Autism and Acupuncture



Autism is another of those conditions that has baffled Western Medicine. When you read about this condition you learn much about the symptoms. It affects the ability of people to communicate successfully. It is called a development problem. It is thought that there might be genetic considerations. It is a heartbreaking condition that afflicts children and makes a normal life difficult for them. All of this you will learn, but you will not learn the cause because it is not known.

Yet, Traditional Chinese Medicine will see the cause as some kind lack of balance in the internal harmony of the body. It has it roots in some kind of problem with the natural flow of vital energy through the body. This is the root cause of any condition that causes the human being to deviate from normal health. Therefore, autism and acupuncture are a natural match. Acupuncture can help restore the balance that will ultimately result in an improvement of the symptoms.

Recently, a new form of holistic acupuncture has been developed that has shown good results in the treatment of autism symptoms. A holistic acupuncture form is one where a certain part of the body is thought to contain the entire network of the whole body. In other words, these holistic areas can be miniature maps of the body's acupuncture points. The ear, hand, and scalp have all been used in this manner. The new method is tongue acupuncture. The developers of tongue acupuncture admit that the treatment is designed to alleviate symptoms rather than seek a cure. It is effective in calming the child which is a major problem with many autistic patients.

Traditional acupuncture treatments for autism have shown some good results although they do not often suggest complete cures are possible. In some cases, however, it is reported that the patients have improved to such a degree that a fairly normal life is possible. Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of clinical studies that support the claims of acupuncturists on the success of their treatments. There is a need to do more studies and to structure them properly so as to be able to properly evaluate the results.

There is some problem getting children to accept the needling of acupuncture. This reluctance seems to last only for the first few sessions. It appears that the children quickly learn that the procedure is painless, but even more important seem to sense almost a once the calming and improvement it brings to them. There are reports that many patients actually look forward to the treatments as their improvement becomes more pronounced and their ability to communicate improves.