Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that is thousands of years of years old. People often ask who invented it or how it came to be discovered, and the fact is that it was developed so long ago that we don’t really know. The oldest texts written on the subject are two thousand years old, but archeological evidence suggests that people were doing techniques resembling acupuncture possibly long before that.
What can be treated with acupuncture?
The greatest concentration of scientific data supporting the use of acupuncture is in the area of chronic pain relief. In the State of Texas, a licensed acupuncturist can treat any patient for chronic pain without the need for referral from a doctor. In addition, a license acupuncturist can also treat you without a referral for weight loss, or cessation of addiction from alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
Aside from those five conditions, a licensed acupuncturist can also treat you for any other condition if you have recently gone to be evaluated for that condition by a physician, dentist or chiropractor. A licensed acupuncturist is required to ask if you have been to see one of these types of health professionals prior to treatment for most conditions, so we can be sure that those medical professionals have screened you for possibly severe complications.
Examples of conditions that could be treated with acupuncture are very broad. The World Health Organization published a long list of conditions for which they recommend the use of acupuncture.
Kao Acupuncture 