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Reaction after Treatment

By Archived User | Updated: Dec 31, 2021 | Published: Dec 31, 2021

So i treated a patient for his first ever acupuncture treatment yesterday.

After taking patient history, there was evidence of damp heat in the large intestine. He also woke every night to urinate. Very healthy diet but alot of dairy which doesnt help the damp heat. also signs of athletes foot. He works out alot and drinks protien shakes. Sufferring from mood swings alot, where he gets angry very easily and fed up in general. A highstrung type.

I gave him a general treatment along with damp heat points and liver/ kidney points:

Yintang, li11, ren 12, sp6, st36, GB34, K3, Liv 3 - all bilaterally.

I was talking to him today and he had already made 5 bowel movements by 4pm, of normal(to him consistency, but more) and he has been urinating an awful lot all day. He said he is also feeling tired and very down(emotionally)

I explained that this is just the healing taking change in his body and all the passing of fluids and Bowels are the releasing of damp heat and detoxing? Do you think this is correct?

Also i put the "down" feeling to the use of Liv3, unblocking emotions. Hes quite a "macho" personality.

Archived Comments

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

I rarely make definitive statements about anything after the first treatment. Acupuncture is effective and can be extremely fast and very occasionally people may even need just one treatment - generally however one treatment isn't going to accomplish much. When you say, "I explained that this is just the healing taking change in his body and all the passing of fluids and Bowels are the releasing of damp heat and detoxing?" it's a good explanation to make him feel better and it may in fact be what is happening but don't leave out the possibility that he had something bad at lunch before the treatment or some other natural occurrence. In other words, not everything has to have an explanation or an answer or be tied to the treatment.


The down feeling could be dehydration from excessive bowel movements, possibly coupled with excessive exercise. I do agree that it may just be that he feels calmer from the treatment and calls that "down". This is quite common as people adjust to not being so strung out -- the calmness actually makes them uncomfortable initially... Again, however, I wouldn't read into too many details from one treatment - there are just too many variables and causes and it is almost egotistical of us as practitioners (not you individually of course) to equate every happenstance with what we did....


Your read on the patient and your points seem absolutely fine, I'm sure he'll be doing well after a few treatments.


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