For most people, the first thing they think of when they hear the word “acupuncture” is a sharp set of needles. And if your first thought is, “I’d rather not have someone stick needles in me”, you aren’t alone. It can be hard to wrap your head around the idea that acupuncture is painless, not to mention helpful, unless you’ve experienced it yourself. 

However, acupuncture can be very beneficial for our physiotherapy patients. It’s focused on muscular pain relief, and it’s one of many tools in our arsenal to treat your pain, whether it’s acute or chronic, at the source, so you can get back to living a fully functional life without any lingering discomfort. 

With that in mind, let’s learn more about acupuncture: who it’s right for, what it is, and the benefits of acupuncture you’ll experience as part of your physiotherapy treatment plan. 

Understanding Acupuncture: Non-Invasive Pain Relief

The practice of acupuncture originated in China roughly 3000 years ago. At this time in history, the body was understood to have what was called qi, or your life force, flowing through it. Acupuncture is now believed to be a compilation of practices and traditions that were passed down, targeting specific points on the body that were thought to carry one’s qi.1

Over the past 40-50 years, acupuncture has not only become more popular in the West but also been more thoroughly researched. A growing body of evidence shows that acupuncture is not just an ancient technique with the benefit of stress relief; it’s effective.2

Acupuncture Benefits vs. Dry Needle Therapy Benefits: What’s the Difference?

You may have heard of dry needling, which has gained popularity in recent years. While you can think of dry needling as a sister treatment to acupuncture, it has a few differences that set it apart.

While acupuncture targets the nervous system in order to relieve pain, taking more of a whole systems approach to pain relief, dry needling directly targets what we call “myofascial” trigger points.3 These are the tender, knotted areas where muscle meets the connective tissue surrounding it, called fascia. While acupuncture can relieve pain around trigger points, it can also do so much more. 

Dry needling targets muscles directly, while acupuncture can help treat not only pain in a trigger point but also utilise other insertion points to provide relief for a wider range of conditions. By incorporating acupuncture into your treatment, we aim to target the root cause of your issue and provide lasting relief in conjunction with other treatment modalities. 

Importantly, dry needling also has more contraindications. So, if you’re ever receiving a dry needling treatment – or any medical treatment – be sure you always discuss your medical history with your provider.

They Have Expert Knowledge

“Physit has helped get me back on my feet on many occasions. They have expert knowledge and are always a pleasure to see. They also have some very useful acupuncture needles!”

-Alistair McGowan

4 Top Benefits of Acupuncture

  • Increased Circulation. Needle therapy causes small blood vessels to widen. This leads to increased blood flow and oxygen supply to injured or overworked muscles and oxygenation. This can help relieve tightness in the muscles that is caused, in part, by a lack of proper blood flow and oxygen supply. This improved circulation supports healing and oxygen delivery to tissues.4
  • Faster Healing. Acupuncture can promote faster recovery by improving range of motion and reducing pain, which facilitates natural healing processes. The needles stimulate proteins and collagen necessary for tissue repair, making your healing more rapid than it would be with manual therapy alone.5
  • Pain Relief. Acupuncture has been shown to provide significant pain relief to those experiencing chronic low back pain, knee pain due to osteoarthritis, headaches, postoperative pain, or trigger point pain.6
  • Muscular Relaxation. Acupuncture can help temporarily decrease muscle tone, allowing for proper relaxation and recovery of your muscles.7 Acupuncture regulates muscle tone, alleviates muscle pain, and facilitates strengthening by targeting specific brain regions.8

Additional recent clinical evidence further supports the effectiveness of acupuncture in relieving musculoskeletal pain, improving functional outcomes, and enhancing muscle performance in athletes.9

What Does Acupuncture Treat?

Almost anything can be treated with acupuncture. It’s a low-risk treatment with very few contraindications, although being afraid of needles isn’t ideal. However, we most commonly treat musculoskeletal injuries and pain related to those injuries, since that’s our speciality as physiotherapists. 

This commonly includes:

How Acupuncture Fits With Your Physiotherapy Plan

We always use acupuncture needling as part of a comprehensive physiotherapy plan. Our plans can include treatments such as massage therapy, manual therapy, hands-on therapy, and exercise assignments. 

Physit’s treatment philosophy has two key points: to take the time with every patient to understand what’s going on and tailor an appropriate treatment plan, and to treat the problem the patient is experiencing beyond the symptoms. 

We have consistently found that acupuncture treatment provides rapid pain relief, accelerates healing, and complements a comprehensive treatment plan tailored to a patient’s lifestyle and goals. It won’t be something we recommend for every patient, but it may be ideal as part of an ongoing plan to help you return to full function. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Acupuncture

My physiotherapist brought acupuncture needles, but I’m sceptical this will help. Does acupuncture work?

