The "48 Hour Effect" of Acupuncture

If you've never had acupuncture before it can be really difficult to know what to expect. Am I supposed to expect results in the next five minutes when it begins? Should I expect them an hour after acupuncture? Two days? Seven days? Does it take five years? You know most of us are accustomed to going to see our doctor and you're usually given a prescription and unless it's something acute and emergent and you need like antibiotics you often don't go back that often. But Chinese medicine and most forms of holistic medicine are often built sequentially over time. Now in this video I want to share what I think of as the 48-hour effect of acupuncture as well as something else that'll be very very helpful in your healing journey. Hey I'm Dr. Alex Hine, author of the health book Master of the Day, licensed acupuncturist and doctor of oriental or Chinese medicine. So I've included two very important links below this video. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally or via telemedicine. There's a link beneath this video to get more info and email me. And the second is for a free download on four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. That's a little case study and that is right below this video the first link. Now one of the most common things that I've seen with my own patients is that sometimes what happens is that somebody comes in and they have a chronic complaint. The issue could have been there for six months or it could have been there for 10 years. And they say, you know, what do I expect with the acupuncture? Because almost all my patients are getting both acupuncture as well as a customizable formula. And the expectation is really not so clear. Do I come once? Once a month? Once every six months? And then when I explain that what I recommend is weekly in the beginning and then gradually getting more and more spaced out, people often want to know why. Now one of the things I see the most often clinically is that, let's say for example, you're coming in for anxiety and insomnia. You get acupuncture and you feel good. You feel different the same day, maybe the next day and two days after. And that 48-hour window seems to be a pretty predictable magic window in acupuncture where people say, you know what, I saw you on Thursday and I felt really good Friday and Saturday. I felt calm. Those are my only two good nights of really good deep rest. But then after that, you know, like Sunday until our appointment today on Thursday, I'm kind of back to feeling the same. And I wanted to bring this up because not only is it very common, it's very normal. There tends to be in acupuncture at the beginning a variable stick rate, right? We say like how long did the treatment hold? Or how long was it efficacious for? And the 48-hour number seems to come up quite a lot as a middle number. You have people who will respond amazingly. You have people who won't respond at all. And then most people who are somewhere in the middle. And one of the ways I think about that is the degree of resources you are working with with that person. So a person who's very, very chronically ill or very, very elderly and they don't have a lot of resources to manifest a healing response can take a long time to begin responding. But most people will respond from the first treatment and will have this kind of 48-hour effect. Now the reason it's so important to know is that number one, if you feel better for 48 hours and then back to how you were before, that's okay. That's normal for a lot of patients. But in addition to that, the goal is that over time those windows will get bigger and bigger and bigger. So let's say your migraines significantly decrease or your bloating decreases for just the 48 hours, the two days after treatment. But then it all comes back. Well, over the next maybe eight weeks, if I see you weekly or 12 weeks or maybe I start to see you every But you're on a formula in intervening time. The goal is for that treatment to then be stretched out to three days, to four days, to six days, etc. etc. Now that's also the value of taking Chinese formulas. Since that's the area I specialize in in internal medicine, my patients, if I see them once every three weeks, will often be on a formula every day the intervening months so that they're still getting those little like multiple acupuncture treatments every day by taking the formula of a dosage two or three times per day. So that's kind of the 48-hour effect. It's something to be expected. It's common. It's normal. Doesn't mean anything's gone wrong. But over time that window will tend to expand longer and longer. And even if it doesn't, if you're taking formulas in between, that is something that is like getting acupuncture every day in effect. You're improving that direction in your physiology. You're still pushing your body in that healing direction. Alright, so this video I just wanted to share a very quick clinical observation that I think is useful to know. I would have liked to know that. Again, if you'd like to learn more on becoming a patient of mine locally or via telemedicine, below this video you'll see a link for my clinic and there's also a free download below the video which has four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. Alright, check those things out and before you go I have two related videos on this topic right here.