[eilata]

In Traditional Chinese Medicine there are 12 meridians or channels on your body.  The energy in your body (this is what is known as qi) flows through these channels in cycles every day.  When someone is experiencing pain or symptoms like headache or gas and bloating those are signs that the energy and blood in his or her body is not flowing smoothly.  Pain is often attributed to qi and blood stagnation – meaning it is stuck somewhere.  The fact that it is stuck is what causes pain.  Acupuncture and herbs are the tools TCM practitioners use to get the qi and blood flowing through the channels smoothly.  

The 12 channels are each connected to different organs in the body (lung, large intesting, stomache and spleen….).  As an example-if someone is experiencing diarrhea or fatigue that is a sign that there is a spleen qi deficiency.  The spleen is not strong enough, ie it doesnt have enough energy/qi to be able to digest food the way it should, because it can't digest food the person is not getting energy from the food and thus having the symptom of fatigue is very common with a spleen qi deficiency.  In this example the acpuncturist would choose points and herbs that would tonify and support the qi.  

The idea is to keep the body balanced and the energy moving smoothly so that everything can work effeciently.  TCM can treat anything.  There isn't a problem that you have that ur acpuncturist can't help with.  Keep in mind you can't replace western medicine  with TCM.  If my appendix was about to burst or I broke a bone I would go to a western doctor and get treatment first.  I would then use acupuncture to help with the pain management and healing process.  It is a great compliment to western medicine.  Another thing to keep in mind, if you have a chronic problem it will take longer to treat, sometimes needles work better than herbs and sometimes herbs work better than needles.  Your acupuncturist should work with you to figure out what styles of treatment work best for you.  

Generally speaking Acupuncture is fairly painless, though everyone is different.  Some people feel nothing, some people feel everything.  Practitioner vary as well-some have strong needle stimulation techniques and the insertions might hurt a bit while others  have gentle needle stimulation techniques and you might not feel anything at all.  Typically people feel the needle go in and maybe the arrival of qi or energy to the point(this can feel like a zing, a lil electric rush, a warming sensation,  a twitch or like all of a sudden things feel like they are moving) but after that the sensation dissipates.  In fact if it continues to hurt you should tell your acpuncturist.  It is important that once the needles are in you do not move.  Lots of points are between bones and tendons and movement after needle insertion can cause pain or injury.  

During my first experience with acupuncture I did not like the practitioner and felt like it wasn't really helping.  I tried it a second time with a different practitioner and saw amazing results.  It helped me so much I decided to study acupuncture myself, so don't just go to the first acupuncturist you meet.  Ask friends for referrals and try a few out.  Every practitioner has a differnt style.

The World Health Orginization has a whole list of diseases that they recognize Acupuncture as being an effective treatment for(the list is based on research).  If you google it you will quickly find lots of info.  There are a few books that are always recommended when people are interested in understanding the basics of acupuncture, one is "The Web That Has No Weaver," and the other is "Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide To Chinese Medicine."

That was just a lil taste of TCM but I hope it helped answer some questions.