Alcoholism is a serious problem in the United States. The total health care cost of alcohol problems in one year alone cost the Untied States more than 175 billion dollars. The total cost alcohol for health-related problems is more than 22 billion dollars a year.

Alcohol problem in the US is an epidemic that weighs on the US taxpayer heavily. Excessive alcohol consumption is an addiction problem as great as, if not greater than, drug addiction.

The normal western medical treatment for alcohol abuse is pharmaceutical drugs, namely sedatives or tranquilizers to render the patient incapacitated until his/her inebriation subsides. These are the best solutions that western medicine can come up.

Sadly, the wisdom (if one can call it wisdom) of western pharmaceutical science cannot equate to the holistic wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine or TCM. Western medicine often treats the symptom and the effect of the disease, never the root cause. TCM, on the other hand, addresses both the symptom and the disease together to provide true and effective treatment for a disease.

Alcoholism is a nasty habit. It especially engenders all kinds of diseases like arthritis, cirrhosis, liver problems, degenerative diseases and hepatitis to name a few. More often than not, unchecked alcoholism leads to death.

Acupuncture in Overland Park is the most effective and safest way to treat alcohol addiction. In alcohol addiction as in any kind of addiction, the kidneys, liver, lungs and the nervous system are affected because of the stagnation of chi in the liver. Chi in TCM, is the life force that allows our body to grow, reproduce and live.

Chi travels through networks called meridians. In alcoholism, there is a blockage of chi in the meridian on the liver. The stagnation of chi in the liver causes imbalance of chi energy also in the lungs, kidneys and nervous system. Acupuncture is introduced to remove the blockage of chi in the liver.

Usually ear acupuncture is used for treatment, which is the insertion of acupuncture needles in the ear. The ear has meridian lines that connect to the liver, kidneys, lungs and nervous system. The needles remove the blockage of chi in the liver and stimulate the brain to release endorphins to remove the craving for alcohol.

The release of endorphins is vital for treatment in that withdrawal symptoms are lessened considerably. Withdrawals are signals that the brain gives out when hungering for endorphins, which alcohol was the stimulus for before the person went into treatment.

Many treatment sessions are needed before the patient completely recovers from alcoholism. Acupuncture has been a true success when it comes to curing most kinds of addiction and many people have been truly blessed to have their lives back because of acupuncture.