Jeff Rippey

The 'how many treatments' question is a fair one. The problem is, without seeing and treating you a few times, it's very difficult to answer. We can talk about statistics, but that's averages; they don't tell us anything about what any given individual might expect.

If you've never had acupuncture before, there is one looming question that needs to be answered: are you a person who will respond to acupuncture treatment? Statistically, 5% of the population does not respond to acupuncture. The only way to know if you're in the 5% or the 95% is to try acupuncture. Since the 95% who do respond to acupuncture do so on a spectrum of very fast to fairly slow, answering the initial question can take 2-3 treatments.

After that, it's a question of how fast or slow is your condition changing. The faster things change, the more likely you're looking at a short course of treatment. The slower things change, the more likely you're looking at a long course of treatment.

On average, for pain patients, most studies show the best results in an 8-10 treatment range. I've had patients go longer and I've had patients go shorter.

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) is something of the holy grail for acupuncturists. It's very difficult to treat and often simply doesn't respond. I've had patients who've gotten improvement and I've had patients who experienced absolutely no change after a series of treatments.

Similar to the world of conventional medicine where sometimes a given doctor is simply better with a given health condition relative to otherwise qualified providers, some acupuncturists are better with tinnitus than others. If you decide to pursue acupuncture treatment, I'd look for someone who is a board certified acupuncturist in your state (an L.Ac. or R.Ac. credential) and who has a good track record with tinnitus.

Yes, acupuncture can be a very good treatment choice for insomnia. Please make sure you're seeing a board certified and state licensed provider. To find folks like this in your area you can use NCCAOM.org's "Find a Practitioner" lookup.

Acupuncture, in general, is a good treatment choice for anxiety. I have quite a few anxiety patients and I'm almost always able to at least improve their situation. It's hard to say whether or not your particular issue could be completely resolved as I have no idea the severity of the problem. Generally speaking, the more severe the anxiety, the more likely you are to end up in more of a maintenance type space - at least in my experience.

Please make sure you see a board certified and state licensed acupuncture provider. To find people like this near you, go to NCCAOM.org and use their "Find a Practitioner" lookup.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine might be able to help. A naturopathic doctor may also be able to provide non-surgical/non-prescription medication options. Depending on where you're located, an Ayurvedic practitioner (traditional medicine of India) may also be able to assist.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are individualized. Unlike conventional western medicine, there is not one set treatment for a given issue. The treatment is driven by the patient's presentation and the information gathered by the provider during the intake process.

I could have 3 patients walk through my door with stomach pain, and they all might be experiencing that pain for different reasons. Each reason has it's own set of treatment points.

I do not know why you are experiencing this pain. There isn't enough information provided on this site, in this format, to make any useful determinations and therefore I cannot provide any point or points that might provide relief in your situation.

If you're interested in trying acupuncture or Chinese medicine, and for pain conditions this is an excellent treatment choice, your best bet is to go see a local provider who can evaluate you and provide a treatment that is suited to your presentation. To find local providers you can go to NCCAOM.org and use their "Find a Practitioner" lookup.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are individualized. Unlike conventional western medicine, there is not one set treatment for a given issue. The treatment is driven by the patient's presentation and the information gathered by the provider during the intake process.

I could have 3 patients walk through my door with insomnia, and they all might be experiencing sleep issues for different reasons. Each reason has its own set of treatment points.

I do not know why you are experiencing insomnia. There isn't enough information provided on this site, in this format, to make any useful determinations and therefore I cannot provide any point or points that might provide relief in your situation.

If you're interested in trying acupuncture or Chinese medicine, and for insomnia/sleep issues this is an excellent treatment choice, your best bet is to go see a local provider who can evaluate you and provide a treatment that is suited to your presentation. To find local providers you can go to NCCAOM.org and use their "Find a Practitioner" lookup.

Sure, I've heard of quite a few different treatment options. Since I practice Chinese medicine, that's where I have the most familiarity.

I typically get very good results for folks using acupuncture and, occasionally, Chinese herbal medicine.

Naturopathic doctors (ND) can often provide good options for allergies if you're not interested in pursuing acupuncture.

It depends on who is performing the acupuncture.

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine are currently in a very strange position in the west, and particularly in the United States. There is a lot of science showing acupuncture's effectiveness for things like digestive complaints, pain, fatigue, neurological issues, cardiac issues, and so on. In many cases the evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture is better than the evidence for the effectiveness of conventional treatments (prescription medication or surgery).

This evidence has created a situation where many people would like to try acupuncture, but there aren't currently enough acupuncturists in the US. Nation wide there are about 36,000 of us and more than half of those are in CA, NY, or FL. This has led to other providers attempting to step in and collect those patients. Many of these providers don't have nearly the training that a nationally board certified and state licensed acupuncturist has - particularly in the area of your chief concern: patient safety.

For the best outcome, with the least risk, you need to make sure you're seeing a provider who has a national credential through the NCCAOM and is licensed in your state as an acupuncturist (usually this is an L.Ac. credential but some states use R.Ac.).

To find someone like this in your area, you can go to NCCAOM.org and use their 'Find a Practitioner' look up. If you happen to be in a state other than NY, CA, FL (and I'd add WA, OR, CO, MA) to this list, you may have to travel a bit to find someone with the necessary credentials.

Unfortunately, without knowing what treatments were applied initially, it's very difficult to know whether or not your current state is a direct result of the previous acupuncture or whether your current state can be improved with more acupuncture.