That’s common! Research has shown that acupuncture is highly effective in relieving certain conditions, particularly those affecting the musculoskeletal system, such as pain, aches, strains, sprains, and other related issues.10

While we can inform you about the research, we recommend that you try it if you feel comfortable doing so. Acupuncture is extremely low-risk. 

If you feel no improvement after your treatment, then we’ll know that’s not something that can be an effective part of your treatment plan—and that’s okay! There’s no pressure to try it if you really don’t want to.

What are the differences between a Traditional Chinese Medicine approach to acupuncture and acupuncture as it’s practised today?

A Traditional Chinese Medicine approach focuses more on the original system of Qi that was used when acupuncture evolved as a treatment, particularly during needle insertion. Acupuncture at Physit is an adapted version of this that strategically targets the nervous system for muscle relief — and sometimes headache relief, too.11

We utilise the current understanding of how the nervous system is connected to the muscles and surrounding tissues, as well as how these systems interact, to effectively provide relief. 

Is acupuncture more widely accepted by medical professionals?

Today, we find it is. Many medical professionals find it can be an effective form of pain relief for their patients. The NICE(the NHS advisory board) also updated their guidelines in 2021, stating the evidence supporting pain relief from acupuncture was robust enough that physicians should recommend it as an option.12

Target the Root Cause of Your Pain with Acupuncture at Physit

Acupuncture is an evidence-based evolution of the Traditional Chinese Medicine technique of acupuncture. Today, this needle therapy benefits our physiotherapy patients by providing non-invasive pain relief for musculoskeletal conditions like short or long-term back pain, knee pain, and pain at a muscle knot(also known as a trigger point). 

It also helps our patients as they recover from surgery or manage headaches caused by muscle tension. It’s a wonderful complementary therapy to our other offerings, like manual therapy, massage therapy, tailored exercise programs, and lifestyle adjustments. 

If you’re curious about whether acupuncture is right for you, you can find out at Physit today. Our expert physiotherapists bring personalised care right to your door, all without the traffic and waiting rooms. You receive focused, one-on-one treatment tailored to your goals, schedule, and space.
Are you curious about what in-home acupuncture can do for you? Contact us today to schedule a consultation.

Works Cited

  1.  Hao, J. J., & Mittelman, M. (2014, July). Acupuncture: Past, present, and future. Global Advances in Health and Medicine, 3(4), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.7453/gahmj.2014.042 ↩︎
  2.  Van Hal, M., Dydyk, A. M., & Green, M. S. (2022). Acupuncture. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532287/ ↩︎
  3.  American Physical Therapy Association. (n.d.). Dry needling. In Patient care: Interventions. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.apta.org/patient-care/interventions/dry-needling ↩︎
  4.  Brown, J., Kearns, G., & Wang-Price, S. (2025). The effects of dry needling on muscle blood flow of the infraspinatus in individuals with shoulder pain: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Manual & Manipulative Therapy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10669817.2025.2464542 ↩︎
  5.  Yang, M., Zheng, D., Jin, X., Tang, H., Cao, W., Ye, Q.,… Mei, Z. (2025). The efficacy of acupuncture in relieving postoperative pain in patients with low simple anal fistula: Protocol of a prospective, randomised, controlled trial. PLOS ONE, 20(1), e0317902. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317902 ↩︎
  6. Van Hal, M., Dydyk, A. M., & Green, M. S. (2025). Acupuncture. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. Treasure Island, FL. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532287/ ↩︎
  7. Brown, J., Kearns, G., Hedges, E., Samaniego, S., & Wang‑Price, S. (2023). The effects of dry needling on muscle blood flow of the infraspinatus in individuals with shoulder pain: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, 44(1), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1002/jum.16590 ↩︎
  8.  Fan, Z., Dou, B., Wang, J., Wu, Y., Du, S., Li, J., Yao, K., Li, Y., Wang, S., Gong, Y., Guo, Y., & Xu, Z. (2024). Effects and mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia mediated by afferent nerves in acupoint microenvironments. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17, Article 1239839. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1239839
    ↩︎
  9. Bailey, S. D. (2022). The underlying mechanism of acupuncture on enhancing muscle strength: A review of literature. International Journal of Sports and Exercise Medicine, 8, Article 236. https://doi.org/10.23937/2469-5718/1510236 ↩︎
  10. Van Hal, M., Dydyk, A. M., & Green, M. S. (2025). Acupuncture. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing. Treasure Island, FL. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532287/ ↩︎
  11. White, A., & Editorial Board of Acupuncture in Medicine. (2009). Western medical acupuncture: A definition. Acupuncture in Medicine, 27(1), 33–35. https://doi.org/10.1136/aim.2008.000372
    ↩︎
  12.  National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2021, April 7). Rationale and impact. In Chronic pain (primary and secondary) in over 16s: Assessment of all chronic pain and management of chronic primary pain (NICE guideline NG193). Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/chapter/Rationale-and-impact ↩︎