by Katherine Casey, LAc
If you have never had any experience with acupuncture before, you are probably concerned about the needles. This is understandable, because the only needles we are familiar with are hypodermic needles, which are hollow-bodied, and designed to either take something out of us (blood), or put something in us (medication). Neither experience is ever very pleasant!
Acupuncture needles are completely different from hypodermic needles. They are very thin, solid body (meaning, they aren’t hollow like hypodermic needles are), and they serve the purpose of delivering a message. They direct qi (that animating force that keeps us alive, pronounced “chi”) to do something, like “go over here and nourish the lungs because this body has a bad cold.”
Another concern people often have about acupuncture needles is whether or not they are reused. And the answer to this is an unequivocal and emphatic NO. Acupuncture needles arrive from the supplier in sterile packaging, and they are single use only, just like hypodermic needles. They are disposed of in a sharps container just like the ones found in doctors’ offices and hospitals. Acupuncture needles are never, ever reused.
