Side effects of acupuncture

How long exactly is “shortly after”? And when you say the “tingling remains” - how long has this been? What were you seeing the acupuncturist for?

Any type of reaction like this is very uncommon, but the strongest possibility would be an allergic reaction to the sterlization agent on the needles. If it were this, it would be possible to get a mild reaction each treatment - many practitioners have different brands of needles on the off chance that this type of reaction happens to a patient.

When you say you “went back to the practitioner” - did you get another treatment from them or just talk to them? If you got another treatment did the same thing happen again? If you didn’t get another treatment, why not?

From the non-US spelling of center, “centre” - I can tell you are outside of the US. Unfortunately in many countries acupuncture is somewhat unregulated so it is hard to tell if the practitioner whom you are seeing is truly qualified. Being Chinese and having years of experience unfortunately isn’t always proper qualifications. That said, while it may be largely ineffective, acupuncture from poorly trained acupuncturists is rarely, if ever, problematic (besides not getting results). Side effects from acupuncture properly applied from trained and, if available, licensed practitioners are extremely rare and limited to mostly insignificant swellings, bruising, etc.

What you are describing is something that I’ve never seen in many years of clinical practice with literally thousands of patients.

With some Chinese practitioners (and some western ones, albeit far fewer in number), strong needle manipulation and/or heavy handed needling techniques (deeper, etc.) are common. Some of these deeper needling techniques, particularly if done improperly or with poor point location can cause irritation to local nerves and/or tissue. So in a treatment with many of these techniques used on many points you could end up with fairly systemic feeling reactions. In general, these would fade (as would most soft tissue injuries) in a few days up to probably 12 weeks depending on what happened.

This question, however, comes up in various forms somewhat often on our forums. Another longer response of mine that you might find interesting is here.

In general for what you were seeking help for acupuncture should be quite helpful and it is generally a very enjoyable, relaxing and effective experience. While this is incredibly biased admittedly and many of the practitioners who I consider at the top of the field are in fact Chinese, I still generally advise people to see the most fully trained non Chinese practitioner they can find - particularly so in countries with no or limited regulation. This is because non-Chinese practitioners are less likely to use strong needle manipulation techniques which I consider both unnecessary and counter-productive (my own bias). And the Chinese practitioners whom I consider are at the top of their game do not use these techniques either. Along those lines, I also recommend to stay away from anyone who is not a fully trained Chinese Medicine professional (this includes PT’s, Chiropractors, Physio’s, MD’s, etc. who “practice” acupuncture). Now some of these people are well trained and licensed in both fields and they are fine, perhaps great, but many use one license to dabble in the world of acupuncture and 9 times out of 10 when we hear of these types of issues it was a non-acupuncturist doing the acupuncture.

Truth be told you’d have to a complete hack or extremely negligent to cause harm to anyone with acupuncture. But it is possible, unlikely, but possible. In your case once things settle down, you should be fine. Permanent damage of any kind is nearly impossible to cause. I would suggest some massages with heavier oils like sesame and/or epsom salt baths both of which are calming to nerve irritation.

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wow guys… i haven’t ever thought that acupuncture does even have side effects because i only thought that drugs have side effects and because of that i stopped searching for pharmacy reviews anymore… and not talking about these side effects. thanks for sharing info OP and thanks everyone else for the information. i found it really useful. thanks a lot for everythig guys. would you mind if i am going to ask some other questions in the future??