If you’re suffering from a mystery illness, it can be frustrating to try and get the answers you need in order to recover your health. It’s not uncommon for me to treat patients who, after making several appointments with multiple doctors yet still not receiving a clear diagnosis, have become desperate to find a solution. They often come to me months or even years after their symptoms first started surfacing, and they’re in a considerable amount of pain. Fortunately, acupuncture can be a valuable form of complementary care in just these sorts of situations.
As a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), acupuncture treats symptoms and patterns rather than specific Western diagnoses. In this way, acupuncture treatments are uniquely well designed to uncover the multiple factors that may have caused a mystery illness to develop. Acupuncture gently yet very intentionally nudges the body toward homeostasis, allowing its systems to regulate themselves better and thrive on their own. As a result, patients—no matter what type of pain or illness they may be experiencing—benefit from an improved sense of well-being and begin to feel better soon after treatment begins.
Acupuncture treatments can even sometimes help point the way toward a diagnosis, which is especially helpful in cases of mystery illnesses that are tricky to identify. I have helped steer several patients toward their diagnoses, in fact. After working with them just two or three times, I begin to see underlying indications of what may be happening and, as a result, I have successfully steered those patients toward the right focus (for example fungal infections, endocrine system issues, Lyme disease, etc.) while continuing the acupuncture treatments that strengthen and bolster their immune systems.
When patients come to Rivertown Acupuncture suffering from poor health, I find that their symptoms are often the result of a perfect storm and that they’re not always caused by one specific problem. Since acupuncture can help shine a light on the environmental factors that contribute to degraded health, patients often come away from treatment with greater self-awareness about the chief causes of stress in their lives and how they may take positive steps to improve their self-care. This includes eating better, managing stress more effectively, and getting more exercise.
With the benefit of better energy and well-being provided by acupuncture treatment as well as the knowledge required to improve their health in a more holistic way, even patients who have been suffering from a long term, difficult to diagnose illness can begin to uncover the path to a better future. If a mystery illness is impeding your ability to live well, it may be worth considering the benefits that acupuncture can offer.
