Acupuncture can help improve a number of fibromyalgia symptoms including pain, sleep, irritable bowel syndrome and depression. Research has shown acupuncture to be especially effective for relieving pain.
Acupuncture is one component of the 5,000-year-old practice of Chinese medicine. According to Chinese medicine, there are energetic pathways, or channels, throughout the body that influence associated internal organs and structures. Energy from these pathways surfaces at various points on the body, identified as acupuncture points. Each of these acupuncture points serves as a tunnel, or access route, to the deeper circulatory channels within. Acupuncture stimulates a selection of specific points, thereby activating the body's natural healing abilities.
Acupuncture is safe and usually painless. The needles used are made from extremely fine gauge, flexible surgical stainless steel. (Five acupuncture needles fit inside the hole of one hypodermic needle.) Unlike hypodermic needles that cut the skin, acupuncture needles slide through the skin without cutting. Only sterile, single-use needles are used.
