Jeff Rippey

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) is extremely difficult to treat. My experience using acupuncture and Chinese medicine is that, if it's going to respond, it takes a lot of treatment sessions. Sometimes upwards of 20-25. Again, in my experience, most of the time tinnitus doesn't respond to treatment.

I've had patients who've tried everything from hearing aids to nutritional supplements with no result.

As long as the treatment is safe and not too expensive, I don't like to dissuade people from trying different approaches to address tinnitus - you never know what's going to work. My best suggestion is to look around your area and see if you can find someone who has a decent track record with this issue.

A lot is going to depend on why you're experiencing chronic headache. If you haven't done so already, you should start with your primary care provider and see what causes can be ruled out.

After that, your treatment options could range.

Massage helps some people, particularly if the primary cause of the headache is stress.

Chiropractic can help if the cause of the headache has to do with nerves being pinched in the neck.

Acupuncture has an extremely good track record for headache/migraine due to a wide variety of causes.

Sometimes chronic headache or migraine has a diet and/or lifestyle component. Identifying and managing those issues can often provide relief.

Prescription medication can help.

I've had patients get relief using Botox therapy.

Sometimes surgery is the answer.

Generally, yes, acupuncture is a good treatment choice for nerve pain or nerve damage. This is something that can take a while to improve though, so be prepared to attend 5-7 treatments.

Usually, yes, acupuncture can help improve chronic sinusitis.

Generally, yes, acupuncture is a good treatment choice for nerve pain or nerve damage. This is something that can take a while to improve though, so be prepared to attend 5-7 treatments.

Sometimes, yes, tingling sensation or pins and needles in the hands can be fixed. It's very helpful to know where the actual problem is, though. An issue like this can be related to problems in the neck, problems in the upper back or shoulder, problems in the elbow, problems in the wrist, or general issue with the nerves of the hand and arm.

If you haven't done so yet, go to your primary care provider, and at least get a neck x-ray. This will help to start ruling things in or out as the cause of the problem.

Yes, acupuncture can improve tennis elbow. This is an issue I work with quite a bit and, so far, I haven't met a tennis elbow I haven't been able to resolve.

Sometimes, yes, chronic sinusitis can be brought to resolution. In other cases, the issue can be managed.

Sometimes, yes. I've treated migraine patients whose migraines ceased after a series of acupuncture treatments. I've treated migraine patients who required a little touch-up every 4 weeks or so, but in the interim they might have one headache that doesn't become a migraine. I've also treated migraine patients who went from several migraines per week to one migraine per month after a series of treatment sessions.

There's no reliable way to predict where, exactly, any given patient might end up. So long as the patient responds to acupuncture, treatment almost always makes things better.

A lot will depend on why you're having chronic knee pain. Sometimes, yes, a series of acupuncture treatments can resolve the pain. In other cases, a series of treatments will reduce the pain and some level of maintenance may also be required for a patient to remain relatively pain free.

A lot is going to depend on why you're experiencing hand pain. If you haven't done so already, having some x-rays taken and getting evaluated by your primary care provider should be your first step. If the imaging and evaluation doesn't identify the problem or the problem is identified but conventional medicine doesn't offer much in terms of resolving the issue then, yes, acupuncture can often provide relief.

A lot is going to depend on why you're experiencing spinal pain. If you haven't done so already, go to your primary care and at least have some x-rays taken. Depending on what the x-rays do or don't show, an MRI might also be in the cards.

If the imaging doesn't provide a concrete diagnosis or the imaging does provide a diagnosis but conventional medicine doesn't offer much in terms of a resolution to the issue then, yes, acupuncture can often help.

Unfortunately, it's hard to give a concrete answer to the "how many sessions" question. Chinese medicine is an individualized system - this means that Chinese medicine recognizes that not everyone experiences a symptom like back pain for the same reason and not everyone responds to treatment at the same rate.

Some very generalized numbers for you: studies show, across all types of pain, an average number of total treatments in the 8-10 range. Keep in mind this is a population average, there will be people who respond in fewer than 8 treatments and people who require greater than 10.

On top of this, there is roughly a 5% non-response rate at the population level. This means that about 5% of the population do not respond to acupuncture at all. We don't know why this happens and the only way to know if you're in the 5% who don't respond is to try acupuncture. Of course, this also means there is a 95% chance acupuncture will work for any given person.

My general rule of thumb for pain patients is to come for three treatments spaced one week apart. If the patient isn't noticing a difference by the 3rd treatment then either I'm not understanding the problem well enough to apply the correct treatment, or they're in the 5% who aren't going to respond.

It depends on what's causing your neck pain. It would be a good idea to start with your primary care provider and get some imaging done. X-rays and/or an MRI might show what's causing the pain which will give a starting point for treatment.

Unfortunately, tinnitus is extremely difficult to treat. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of tinnitus cases I've seen respond to acupuncture.

I've had quite a few patients who've tried a variety of remedies ranging from vitamins to herbal medicines - almost none of them have seen any significant improvement.

I don't want to dissuade you from trying anything (so long as what you're trying is safe), but it's rare to see things work.

If you haven't seen anyone yet, I'd start with your primary care provider and get some x-rays. Depending on what the x-rays show, you may have a variety of options.

Sometimes a referral for physical therapy is warranted. In some cases a chiropractor might help. Acupuncture has an excellent track record in the treatment of chronic back pain. Conventional pain management can sometimes provide relief. Lastly, some issues rise to the level of surgical intervention. Sometimes it takes more than one provider from the above list.

There are some headache causes that would need to be ruled out (e.g. cancer or other tumor/growth). Assuming you've already been down that road, yes, acupuncture can be an excellent treatment for chronic headache and/or migraine.

Assuming you've ruled out other potential causes (medications, lung infection, tumor/cancer/growth in lung), yes, acupuncture can often help chronic cough.

Acupuncture is an excellent treatment choice for most kinds of pain, including chronic leg pain.

Assuming you've had an upper GI scope and ruled out other, potentially more serious causes, yes, acupuncture can generally help chronic stomach pain.