Augmenting acupuncture with aromatherapy

What is acupuncture?

Used in traditional Asian medicine for centuries, acupuncture is the use of fine needles, inserted at strategic points into the body through the skin, to relieve pain and provide other treatments and therapies. Practitioners of acupuncture believe that a vital energy called "Qi" flows through the body and, when blocked, creates pain, disease and other discomforts.

How does acupuncture work?

Needles are inserted into acupuncture points on the skin which are located on meridians along which Qi, the vital energy, flows. Each point on the meridian is thought to relate to another, or opposite, point, representing an energy center in the body. The insertion and manipulation of the needles into these key points works to unblock the Qi, allowing energy to flow freely throughout the body again, thereby restoring health and relieving pain by removing blocks.

What is aromatherapy?

Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils made of distilled plant volatiles to treat and prevent disease and to promote healing. The oils can be applied to the skin like perfume, inhaled directly from a bottle or through a diffuser, massaged into the body, or absorbed through the skin when used in a bath.

How does aromatherapy work?

One school of thought holds that the oils, when absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs or through the skin, positively affect the emotional (or limbic) system in the brain. The other theory is that the oils have a direct pharmacological effect on the body when absorbed through nasal passages or through the skin.

Do these treatments actually help?

Outside of the Orient, where it is considered an integral part of traditional medicine, the use of acupuncture is regarded as an alternative treatment, and its treatment efficacy is still scientifically in question.

Aromatherapy is recognized in France as a valid medical treatment and the use of essential oils as antiseptics, antivirals and anti-fungal treatments is common. Some oils are even used as prescription drugs. However, the acceptance of aromatherapy as a valid medical treatment in other countries varies.

However, neither therapy is regarded as dangerous, and adverse side effects, other than the occasional allergic reaction, are very rare. Both aromatherapy and acupuncture are, in western cultures, generally included under the category of holistic, alternative or "new age" therapies, and although the benefits of each are still scientifically in question, many people swear by both.

What conditions can be treated?

Aromatherapy is often used to relieve stress, anxiety, panic, insomnia, or to treat depression and the common cold. Citronella oil is very effective as an insect repellent, whereas clove oil is used by many dentists as an analgesic. Essential oils have many other uses as well, some quite common.

Acupuncture, because it is based on the theory that all illness is a result of energy blockage, is used to treat any condition by removing the blockages associated with it.

Benefits of combining acupuncture with aromatherapy

Acupuncture and aromatherapy treatments are almost always performed as separate treatments, although combining both treatments into one is suggested by Maria Gorens, a licensed Acupuncturist at Firebird Acupuncture.

Harmony Holistics, a site offering treatment and courses in Acupuncture and Aromatherapy, say on their website that these are complimentary treatments which, by targeting different modalities to treat the same thing, can be combined for more effectiveness than either would have alone.

A patient can also receive regular acupuncture treatments and use essential oils at home to augment the effects of acupuncture between visits.