Acupuncture originated in China, where it is used as one of a range of treatments provided within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

Acupuncture treatment can help patients in the short term for a wide range of conditions and for a variety of patients including pain relief in joints and muscles, headaches, migraines and issues with an overactive bladder.

Medical acupuncture is the use of needling acupuncture points without the principles of TCM being applied. Many of these principles in TCM are at odds with views held in western medicine of how the body works and functions.

The basis for medical acupuncture is the growing body of western scientific research into pain that has helped us understand how acupuncture might work. In particular, we know that acupuncture causes the release of natural pain-killing and healing chemicals within our bodies. In other words, acupuncture appears to help our bodies to heal themselves.