Acupuncture for Stroke Patients
By Sarah Hayes, LAc, Acupuncture Northwest Portland
Acupuncture can provide significant results when used to treat stroke rehabilitation.
Clinically we see our patients improve markedly from neural deficits compared to the western treatment of PT and OT. Acupuncture works to improve a patient’s blood flow and restore the nervous system, providing a stroke patient with improvement after every acupuncture treatment.
Treatment has the biggest impact when performed in the acute stage. Treatments are recommended 2-3 times a week for the first 6-8 weeks, depending on severity, and then once a week thereafter. The treatments build on each other and after each treatment, patients report incremental improvement. We have found that scalp acupuncture excels over body acupuncture in treating neurological conditions such as strokes. The treatments are very comfortable and extremely effective for the patient, they report progress after the majority of sessions. If it were my family member, acupuncture treatment for a stroke would be our first line of defense.
