Acupuncture can often be used in conjunction with other physiotherapy treatment techniques to achieve optimal improvements for a variety of conditions, including, but not limited to, low back pain, sciatica, neck/ shoulder dysfunction and osteoarthritis.
Medical acupuncture or Western Medical Acupuncture (WMA) is a therapeutic modality involving the insertion of fine needles; it is an adaptation of Chinese acupuncture using current knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology, and the principles of evidence based medicine.
While WMA has evolved from Chinese acupuncture, its practitioners no longer adhere to concepts such as yin/yang and circulation of qi (pronounced chi), and regard acupuncture as part of conventional medicine rather than a complete “alternative medical system”. Central to the practice of WMA is that the observed effects of acupuncture are explainable with reference to neurophysiological / neuroendocrine mechanisms.
