I think in manual therapy the emphasis is to much on mechanical factors. Since I have been doing acupucture I have realized that joint hypo-/hypermobility is usually the effect not the reason. I also use manual and exercise therapy, but acupuncture is often the method that opens up the way to healing and makes these other methods easier to apply or unneeded.

Aside from the pain relief, acupuncture works by affecting the patological process itself and it is possible to either increase or decrease the inflammation. The first is needed in chronic conditions, the latter in acute.

I strongly suggest anybody interested in acupuncture to really do the homework, find the ever increasing scientific evidence and give acupuncture chance. It could change your clinical practise forever.

It irritates me that people so easily accept Maitland, Mulligan etc. and are at the same time overly skeptical about acupuncture. If I had to choose between joint manipulation, which I have been doing for 10 years, and acupuncture, I would choose acupuncture any day.