At Healthwise we consider frequency to be an important factor in achieving good clinical results, based on the assumption that acupuncture is a gentle and regulative treatment that works by stimulating the body’s own healing mechanisms, the stimulation being more effective if produced regularly.
This cumulative effect slowly pushes the body towards health.
These conclusions are based on clinical experience in Chinese hospitals, where patients tend to receive treatment more frequently than once a week, and on the perception that it takes the body time to ‘receive’ the cumulative effects of the treatments and to fully activate the healing process.
The long‐established practice of frequent acupuncture (i.e. several times a week) in China is compared by Dharmananda (2003) to how acupuncture is generally practised in the West, pointing out that much of the modern research coming from China is based upon acupuncture performed daily or every other day, and that there is a strong clinical basis for acupuncture treatments to be administered in this way.
Once or twice a week is usually how treatment starts and then it is usually extended to fortnightly or monthly once the practitioner deems it necessary, and the needle induced release of a variety of neurotransmitters and bio‐chemicals, such as endorphins, are having lasting effects. Clinical results decline when the treatments are too infrequent, or compliance with appointment attendance decreases.
Dharmananda, S. (2003). Restructuring American Acupuncture Practices, <www.itmonline.org/arts/restructure.htm> [Accessed: 12th November, 2015]
