Medical Acupuncture, or Dry Needling as it is also called, offers an appropriate dosage of acupuncture tailored to the individual. Therefore it is used by In Touch in conjunction with other treatments as a technique within part of the session rather than as a separate treatment in itself.
With Medical Acupuncture, single use, sterile needles are used to treat trigger points (highly irritable areas of intense pain or tension within muscles). It is not Chinese Acupuncture and does not claim to treat everything. Acupuncture can have localised effects to the sensory nerves in the skin which are stimulated and an axon reflex occurs.
Chemicals are released such as calcitonin which dilates local blood vessels and the skin around the needle often shows red flushes. Inserting the needles sends information up the neural pathway which supplies the area and there is a suppression of the pain signal in the dorsal horn which controls sensation.
The messages then progress up to the brain stem and by stimulating the brain’s power to reduce the perception of pain, the pain decreases. Other parts of the brain then elicit a more global effect on the body to release endorphins and create a calming effect.