Acupuncture Introductions

Hello! My name is Maria Belmonte and I am the new acupuncturist at Holistic Health. I'm going to post acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine topics in hopes that better understanding of what it can accomplish will convince those who might be on the fence to give it a try.

First thing: people are worried about being "stuck" with needles, but only know of the needles used in hypodermic syringes. The following pictures serve to show the scale of acupuncture needles vs. hypodermic needles. One shows 20 acupuncture needles inside one hypodermic syringe! The second picture shows acupuncture needles next to a match head, a hypodermic needle, and a sewing needle. Acupuncture needles are tiny, the width of a human hair. Even though an acupuncture treatment is not painful, you will feel something. Acupuncture needles are used to stimulate specific points along a meridian. This stimulation can feel like soreness, tingling, numbness, warmth, cold, electricity, but never "pain". If, during a treatment, a specific point is painful, I am more than happy to adjust it to make it more comfortable or remove it completely.