Acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years, and its popularity has been increasing in the United States for decades. In a recent study, it was found that 2.1 million people have sought acupuncture treatment in the last year. As more research is conducted, its benefits continue to expand. Acupuncture can be used to treat musculoskeletal pain, nausea, migraines, neck and back pain, depression, addiction, issues with digestion, and inflammation.
Acupuncture is a beneficial and safe treatment for children as well. There’s no minimum age to start, and acupuncturists routinely treat infants. Acupuncture needles are much thinner than those used in Western medicine, so the insertion of the needles is painless. Additionally, there are other methods that can be used such as cupping and electrical stimulation. Approximately 5.8 million children from ages 3 to 17 had been diagnosed with anxiety from 2016 to 2019. Acupuncture can be used to treat anxiety, pain, headaches, stomachaches, constipation, nausea, and fatigue. ADD/ADHD, autism, and other chronic illnesses are commonly treated, too. A yearlong study on 243 kids from the age of 6 months to 18 years old found that the children who had received acupuncture therapy reported less pain, on average than before treatment.
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The risk to an individual patient or child is hard to determine because certain patients can be predisposed to an increased risk and practices and qualifications are different for every acupuncturist. However, the risk of adverse effects of acupuncture is substantially lower than that of many drugs and other procedures for the same conditions; one of the many reasons why parents have turned to acupuncture to treat and improve the health of their children.
Board-certified Doctor of Oriental Medicine and the owner of White Crane Clinic in Tarpon Springs, Florida. With over a decade of clinical experience, she specializes in integrative care that blends acupuncture, herbal medicine, and regenerative therapies for whole-body wellness.
