Acupuncture Jacksonville is probably the oldest medical procedure in the world.  It is a process of using ultra thin needles inserted in the skin with the goal of removing pain and the treating of dozens of other kinds of illnesses.  Medical acupuncture is an approach used by most Western medical doctors and other medical professionals that have had enough acupuncture training to legally use it on his/her patients.  It takes a lot of time studying and learning traditional acupuncture and generally traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Medical acupuncture arose due to the desire of western practitioners to imbibe acupuncture along with their Western conventional medical training. Thus, this type of acupuncture is very attractive for osteopaths, chiropractors, physiotherapists and medical doctors. Modalities that do not conform to the methods and procedures of Western medical science are called alternative medicines.  Acupuncture is categorized as an alternative medical approach. Another reason why medical acupuncture exists is to create a procedure that helps to explains the effects of acupuncture from a western scientific standpoint as opposed to the millennia old paradigm of TCM.

There are no such concepts as acupuncture points or meridians in medical acupuncture or if it is used is entirely different in meaning and essence in TCM.  In the realm of medical acupuncture illness and disease are based on the knowledge of modern western pathology instead of the codex of TCM and the processes of medical acupuncture is explained through the understanding of western biomedical paradigm.

Listed below are the health disorders the World Health Organization (WHO) deems acupuncture can effectively cure.

• Neurological conditions – Intercostal neuralgia, nocturnal enuresis, neurogenic bladder problem, meniere’s syndrome, paralysis due to polio, peripheral neuropathy, paralysis after apoplexy, facial paralysis, neuralgia, migraine and headache
• Gastrointestinal conditions – Paralytic ileus, diarrhea, dysentery, colitis (chronic and acute), duodenal ulcer, hyperacidity, gastritis, gastrophosis and hiccups among others.
• Orthopedic problems – Rheumatoid arthritis, low back pain, sciatica, tennis elbow and periathritis humeroscapularis
• Mouth conditions – Pharyngitis, gingivitis, tooth extraction pain and toothache.
• Eye problems – central retinitis, myopia, cataract and conjunctivitis.
• Respiratory problems – Bronchial asthma, bronchitis, tonsillitis, common cold, rhinitis and sinusitis.

Unlike classical or traditional acupuncture medical acupuncture encourages the use of drugs as a compliment treatment for acupuncture.  This was usually reserved for herbal medicine in traditional acupuncture.  Acupuncture is known to detoxify the blood and aid the liver and kidneys to filter out and rid of harmful substances in the blood stream.  However, using medications seems to burden the body into maintaining health with the added task of cleansing toxic materials out of the body from the drugs that cause side effects.  This is one drawback of using medical acupuncture by practitioners who still rely on conventional treatments that caused people to seek out natural healing methods such as acupuncture in the first place.