I understand the fear of needles. What most people are familiar with is the hypodermic needle of western medicine. They use it to draw blood or inject fluids, so they have to be hollow, and as a result are much bigger than our needles. Ours are solid, and much, much thinner. In fact, they are only about twice the thickness of hair. It’s probably more accurate to describe them as filaments, but needles are the usual word.
When I show them to new patients, and demonstrate how easily you can bend them, they say, “how can you make this go straight?” That’s just one of the skills of the acupuncturist we learn in school. I actually was able to get through a leather shoe with a 34 gauge needle without bending it. (more…)