It is incredible to think that acupuncture is available to people in Edinburgh and East Lothian, and the acupuncture given is based on a tradition that goes back thousands of years. Acupuncture is an ancient system of medicine which has been tried and tested over many hundreds of years.  While it is a very old system of help, acupuncture remains a modern choice for many people and can work very well alongside current western medicine.

There are many questions about acupuncture that are discussed in the clinic, most commonly: What is Acupuncture?  Where does acupuncture come from? Who invented acupuncture? How was Acupuncture discovered? Do the old Traditional styles of acupuncture have as much relevance today as they did 2000 years ago? There are many artifacts and texts originating in China that will start to provide us with a broad picture in answer to these questions. 

Acupuncture works by manipulating energy known as Qi or Chee. To understand acupuncture and the theory behind it, the first thing to get to grips with is the idea of Qi. What is Qi? There is no complete translation into English, the best we can do is to call it Vital Energy. Qi is what makes us alive and is what links us to all living things on our planet. Qi circulates around our body, it is what is unseen but enables us to take our first breath, it is what makes living things alive.

Five Element Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine are often used to describe Traditional Acupuncture. This can be very confusing to someone who is looking for a competent acupuncturist This is compounded by some new terms that get, in my view, misused, like Medical Acupuncture or Dry Needling. To be a Member of the British Acupuncture Council a practitioner must have studied at an accredited school and will either study Five Element Acupuncture or Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM. 

Many patients ask me about different types of acupuncture, where it comes from, and why it works. I think the best way of describing the philosophy behind acupuncture is to look at the Seasons and the benefits of receiving seasonal acupuncture. Acupuncture is a fantastic way to keep good health and one way of receiving the benefits of acupuncture is to receive acupuncture seasonally. The idea of staying in tune with the seasons is a very old one, the benefit of having acupuncture seasonally is that it enables the body, mind and spirit to remain in balance with seasonal changes and variations.