What this treats well
We offer acupuncture as a focused tool, not a universal answer. Based on the published trial evidence, the conditions where acupuncture is reliably better than nothing — and often comparable to first-line conventional options — include:
- Chronic low back pain — multiple individual-patient-data meta-analyses confirm sustained benefit at 12 months
- Neck pain and tension-type / chronic headache — Cochrane reviews report clinically meaningful, lasting reductions
- Migraine prophylaxis — at least as effective as standard preventive medication in head-to-head trials, with fewer side effects
- Osteoarthritis of the knee — modest, sustained pain reduction and functional improvement
- Anxiety and stress symptoms — short-term reductions in symptom scores and physiologic stress markers
- Insomnia — useful adjunct when CBT-I isn't enough
- Post-operative and chemotherapy-induced nausea — endorsed by WHO and major oncology bodies (PC6 point)
- Recovery support after sports injury or musculoskeletal procedures
How it works
You don't need to believe anything about meridians or qi to take acupuncture seriously as a clinical tool. The mechanisms supported by functional imaging and neurophysiology research are: local effects (microtrauma triggering anti-inflammatory and tissue-repair signaling); segmental effects (modulation of spinal-cord pain gating); central effects (activation of descending inhibitory pain pathways and shifts in limbic and default-mode network connectivity); and autonomic effects (a measurable shift toward parasympathetic dominance, reflected in heart-rate variability).
Whether these mechanisms map onto the traditional point-and-meridian framework is a question for historians of medicine. The clinical question is whether the treatment produces effects that are bigger than placebo, durable, and useful. For the conditions listed above, it does.
We don't recommend acupuncture as a primary treatment for smoking cessation, weight loss, or as a standalone treatment for erectile dysfunction — the trial evidence in these areas is weak. We also don't endorse "detox" framing, which has no plausible mechanism or evidence. Honest selection of the right tool produces better outcomes than universal claims.
What a first session looks like
The first visit is 60–75 minutes. We take a complete conventional medical history — current medications, prior surgeries, imaging, what other clinicians have tried — before adding the acupuncture-specific examination (tongue, pulse, point-pattern observations). The needling session itself uses single-use, sterile, hair-thin filiform needles, retained for 20–30 minutes. Most patients describe the sensation at insertion as a brief, dull ache that fades within seconds.
Typical course and re-evaluation
Treatment plan calibration. Patients who respond usually start to show it here. If there's no signal of change by session 3–4, we change our approach or refer.
Consolidation. For chronic pain conditions, this is where the durable benefit accumulates. We re-assess at session 6 against your initial baseline measures.
Taper or maintenance. If response has been good, we move to less-frequent maintenance sessions (every 2–4 weeks) rather than continued weekly visits.
Safety
In skilled hands with sterile single-use needles, adverse events are uncommon and almost always minor: small bruises at needling sites, brief tenderness, occasional transient lightheadedness. Serious adverse events (pneumothorax, infection) are rare and almost entirely linked to inadequately trained practitioners or non-sterile equipment. We use single-use needles for every patient, and our practitioner has formal medical acupuncture training in addition to clinical experience.
Investment
₱2,500 per session. A typical course is 6–10 sessions over 4–8 weeks. The first visit includes the longer initial assessment at the same rate. Maintenance sessions are typically every 2–4 weeks for patients who benefit from ongoing support.