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SummaryThis conversation explores the growing trend of cosmetic acupuncture as an alternative to beauty treatments like Botox and fillers. This ep discusses the mechanisms behind cosmetic acupuncture, its benefits, and how it compares to other cosmetic procedures. It emphasizes the holistic approach of acupuncture, its safety, and the expected treatment frequency and costs, providing a comprehensive understanding.
Takeaways* Cosmetic acupuncture is gaining popularity as an alternative to fillers and Botox.
* It involves using needles primarily on the face, neck, and scalp to enhance beauty.
* The treatment increases blood flow, reduces muscle tension, and boosts collagen production.
* Cosmetic acupuncture has no downtime, unlike many other cosmetic procedures.
* Patients often see immediate results in terms of brightness and firmness of the skin.
* A typical treatment plan involves 10 sessions over five weeks for optimal results.
* Cosmetic acupuncture is a treatment that addresses the body from head to toe.
* The treatment is generally safe, with bruising being the most common side effect.
* Costs vary widely based on location and practitioner. We go into specifics for big cities.
* Patients should communicate any recent cosmetic procedures to their acupuncturist.
Chapters00:00 Introduction to Cosmetic Acupuncture
04:55 Mechanisms and Benefits of Cosmetic Acupuncture
10:00 Comparing Cosmetic Acupuncture to Botox and Fillers
19:45 Treatment Frequency and Expectations
30:01 Safety, Pain, and Cost of Cosmetic Acupuncture
TranscriptOkay, let's talk about cosmetic acupuncture today and all of the questions surrounding it. I still get questions all the time, whether it's from people who have had cosmetic acupuncture before or have only had body acupuncture and have seen cosmetic acupuncture. And then there's also people who have just never heard about it. And cosmetic acupuncture is not a new thing. It's been around for many years.
but I do feel like it is coming more into the mainstream. I guess because of how much it's in my world, I am surprised that people haven't heard about it before because it is seen as an alternative to fillers or Botox. But I guess, you know, we all see what we're being pushed. So it's hard to tell. But I wanted to make one
for all of the commonly asked questions so that it's easy to run through. So let's start with the first question, broad overview of what is cosmetic acupuncture.
Cosmetic acupuncture is using needles mostly concentrated from the decollete upward. And there's a lot of variance with techniques in cosmetic acupuncture, but I will speak for myself and what I personally do. So I use probably 12 to 13 different types of needles, where I at least have that many in my toolbox specifically for
cosmetic acupuncture. And then the body, I probably use up to maybe four or five different types of needles. For the body, you can go up to whatever needle number you want, but I would say most of the time, body acupuncture for other ailments or conditions that you have, usually you use less needles for that than you would for cosmetic acupuncture.
So the two things that I think are the most different about acupuncture used for conditions that are internal versus cosmetic acupuncture is the amount of needles used and the types of needles that are used. So all the needles that I use for the body, I don't use any of them for the face.
I will sometimes use one type of them for the scalp because cosmetic acupuncture involves not just the face, but it can involve the chest, the neck, and then the scalp. It depends on what your goals are and who's administering it, but it can involve all of that. So for the scalp, I do use the same needles most of the time that I would use on the body.
However, anywhere else, they are not the same needles. So my gauges are much smaller and it depends what you're using for your gauge on the body. Some people use smaller diameters of needles for body acupuncture just so that they can reach a wider audience without getting complaints about how much it hurts.
and that's still very effective and it still works. There's nothing wrong with it. I tend to go a little bit thicker on the body, so I tend not to use those needles in facial acupuncture because I do think they're too painful. My range for the face in terms of diameter is 0.12, so 0.12 up to 0.18.
Sometimes I'll do point 20 on myself or my partner because I feel like I can get away with more there. And then this scalp, I will go up to like point 25 because I use that on the body. But it's not a bad thing if you go to someone and they only use one type of needle on your face. That's not inherently a bad thing. It's all about how deep they're going and at what angle they're going.
what your specific problems are. So unfortunately this is one of those things that's like well it depends but hopefully that makes sense as to what could make it different than just getting regular acupuncture.
