This is a personal experience generated opinion.
I had not tried acupuncture until 2006. It is great and I recommend it for anyone. I had fought with diverticulosis and diverticulitis most of my remembered life. The spell I had that year felt like it would be the death of me. Plus, I had a lung infection. The lungs and the colon are connected (in Chinese medicine), much to my surprise. I knew that conventional medicine would put tubes into me and drug me, with no diagnosis or prognosis. I had always leaned left from a medical philosophical viewpoint.
The practitioner brought me back from the dead. The needles do not hurt. (Make sure your guy/gal is schooled and certified well, like any other doctor.)
I tried the needle(s) for 6 months or so. But I had to quit. I became addicted to the acupuncture. Felt too good, cost too good. My practitioner (the dealer) said, after he had me hooked, “Yeah, it sure feels good, doesn’t it?”
So I quit cold turkey and I feel lousy now. But I’m saving a lot of money. Maybe I’ll try chiropractics. I don’t know, is it addictive also?
I’m looking for the magic wand, I guess.
Well, my warning to you is: Acupuncture is too good. Leave it alone. The dealer only wants steady customers.
What seems to happen: The acupuncturist gets your body to a point at which it needs the needle to just maintain, but not improve. You can only improve so much, finitely.
I think that acupuncture is the answer for anyone with unlimited financial resources. It’s far superior to our critical care system.
The good thing about our “American” health system is that a problem is “pinpointed”. The Eastern approach stresses maintenance and continuing exploration of pathways. That’s more efficient, but costs are ultimately infinite. Kind of like auto maintenance.
I do not take prescription drugs. Chinese medicine pills are great. I own pharmaceutical stocks, but prefer my medicine companies to be in business awhile, like 5,000 years. Chinese medicine mixes 7 to 10 specific curative agents together in one pill. They have, in due time, discovered how each of the specifics will react with the other. Perhaps I should prefer to take 7 to 10 pharmaceuticals, and see what happens reactively? I don’t think so, Dog. No matter what medicinal system(s) you use, remember, exercise and diet are #1.