Acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world. As part of traditional Chinese medicine, it is a family of procedures that stimulate anatomical points on the body, most commonly by penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation

For thousands of years, traditional Chinese medicine has held that health is maintained when two opposing and inseparable forces achieve harmony – yin and yang. Yin is the cold, slow or passive aspects of self, and yang is the hot, excited or active aspects. Disease can be the result of an imbalance of yin and yang, leading to a blockage in the flow of qi – one’s vital energy or life force.

Oriental medicine theories propose that qi can be unblocked by using acupuncture at certain points on the body that connect with meridians, or qi pathways. Such pathways may criss-cross throughout the body to create at least 2000 interaction, or acupuncture, points.

Acupuncturists look at the body as a whole to discover how these pathways—which embody the mind, body and spirit—interact. Just as experiencing too much of one emotion might lead to a physical problem; an imbalance in the body might lead to mental or spiritual disharmony. When acupuncture regulates one aspect, it will automatically harmonize the others.