Since you mention Oxford, I'm assuming you were treated initially in the UK. The laws there governing acupuncture are different from the US (where I practice). My understanding is the UK has no statutory regulation of the profession. Acupuncturists can voluntarily choose to register with the BAcC (British Acupuncture Council), but there are no real requirements in order to practice. All this is a nice way of saying: there's no guarantee that the person you saw in Oxford has any kind of training - formal or otherwise.

If you're still in the UK, I'd suggest visiting the BAcC's website to see if they have a provider location feature. The BAcC at least enforces some practice and training rules making it much more likely you'll have a better outcome.

If you're in the US, I'd visit NCCAOM.org and use their "Find a Practitioner" lookup to see who might be local to you. Call around to a few providers and see if you can get a free consult.

In the meantime, I'd suggest a primary care visit to get some blood work done and get an evaluation. There may be something conventional medicine can offer which will help you get things moving in a good direction. The other thing I'd check with at your primary care provider is whether or not you'd be clear for exercise - finding a good athletic trainer would likely help rebuild the muscles and help get your cardiovascular system back on track.

Usually, yes. Sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, and many other sinus issues tend to respond very well to acupuncture.

Usually, yes, acupuncture can help to bring high blood pressure down.

This isn't how acupuncture or Chinese medicine works. There is no one point or set of points for the treatment of any issue. Treatments are individualized and based on your specific case - i.e. why are *you* experiencing *this* ear pain.

Without seeing and diagnosing you, it's difficult to impossible to give you any point or points that might be useful in your situation.

If you'd like to try acupuncture or Chinese medicine, and for pain conditions this is an excellent choice, I suggest seeing a board certified, state licensed acupuncturist. You can go to NCCAOM.org and use their 'Find a Practitioner' lookup to find providers near you.

This isn't how acupuncture or Chinese medicine works. There is no one point or set of points for the treatment of any issue. Treatments are individualized and based on your specific case - i.e. why are *you* experiencing *this* headache/head pain.

Without seeing and diagnosing you, it's difficult to impossible to give you any point or points that might be useful in your situation.

If you'd like to try acupuncture or Chinese medicine, and for pain conditions this is an excellent choice, I suggest seeing a board certified, state licensed acupuncturist. You can go to NCCAOM.org and use their 'Find a Practitioner' lookup to find providers near you.

Every patient is a law unto themself. It's very difficult for any practitioner to say whether an issue like this might be brought to resolution - especially having never seen or evaluated you.

If you're a person who responds to acupuncture/Chinese medicine, then your situation can almost certainly be improved by someone trained in acupuncture/Chinese medicine. Whether or not that improvement is in line with your expectations is a whole other issue.

There are far too many variables in this question to provide any sort of definitive timeline. Why are you experiencing neck pain? How long has the pain persisted? Is the pain always focused in the same place in the neck or does it move around? Does the pain radiate up/down/into the shoulders/into the upper limbs? Do you have any recent imaging of the neck/upper back/shoulders? What does the pain feel like? Is the pain constant or does it come and go? If it comes and goes, what's likely to provoke the pain?

The neck can be a tricky area. There is a high degree of muscle and structural overlap with the upper back and shoulder. It's entirely possible that the pain you're feeling in the neck has its origin somewhere else in the upper back or shoulder.

It's also possible that you may be dealing with a degree of spinal stenosis/disk degeneration/bone spurs/arthritis in the cervical vertebrae. If this is the case, it doesn't make the situation impossible from an acupuncture perspective, but it does make things more complicated.

Then we have to factor in you as an individual. Statistically speaking, there's a 5% non-response rate for acupuncture. In simple terms, this means that about 5% of the population do not respond to acupuncture treatment. There's no test we can give to determine whether or not any prospective patient is in that 5% group, you have to try acupuncture and see what happens. The good news is 95% of people will respond, so odds are in your favor.

Inside the 95% group, people fall out on a spectrum. Some respond very quickly to treatment and some respond more slowly. Again, the only way to figure out whether you are going to respond fast or slow is to try acupuncture and see what happens.

Speaking very generally, a course of treatment is usually something like 8-12 treatments. I've had patients whose issue has resolved in as little as 1-2 treatments and I've had patients who took upwards of 15-20.

I've also had patients whose problem never goes away completely, but the issue will stay under control as long as they get treated on some schedule. Sometimes that's one treatment every 4-6 weeks and sometimes that's two or three treatments per year.

It's up to each patient to decide whether or not they can live with the uncertainty that surrounds an initial acupuncture treatment. I can usually tell where a patient is going to land in terms of total treatments and whether or not we're looking at maintenance by the third or fourth treatment. In order to get there, patients have to be willing to give me 3-4 sessions, though.

There are lots of things that can contribute to chronic fatigue, and there are several potential treatments for the issue. I'd have to know a lot more about you and your fatigue before I could make any concrete suggestions.

Some things you might consider:
Diet
Exercise
Acupuncture/Chinese medicine
Conventional medicine

Tinnitus is something of the holy grail in acupuncture. I've worked with several tinnitus patients. Very rarely do they make headway, and that's often after a lot of treatment.

If you're at the end of your rope in terms of treatment options, I'd give Chinese medicine/acupuncture a try.

Acupuncture, in the hands of a well trained practitioner, is excellent at loosening tight muscles.

There are a variety of potential treatments for insomnia. Over the counter sleep aids, prescription sleep aids, acupuncture/Chinese medicine, some types of meditation/mindfulness practices, lifestyle adjustment.

In order to determine what's right for you, you'll need to try a few things or visit a few different providers and see which treatment works best.