Click to enlarge the above graph.

Immediate effects could be happened, and could cure in short term. Mostly, Qi energy blockages are cause. (In this case, western medical point of view, medical doctors would say, "There are no causes we could find.") Sometimes, due to overdid or so, temporarily physical status get worse, but it is easy to recover by treatment.

There are two curves; one is steep (recovering period), the other is gentle (plateau period). Of the steep part, you recover dramatically, while in gentle part, you may not feel it so much. Hence, many patients feel that they do not become better while they are in plateau period. Usually, recovering period and plateau period comes alternately, and overall, patients are getting better. 

The dotted line in the graph shows a case that is frequently seen among patients. In many cases, patients are so well during the recovery period that they tend to push themselves too hard or act in the same way as before, which results in pain and a decrease in the effectiveness of treatment. Even so, it is not uncommon for the patient to return to the status before the start of treatment.

In most cases, the cause is half and half between qi blockage and blood stasis.

The plateau period is extended. In most cases, not only qi stagnation but also blood stagnation is severe due to many years of illness. Basically, the same period of time is needed for recovery as during the time of the disease. Recovery is like a tortoise walking slowly. Since the healing process is gradual, it is difficult to understand whether the patient is really getting better or not. You will know that you are recovering if you increase or decrease the number of acupuncture needles used in treatment, if you feel different heat during moxibustion treatment, and above all if you recall your condition before the start of treatment.

The length of the plateau period varies from person to person: some patients may have a plateau for about two weeks, while others may have it for months. The longer the patient has been suffering from the disease for a long time, the longer the plateau period tends to be so. However, if you do not give up and continue treatment, you will suddenly have another recovery period. Unfortunately, I have seen many cases where patients stop treatment because they cannot wait that long. The tendency to give up in the middle of treatment is more common among Japanese than among foreign patients, among men than among women, and among the elderly than among younger. In other countries, acupuncture and moxibustion treatment is widely recognized as effective in reducing pain, and for this reason, it seems that people overseas are more likely to continue treatment without stopping midway. In Japan, acupuncture and moxibustion treatment still has a very low level of social recognition and trust, as it is painful, suspicious, unscientific, and has no therapeutic effect. Men are less inclined than women to take the time to get the treatment they need. Older men tend to be reluctant to have an immediate effect, and the reason may be that the effects of treatment are not immediately visible to the elderly due to their long illnesses and slow healing rate caused by their age.

The sooner you start treatment, the better. However, even if you continue treatment, it takes time before you realize that the pain and paralysis have been removed as the treatment progresses. Many people give up because the pain and paralysis do not change much even after continued treatment. However, if you continue treatment without giving up, you will suddenly feel relief one day. I have experienced numbness in my legs’ sciatica due to a herniated lumbar vertebra, pain in my tennis elbow, and peri arthritis in my shoulder joints, all of which recovered as shown in this graph. I have also seen patients recover from sciatica, peri arthritis of the shoulder joint, and facial paralysis as shown in this graph. Again, the key is to "never give up. You do it anytime you want, but you have to work very hard not to do it. And that is what leads to a recovery that can be called a miracle.

As I have said many times before, the speed of recovery differs from person to person. The power of qi, the state of qi, diet, the amount of exercise, environmental factors, and the individual's attitude toward treatment are all deeply involved, so it is impossible to say, "You will be cured in x months. However, we have experienced many cases of almost complete recovery from peri arthritis of the shoulder joint in as little as three months if treatment is started immediately after the onset of the disease.

As with the moderate graph, there comes a time of rapid recovery for these diseases. At that time, the pain often returns again due to over-movement or over-exertion because of the sudden relief. They do this because they have become comfortable, even though they are not yet fully healed. Even if the pain returns, it should not be as bad as it was at the beginning of the treatment. If you have a good memory of the initial pain, you will know that the degree of the pain is much less severe. And even if the pain returns because of overwork, it often happens that the pain is drastically reduced after treatment.