Dosing Acupuncture Treatments

What’s the Dose:

How many acupuncture treatments do I need?

Dosing the right amount of acupuncture, like everything in acupuncture, depends on the individual. It can depend on how long the issue has been going on, how the individual responds to treatments, how much time passes between treatments, the person’s age or amount of other underlying constitutional imbalances.

Acupuncture has a cumulative effect and nudges the body to heal itself through stimulating the body’s own endogenous (naturally occurring) systems, biochemicals, hormones, etc. While you might notice pain relief after the first treatment, generally you will need more than one session to reap the full benefits of treatment. The general rule of thumb is that an acute issue (an issue has been going on a few weeks or less) can be resolved in 1-3 treatments, while a chronic issue (something that has been going on for months or every years) might take 8-10 treatments or more if the issue has been going on a a very long time. The Mayo Clinic gives a glimpse into what an effective treatment plan might look like:

“A common treatment plan for a single complaint would typically involve one or two treatments a week. The number of treatments will depend on the condition being treated and its severity. In general, it's common to receive six to eight treatments.”

While getting in for an acupuncture treatment one to two times a week might be the most effective, sometimes that’s not realistic given a person’s available time, income or other resources (childcare, time off work, proximity to the office). Given this, I work out treatment plans that will both work with a patient’s circumstances as well as trying to gain the most benefit from the treatments to which a person can commit.

Perhaps most importantly: You also don’t have to wait until you’re injured or something is going wrong. Precisely because of acupuncture’s ability to harness the body’s own healing power, it makes it a preventative medicine.