Okay, so what is it doing? Is it actually accomplishing anything? it a waste of money? This is more from a Western or, you know, science-backed way of thinking of things because unfortunately that's the only way that people receive information usually and I get it because I, half of my brain definitely
is all about that and so that's why I try to concentrate on this sort of stuff in a lot of my posts because I do think that way as well and it makes sense. You just want to make sure that you're safe and it's actually going to be worth your time and money. So I totally understand. So the three things that it's generally doing are increasing blood flow to the face,
It is helping to reduce any muscle tension, so it's relaxing muscles, and it's also increasing the production of collagen and helping to lay more of that down, and that's being concentrated, obviously, in the face.
I always say that we use our face and those muscles every day, all day. We're constantly in and out of making faces, whether it's disgust, anger, joy, whatever. And we never ever stretch those muscles and we rarely massage them. So if you think about it, your face is part of the rest of your body and the rest of your body
intuitively you're like, okay, let me stretch a little before I run, whatever. But then with our face, we never think to do that. And so this is just a side note, but I find that for the first treatment that most people get, probably the first like two to three, honestly, people find that the forehead when I needled there and like around the mouth is so
tender, even just pressing on it is tender. So the main thing that we want to do is increase blood flow to the face because if you don't have adequate, when I say adequate, I'm not talking about you're not having the blood flow at all to the face. Obviously then your tissue would die. So you don't have dead tissue on your face. You are getting technically.
blood flow and adequate blood flow for your cells to survive. But I'm talking about releasing muscles and decreasing the agitation in those muscles, relaxing them so that blood flow is more optimally brought up to the head and face. So those are two things. Botox as we
All-know is used for relaxing the muscles. It paralyzes them. The thought behind that is that once your muscles are overworked and overused, as most of the muscles on our face are from eating, expressing, all the things, that tightness can lead to the lumps, the bumps, the sagging, the wrinkles, all the things.
So the whole mechanism of action behind Botox is to stop that from happening. It just paralyzes your muscles so that they basically relax. They're forced into a state of relaxation so that it kind of smooths out any area that you put it in. So cosmetic acupuncture is also doing that. It is relaxing the muscle and we'll go into later more of the
like how many times you should get it done sort of thing, but high level blood flow and relaxing those muscles. The buzzword of collagen is also important to add in here. So it is helping to increase that collagen production at sites of micro trauma, which the needles are. So
That is definitely happening. I don't have perfect research or how I feel about oral collagen that people take these days. That's been a thing for many years and I actually used to take collagen like powers probably like in college. I don't even know like how old I was but I do remember taking like that.
vital proteins, it like a blue container. And I have not taken it since I stopped because it was a waste of money to me at the time. And then since then I've been in school, I have loads of other things that I could be spending money on. So I've not taken collagen in many years. I don't really notice a difference. There is conflicting research on it, so I'm not sure.
who can give us a direct response. If anyone knows, please inform me. So the reason I bring that up is because people always ask, if I take collagen powders through the mouth and I digest them, are they doing anything for my skin? I've heard that there's like a camp of people who think, well, if you're already deficient, then your body is going to use that.
protein for what it's deficient in and to build up the body. So maybe it will go to joints instead. The thought is that if you have everything else taken care of, then your body can send it to more extraneous places like the skin. I don't know.
If that's true or not, I mean, it makes sense to me, but there is another, you know, side of this that says, like, you people always say, gelatin, you can just use that. That's not necessarily true. I think gelatin is great for, least from what I know, from building up the gut.
wall, the intestinal wall. I don't know much about it for beauty purposes. I'm not going to say it's like not useful at all, but I don't know how much it is going to help. And then in terms of hydrolyzed collagen, which is the way that people will talk about it for the beauty purposes.
I don't know how much of that is actually getting to your skin and not only just your skin, but your facial skin, because obviously you skin everywhere else. So it's not like your body is like, no, let's just pump it all to the face and make that skin look pretty. So more to come on that. I don't have a direct answer for that. But the reason I bring it up is because
What cosmetic acupuncture is doing is concentrating the collagen in your face. So you know that when you get that done, that collagen is in your face. It's not moving around. It's not being brought to any other tissues. is collagen being produced in your face for your face. So that's something to note and that's something that makes it maybe more powerful to consider.
versus just taking oral collagen.
