Jeff Rippey

I don't know if acupressure will help with rheumatoid arthritis, I rarely use it. Acupuncture, on the other hand, is often an excellent treatment choice for all forms of arthritis. Believe it or not, acupressure is not as comfortable as acupuncture. In my experience, acupressure's treatment effect comes on more slowly and doesn't last nearly as long as acupuncture's.

Acupuncture can help with nasal congestion. Much will depend on what's causing the congestion. If it's something like allergic rhinitis, then definitely. If your congestion is due to some sort of structural issue, not so much.

Massage can sometimes help varicose veins. Elevating the feet above the heart for a few minutes each day can sometimes help varicose veins.

I can't answer the question relative to acupressure as I don't use it that often. Most of the time, I treat varicose veins by bleeding superficial spider naevi in the area.

In my experience, acupressure isn't as comfortable as acupuncture, the treatment effect comes on more slowly and doesn't last as long.

Couldn't tell you, I don't use acupressure all that often. Compared to acupuncture, acupressure isn't as comfortable, the treatment effects come on more slowly, and the effect doesn't last as long.

So, does acupuncture treat insomnia? Yes, yes it does. Insomnia is something I work with a lot and I'm usually able to improve a patients' situation.

I wouldn't necessarily use acupuncture or Chinese medicine as a standalone treatment for bronchitis. You may need antibiotics or steroids - neither one of which could be prescribed by a practitioner of Chinese medicine. Visit your primary care physician and get evaluated. Use acupuncture to manage any lingering symptoms.

Maybe. I've seen some studies showing acupuncture improving verbalization among autism patients. This is a place where I'd combine acupuncture with more conventional speech therapy.

The absolute best thing for food allergies is to not eat foods to which you are allergic - assuming you've identified the offending items. Whether or not acupuncture is going to provide any benefit is going to depend a lot on the severity of the allergy and how good you are at minimizing intake of the offending item.

For mild to moderate allergies, if patients can remove the item from your diet for 6-8 weeks and use acupuncture to down-regulate their immune system, sometimes they can return to eating that food item in limited amounts.

For severe allergies, like an anaphylactic type reaction, acupuncture is going to be much less useful. Patients in this case are looking at long term exclusion of the food item.

Please keep in mind that food allergies appear to be sitting at the base of at least some chronic diseases. There's some evidence that Parkinson's might start as a gut flora imbalance probably driven by food. There appears to be some sort of connection between Hashimoto's thyroiditis and gluten sensitivity. I understand that people don't like to give things up, especially when it comes to foods, but the reality is they could be saving themselves a lot of time, money, and anguish down the road.

Hearing issues are extremely difficult to work with. There can be genetic and lifestyle components at play. On top of that, hearing damage is cumulative and people don't often notice the slow creep until they wake up one morning and can't hear out of one or both ears.

If I were you, my first stop would be an ENT. You may have wax build-up blocking the ear canal and clearing that out might return things to normal. Assuming the ENT gives you a clean bill of health, your next stop should be an audiologist. You need to know the extent of the hearing loss and an audiologist will be able to give you that information.

Once you've been through those folks, and your hearing isn't improved any, maybe give acupuncture a shot. The thing is, in my experience, if it responds at all, hearing responds very slowly. You could be looking at months of treatment.

You also need to consider the lifestyle component. Like I mentioned up top, hearing damage is cumulative. If you're constantly in loud environments without hearing protection, if you often listen to loud music in confined spaces - like a car - or use ear buds with the volume up, you will need to change those behaviors and/or start getting serious about wearing ear protection otherwise the damage will keep building.

Honestly, hit and miss. Ringing ears (tinnitus) is something several of my patients complain about. I've tried a variety of different approaches to this particular issue and none of them has given me results that I would consider spectacular.

How long any given treatment might last has a lot of variables - how severe is the pain, how good is the provider, what kind of response does the patient have to acupuncture, how far into the treatment plan are we? Right now, I don't have the answers to any of these questions, so it's hard to say how long a single sessions' results might last.

Here are some generalities:

1. About 5% of the population won't respond to acupuncture at all. Usually the first 3-4 treatments are about A) treating the patient and B) making sure they're not in that 5% group.

2. I specialize in pain management. It's unusual for my patients not to experience some level of pain relief on a first treatment. Other providers who are not well trained in acupuncture/Chinese medicine or who don't specialize in pain may get differing results.

3. Acupuncture is rarely a one-and-done type of treatment. Patients need to be prepared to attend at least 3-5 sessions before they decide whether or not acupuncture is working. A full course of therapy might be something like 10-12 treatments. Some people go longer, some experience resolution more quickly.

4. Acupuncture treatments are cumulative - the treatment effect is improved and extended with each subsequent visit.

I usually tell prospective patients that we may get some pain relief on the first treatment and that relief might last 24-48 hours.

A lot is going to depend on how severe the pain is, how long it has been going on, and what, specifically, is causing the pain. Without knowing those things, it's hard to say whether or not resolution is a realistic expectation.

Generally speaking, acupuncture is a very good choice for pain management. Inside that, there are two end-points - either we eliminate the pain and it doesn't return or we reduce the pain to some manageable level where it can be maintained with sporadic treatment.

With the information I have, I can't predict what you should expect.

Much will depend on the severity of the allergy. Acupuncture can often help with mild to moderate food allergies. More severe, anaphylactic type, reactions are a lot more difficult to work with.

For bronchitis you're going to want to at least see a primary care physician and, possibly, get on a course of antibiotics. Acupuncture may be able to help with any lingering symptoms like cough or congestion, but I wouldn't use it stand alone in this case.

I'm not aware of any pressure points/acupuncture points that would have any effect on snoring. There are lots of reasons why you might be snoring - some of those may be treatable via Chinese medicine and some of them may not.

For many, snoring can be related to weight. Losing weight will often improve the situation. Acupuncture/Chinese medicine can be some help in this regard, but they're not going to overcome poor food choices or poor eating habits.

Much will depend on what, exactly, you're looking for from treatment. Acupuncture can help with fluid issues (ascites or fluid accumulation in the abdomen is a common problem in cirrhosis). Acupuncture can sometimes help with liver enzymes or pancreas/spleen issues that result from liver cirrhosis. Is acupuncture going to reverse the cirrhosis? Unlikely.

This is a case where you're going to want to combine care - a good L.Ac. can supplement your primary care provider.

We have several studies showing acupuncture exerting a regulatory effect on blood sugar and insulin levels. In my experience, that effect can easily be undone by poor food choices or poor eating habits. In other words - acupuncture rarely overcomes dietary issues all by itself, you need to change your diet/eating habits if you plan to get a handle on type 2 diabetes.

I do quite a bit of work with allergy patients, so yes, acupuncture can be an excellent treatment for this issue. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, acupuncture can be an excellent choice for pain management including elbow pain. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, acupuncture is an excellent choice for pain management including ankle pain. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed to practice acupuncture in your state.

Yes, I help people manage neck and shoulder pain all the time. For the best results please make sure you're seeing a provider who is NCCAOM nationally board certified and licensed as an acupuncturist in your state.