Japanese Acupuncture

Revolutionary Feedback System
The Acupuncture Center of Cary specializes in Japanese Acupuncture techniques, as taught by renowned Acupuncturist Kiiko Matsumoto. Similar to TCM Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, but utilizing a revolutionary feedback system, it provides the practitioner with confirmation that the correct points have been selected for the patient’s condition. Blocks that interfere with healing are easily uncovered using this system, with prompt results. In addition, the Japanese system uses thinner needles, and allows for a more superficial and less painful needle insertion. The body is basically a complicated electrical system (brain and nervous system) and just as we don’t need to hit a light switch with a hammer, the nerves can be induced to relay appropriate messages with minimal stimulation.

Alarm Points
Long before doctors had access to blood tests and MRIs, Japanese Acupuncturists had developed a method of ascertaining which systems of the body were experiencing dysfunction and stress. They found that when palpating (pressing) specific points along the neck, abdomen and ribs, some of these points would be tight and tender. These reflexes register stress in various organ systems, and become a guide to determine the most important areas of treatment. They were traditionally called Alarm points, because they alert the Acupuncturist to a potential problem, much in the same way a ‘noisy’ smoke alarm alerts people to a fire. Where there’s smoke, there may be fire, and where these special Alarm points are tender, there may be an underlying medical condition ‘crying out’ for attention through these ‘viscero-somatic’ reflexes.

Getting the Treatment Right
Much in the same way that someone having a heart attack may experience pain radiating to their little finger, or a gall bladder attack may provoke pain inside the shoulder blade, stressed internal organs will refer pain through the nervous system to the surface of the body. Once these points are identified, the Acupuncturist places needles in correlating points, and the tenderness will significantly and immediately decrease (electrical signals travel fast). If it doesn’t, the Acupuncturist continues to explore other points, often simply by pressing, to find the right point to ‘release’ the painful reflex. In this way, the Acupuncturist (and the patient) is assured that the right treatment has been performed.

It's also useful in cases of musculoskeletal problems, as painful 'trigger' points in the affected area will also release once the appropriate points are treated. For example, tenderness to pressure around a fifth lumbar vertebra in a patient with low back pain will greatly diminish once correct needling is performed. It doesn't mean that the problem is resolved, as this will likely take a series of treatments, but it does mean that the body is responding and healing has been initiated by the treatment.

True Preventative Medicine
Many of our patients come to us for a specific complaint, but also complain of other diverse symptoms, such as fatigue, depression or trouble concentrating, for which their doctors have no explanation, and blood tests haven’t revealed anything out of normal range. The Japanese Acupuncture system allows us to identify problems that exist in the functional arena, many years before they develop into an actual disease. In this way, we are a positioned to practice true preventative medicine, by increasing healthy functions so that mild problems don’t deteriorate into actual diseases.

Electricians for the Body
In a way, we consider ourselves electricians of the body. The Alarm points are like circuit breakers for the brain and nervous system, and they register the continuing assaults from excessive stress, environmental toxins, poor diet or exercise habits, and even our genetic weaknesses that are catching up with us. When these circuits ‘blow’ the body’s healing capacity is diminished. Our job is to isolate and ‘reset’ these circuits to allow the brain and nervous system to do their job, keeping us healthy and healing any problems that arise. The body knows how to heal and maintain good function. It did it for many years, but it ‘forgets’ and gets distracted. With Acupuncture, we help it to remember. We induce healing by activating centers in the brain that re-learn how to establish normal healthy function.