Another thing to note here is that with cosmetic acupuncture, there's no downtime. With Botox, there usually is, or there's certain things that you can or can't do. And then with other forms of, you know, like other skin procedures, like even microneedling, you can't get that done for certain time periods between sessions because it is more abrasive to the skin. With cosmetic acupuncture, we'll go into
you know, how many times you should be getting it done, all of that. But technically there isn't some set rule that you can only, you know, get it every four weeks or anything like that. And there's no downtime. So you could think about, okay, well, then if I just get, I don't know, any of the other skin procedures that are more invasive and that's creating not even micro traumas, but just trauma to the face that
would then also be increasing collagen production rate. And yes, your body would do that naturally as it's trying to heal. There is...
There's a way to think about it though with diminishing returns. So how much trauma do you want to bring to the face before it becomes, okay, your face can't actually fully heal from that trauma? So with cosmetic acupuncture, you can have bruising and bleeding. Those are the two major side effects. They happen regularly.
They don't happen to everyone, but for instance, on myself, I get a bruise probably once a week, maybe once every other week, but it goes away pretty quickly. It's not a huge deal. Your face is very well-innervated, so... And also, you know, with veins and capillaries and arteries, all the things, all the little capillaries are all over your face.
And so it's very easy to basically. And that's fine, but it is not going to be like a blood bath all over your face like some procedures are. So you have to think for yourself, do you want to be introducing a ton of trauma to your face, especially if you are younger? Does your face need that?
Does it need to completely obliterate its barrier? Does it need to be completely swollen with blood? I guess that's up to the person. I personally would rather start with something less invasive and then if I don't feel like it's enough, move up from there. But...
That's just something to keep in mind. Like how invasive is the procedure and what's the payoff from the procedure? So to me, cosmetic acupuncture can give you more benefit than let's just say a cream or something like that. So I'm willing to go a little bit more invasive for it. But then after that, do I want to get even more invasive or is this working for me? So.
I would think about that in terms of your beauty rituals and procedures.
We basically just touched on this, but another question is, is it safe? So there is a specific form, it's a consent form that I give to fill out that has specifics of cosmetic acupuncture, risks and effects. It is obviously telling you like all the horrific things that could happen. So something, let's say like nerve damage.
However, I have never seen that and I've never heard of that actually happening. I'm sure it does with the amount of times that this has been administered, but I've never heard of that happening. And not only have I not heard of it happening, but I don't imagine that that's permanent, especially given the size of the needles. I can't imagine that that wouldn't heal on its own.
That's like one side of it. But usually what I tell people is for side effects that are more likely to happen, it's bruising and bleeding. Like I said before, both of those can't really be predicted. It really depends on the person. Sometimes I can predict if I've done needling on the person before.
But if I haven't, it's sometimes hard to know how much they are going to bleed. Like I said, I have given myself a couple bruises here and there. They're not huge. They're very small and they usually go away within a day or two. And then sometimes there's nothing. There's actually no bleeding and no bruising. And it looks, you just look better walking out, more bright of a complexion and just like a more youthful.
glow, there's a brightness to the face that's kind of hard to capture and explain. But you can tell that this person just, I don't know, they just look healthy. They look maybe like they did all the greatest things that they could have done for their health that day. And you're like, Ooh, they just have like something to them.
So that also happens. You just walk out as if nothing ever happened. It doesn't leave a hole behind. It doesn't leave any sort of visible trauma to the face. The only possible thing that it might leave behind are little itty bitty bruises, and those will go away.
Does it actually work? So most people will say that they can see a visible difference in their skin, especially when it comes to the brightness and the firmness of their skin. It's kind of hard to explain, even because I do it on myself regularly and when I feel my face, it just feels like supple. It feels a little bit tighter.
And even if I, I'm, you we stare at ourselves all day long. So maybe to me I'm like, okay, is it getting tighter? Like, am I seeing that right? But then when I feel it, I'm like, no, it is. Because I don't know, I just, play with my face a lot and I'm like, no, it definitely is. It feels different. I definitely have a glow. And I notice with patients as well, similarly that happens where they come in a couple of times and then you're like,
you look different. Like you just have this, I don't know what it is, it's just a brightness and an evenness to the skin tone. So all of that will happen. And then we'll go into how many times you should be getting it done, all of that. But for finalizing wrinkles, yes, it does work. Yes, it does reduce them. It's all about how often you're willing to come to treatment.
