Please choose from the following: What is Acupuncture? About Our Practitioners Conditions Treated Benefits of Acupuncture What to Expect? Supportive Research Acupuncture Costs and Discounts Frequently Asked Questions Testimonials

Healthy Lives Acupuncture utilizes only clinically tested, medically and scientifically proven therapies from China and the West. All of our practitioners hold current licenses from the state of Colorado to practice Acupuncture and have graduated from an accredited four year masters level program.

What is Acupuncture?

“A method of producing analgesia or altering the function of a body system by inserting fine, wire-thin needles into the skin at specific sites on the body.  Acupuncture is highly effective in treating both acute and chronic pain associated with multiple causes” (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary 2006 7^th Edition pg 30).

Acupuncture is a treatment method that encourages, the body to promote natural healing and to improve functioning by inserting very fine needles (about the size of a human hair) into the body to reduce pain or induce anesthesia. There are a number of different approaches to diagnosis and treatment in acupuncture that incorporate medical traditions from America, China, Japan, Korea, and other countries. The most thoroughly studied mechanism of stimulation of acupuncture points employs penetration of the skin by thin, solid, metallic needles, which are manipulated manually or by electrical stimulation.

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Conditions Treated:

According to the World Health Organization:

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proven—through controlled trials—to be an effective treatment:

• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
• Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
• Biliary colic
• Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
• Dysentery, acute bacillary
• Dysmenorrhea, primary
• Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
• Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
• Headache
• Hypertension, essential
• Hypotension, primary
• Induction of labor
• Knee pain
• Leukopenia
• Low back pain
• Malposition of fetus, correction of
• Morning sickness
• Nausea and vomiting
• Neck pain
• Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
• Periarthritis of shoulder
• Postoperative pain
• Renal colic
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sciatica
• Sprain
• Stroke
• Tennis elbow

Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

• Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
• Acne vulgaris
• Alcohol dependence and detoxification
• Bell’s palsy
• Bronchial asthma
• Cancer pain
• Cardiac neurosis
• Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
• Cholelithiasis
• Competition stress syndrome
• Craniocerebral injury, closed
• Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
• Earache
• Epidemic hemorrhagic fever
• Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
• Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
• Female infertility
• Facial spasm
• Female urethral syndrome
• Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
• Gastrokinetic disturbance
• Gouty arthritis
• Hepatitis B virus carrier status
• Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpes virus 3)
• Hyperlipademia
• Hypo-ovarianism
• Insomnia
• Labor pain
• Lactation, deficiency
• Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
• Ménière disease
• Neuralgia, post-herpetic
• Neurodermatitis
• Obesity
• Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
• Osteoarthritis
• Pain due to endoscopic examination
• Pain in thromboangitis obliterans
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
• Postextubation in children
• Postoperative convalescence
• Premenstrual syndrome
• Prostatitis, chronic
• Pruritus
• Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
• Raynaud syndrome, primary
• Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
• Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
• Retention of urine, traumatic
• Schizophrenia
• Sialism, drug-induced
• Sjögren syndrome
• Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
• Spine pain, acute
• Stiff neck
• Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
• Tietze syndrome
• Tobacco dependence
• Tourette syndrome
• Ulcerative colitis, chronic
• Urolithiasis
• Vascular dementia
• Whooping cough (pertussis)

Who can benefit?

Our Philosophy is that people should try everything out there until they find what works best for them.  Ideally, it is easiest to treat conditions the closer to the injury as possible. However, many people have overcome chronic pain and other conditions through consistent treatment.

What to Expect at Your First Treatment?

1. Your appointment will last about two to two and a half hours.
2. In the first 15 minutes your practitioner will take your Vital Signs (pulse, respirations, blood pressure, temperature and weight)
3. Your practitioner will then follow up with the information on your intake form and ask questions about your health and your health concerns.  These questions, and your answers, allow your practitioner to formulate a diagnosis, which will then direct your treatment.
4. The diagnosis will include looking at your tongue and checking your pulses to form a TCM diagnosis.
5. Although acupuncture and herbs may be used with other forms of treatment, if you are taking ANY medications or supplements, it is very important to let your practitioner know.
6. After the initial interview, you will be asked to lie on the table face down.  The appropriate acupuncture points will then be cleaned with alcohol, and then very thin sterile, disposable needles will be inserted into the appropriate points.
7. Your practitioner will then make sure you are warm and comfortable. They will then leave you with a paging system that will be directly linked to your practitioner at all times should you become uncomfortable or wish to stop your treatment.
8. In most cases unless time constraints exist your practitioner will allow you to stay on the table for as long as your body feels it to be beneficial.
9. Depending on the treatment protocol which your practitioner has found appropriate for you, you may also be treated face up as well.
10. After you ring the practitioner your needles will be removed.  Your practitioner will then discuss with you their treatment plan as well as any herbs, supplements, exercises or other additional adjuncts to your treatment that may be important.

Supportive Research:

• “51% of Medical Doctors understand the efficacy and value of Acupuncture, and Medical Doctors refer patients to Acupuncturists more than any other alternative care provider.” Astin, JA., ET. Al., A Review of the incorporation of complimentary and alternative medicine by mainstream physicians. Archives of Internal Medicine, 1998; (158); 2203-2210.
• “Peer-reviewed literature suggests that acupuncture and other forms of acustimulation are effective in the short-term management of low back pain, neck pain, and osteoarthritis involving the knee.” Shu-Ming Wang, MD ET. Al. Acupuncture Analgesia: II. Clinical Considerations. Anesthesia and Analgesia 2008; 611-621.
• The research “suggests specific effects of acupuncture for pain control in patients with peripheral joint OA. Considering its favorable safety profile acupuncture seems an option worthy of consideration particularly for knee OA.” Y. D. Kwon, ET. Al., Acupuncture for peripheral joint osteoarthritis. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Rheumatology 2006 45(11):1331-1337.
• “Results from this small sample suggest that acupuncture can provide significant symptom relief in depression, at rates comparable to those of psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy. Acupuncture may hold sufficient promise to warrant a larger scale clinical trial.” John J. B. Allen, et. Al. The Efficacy of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Major Depression in Women Journal or Psychological Science 1998; 397-398.