Can acupuncture cure chronic stress, insomnia and even menopause symptoms? We take a closer look at this ancient but increasingly popular alternative therapy.
Burnout, insomnia, chronic stress. These are everyday realities for too many in the post-pandemic world. With an oversubscribed NHS, more of us are turning to alternative therapies to treat ailments, and for an increasing number, acupuncture has become the go-to treatment for support with everything from menopause symptoms to chronic pain.
What’s caused this new interest in needles? ‘I think in many ways, wellness has taken the baton from the beauty industry. We’ve started to explore different ways of looking good and feeling good, beyond simply topical solutions,’ says Joanna Ellner, a former beauty director who quit her job in 2016 to train as an acupuncturist and is now a qualified practitioner. ‘Western medicine often wants to flip between treating the physical and emotional, but we’re now seeing a shift in how we quantify ailments, looking at things more holistically rather than symptomatically. Acupuncture speaks to that because it’s a truly holistic medicine that acknowledges the whole body. When we, as practitioners, treat patients, we’re plotting different points on a map and looking at the journey of the body – it’s about seeing the whole body as a landscape and treating it accordingly.’
We live in a ‘very yang culture,’ she continues. ‘That prioritises productivity, achievement and presenteeism over rest and digest, and this can leave us running on empty and in a place of deep deficiency and fatigue.’ Acupuncture aims to restore balance – a combination of yin and yang – to our system. ‘We’re not adding anything or taking anything away, we’re just sending messages to the body for it to rebalance itself.’
There is good research supporting the use of acupuncture for issues such as lower back pain and musculoskeletal issues, and it can also be used to help treat and relieve symptoms like chronic insomnia, stress, digestive and hormonal issues. ‘Chinese medicine modalities aim to get to the root problem,’ offers Ada Ooi, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner and founder of 001 Skincare. ‘Facial acupuncture, for example, works as a stimulation for new cell growth, but it also addresses any internal conditions that are causing skin concerns. We treat a lot of clients for hormonal, digestive, immune, emotional, stress and trauma-related issues, which can all show up on our skin.’
In fact, Joanna argues there’s little acupuncture can’t treat. ‘The things
