1. Avoid food & drinks for a minimum of 1 hour following the treatment.
2. Avoid excessive activities (physical workout, sexual activity, work stress, etc) on the day of the treatment.
3. If this is your first acupuncture treatment, protect yourself from being in social settings or around individuals with flu/common cold as you are more susceptible to viral infection after the initial treatments.
4. Avoid activities that aggravate your condition.

For some, relief may last from the first treatment until your next visit. For others, the improvements may last for a few hours on the first visit and then last longer with each successive treatment. Quite often, however, acupuncture results in a deeper and intense reaction the next day following the initial treatment. This is simply because acupuncture is capable of dredging up damage in your body that has been accumulating in your system for years. We call this the healing reaction and this is a good indication that the treatment is not only helping with the present symptoms, but repairing the entire body.

1.      Fatigue: Feeling calm & relaxed with heavy eyes and mild disorientation that give you a desire to sleep. Our body repairs itself most efficiently during sleep so your body is giving you an unequivocal sign that you need to slow down and rest for the treatment to be effective.
2.      Emotional discharge: Involuntary increase in emotional expression. Previous emotional stress and trauma that is not expressed actively and processed appropriately gets stored in our body. Acupuncture treatments help to unlock & express these stored emotions to balance the chemical levels in your body.
3.      Intensified symptoms: Acupuncture acts as a catalyst to speed up the healing reaction and therefore can intensify your symptoms and even revive old injuries for a couple of days after the initial treatment to repair the body at rapid speed.
4.      Other healing reactions such as dizziness, sweating, nausea, vomiting and feeling faint have been reported. These effects should generally wear off within 24-48 hours. Some minor side effects from the needles could result in bruising, bleeding, and soreness.

The outcome of the treatment varies from person to person and therefore, it is difficult to state definitively how many treatments will be required at the time of your first visit. In general, acute conditions of recent onset may only require 2 to 4 treatments. Chronic or genetic conditions usually require more treatments as old injuries/illnesses often result in layers of damage. With chronic conditions I usually recommend an initial course of 3-4 treatments for accurate prognosis to be made. Most people begin to experience changes within the first two treatments. The ideal approach to illness is to begin treatment as soon as possible. The sooner you seek help, the easier it is to treat the problem. For longstanding illnesses, weekly treatments may be required for several months in order to have a full curative effect.

Once you initiate a healing process, it is important to follow through on treatments. The more consistent you are, the better the likelihood of results. The effects of acupuncture are cumulative. Even if your symptoms are gone, I will likely recommend an additional few treatments. In Chinese medicine, this is referred to as “solidifying the constitution.” The goal is to further strengthen your body to prevent a relapse of the illness. Once they are feeling better, many people find it difficult to follow through with even just a few treatments. Healing requires a lot of energy. Your body is most vulnerable following recovery from illness because it has expended much of its energy and internal resources in order to get better. It is therefore important to have a few treatments in order to prevent repeated or new illnesses.

Ready to begin your journey to healing? Call or email us to book your initial consultation with one of our acupuncturists. The initial consultation will allow the acupuncturists to assess your condition, formulate a diagnosis and provide a treatment plan. Our clinic is located in Toronto at the major intersection of Sheppard and Leslie.