classical acupuncture is not just about placing needles; it involves choosing from among 360+ classical meridian points and numerous extra points, each rooted in millennia of medical theory.

To apply acupuncture effectively, practitioners must:

  • Accurately locate the point based on individual anatomy

  • Consider needling direction and depth

  • Determine whether to tonify or drain (補瀉) the energy

In modern practice, guide tubes and minimal-pain techniques are common. But these can sometimes reduce tactile feedback or cause slight deviations in point location — especially if the practitioner’s skill and diagnostic clarity are lacking.

📝 For more on this deeper approach, see:
🔗 What is the difference between acupuncture and Chinese acupuncture?

📘 Not Limitations — Just a Different Kind of Medicine

Acupuncture is not about forceful suppression, but gentle restoration. When the body is continually exposed to stress or overuse, especially in occupational settings, acupuncture’s role is to guide recovery — not to override the system.

These aren’t weaknesses of acupuncture.
They’re part of what makes it a refined, responsive, and deeply individualized form of care.

📝 Related reading:
🔗 What is the new technique for acupuncture?


📖 For more information and clinical insights, please refer to:

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