So how many sessions do you need? This is what we recommend. It's 10 treatments as close together as possible. So usually it's 10 treatments over five weeks. So it's twice a week. And then we can reevaluate at that point, whether it makes sense to come still twice a week. Usually not though. Usually it's anywhere between once a week or once every two weeks or once a month.
and then it gradually just gets more and more more spaced out. But that initial 10 treatments two times a week is pretty crucial. And then depending on the person and your age and what you're looking for, we can then decide how much we want to space you out. But you can go as long as six weeks without getting a treatment once you're on that maintenance plan. So it might be front loaded with
cost, but then it's not like you're coming twice a week for the rest of your life at all. You're giving your body and your face what it needs to do its job in the future more optimally and better. So every single treatment that you come, you're building on the last treatment. And this is where it differs from Botox. And we'll talk about that.
separately.
Another question is how soon will I see results? So I usually have people say that they see a reduction in puffiness right away and they also feel more bright and they feel a firmness right away. So that's after one treatment. And then usually to see reduction in fine lines, it's usually three to five treatments.
After the 10 treatments, especially because if you have before and afters, it's much easier to tell, but you'll definitely see a change overall in the muscle tone and the muscle relaxation, especially that usually is something that not only visibly can you see, but the person can also feel too. So I would say it depends on what you're looking to see.
but the first treatment is usually those more superficial things. So you will see reduced puffiness and a brightness. And then usually by the end, you will see changes. By the end of those 10 treatments, you'll see changes in some of those fine lines and wrinkles.
So this is what I was touching on a second ago, but the question of how is this different or the same compared to Botox and fillers? Should I do both or is one better than the other? I'm not gonna say that one is better or worse than the other. I'm not here to do that. You can make that decision for yourself, but I do think...
you should be educated on all the different avenues that you can take with your health. So first and foremost, I want to say that acupuncture is not only doing all of these cosmetic things that I just talked about. With cosmetic acupuncture, you do also have to add in body points just to balance out the energy in the body. So if you have all of these needles concentrated at the face, it's
not very grounding. And so to have a full experience and to also help the body come into a more relaxed state, we do body acupuncture as well. So not only are you getting the benefits of the cosmetic acupuncture that we just spoke about, but you're also getting the benefits of regular acupuncture, which I have a whole subsack post about. So I'll leave that to that post.
But overall, that is bringing you into a relaxed state. It is releasing endorphins. And so it has its own benefits that are now coupled with the benefits of the more specific cosmetic acupuncture. So that's something that Botox or filler will never give you. That's one.
Two is that, as I said, you're building on the progress of each previous treatment with cosmetic acupuncture. So each treatment before was a way of guiding the body to say, we're relaxing this muscle, we're depositing collagen here, we're increasing blood flow, this is how the homeostasis should be. And each...
time after that is just building on that foundation so that we can actually space you out to once every four weeks, once every six weeks, whatever it is. With Botox and filler, it is usually just, okay, we're injecting here and then depending on your body and how long it takes to get rid of that, we then, you know, however many weeks after decide to inject again.
but you're not necessarily always building on the last progress. There is some evidence that maybe for Botox that does happen and that's why people get it preventatively. So I won't really speak to that for Botox, but for filler, you're adding something to the face.
and with cosmetic acupuncture, you're not adding anything. You're just using your body's own resources to help optimize the look and feel of your face. So I don't think there's anything wrong with any of it. I will say though for Botox and filler, if you're going to get that, you can't get...
cosmetic acupuncture for at least four weeks. It has to settle and we have to know where it is. I'm not going to put needles into freshly done Botox or filler. So yes, you can get both of them, but they can't be at the same time. So definitely let your acupuncturist know if they are going to do cosmetic acupuncture on you that you've had filler or.
Botox or really any other beauty enhancing treatment. It's just good to know because you don't want to create too much trauma in an area or move anything that's just been done. So that's something to keep in mind. Definitely if you've had Botox in the past month, let anyone else know that you've had that done and that goes for any beauty treatment just to keep it safe.
The question of can this replace Botox or fillers is completely up to you and it's something that for me it can. I've never had Botox or fillers so I'm just going off of what I had and I do cosmetic acupuncture regularly on myself so I'm okay with
the results that I get from it, especially because I am doing it more preventatively. However, if you are older and there's more concern for certain parts of your face and you feel like you want immediate results, then maybe cosmetic acupuncture is not strong enough for you and you would like to try something else. This really is all for the individual.
I would say if you're still in your 20s and early 30s, you definitely can just use cosmetic acupuncture as your form of prevention and also keeping your face even, bright, keeping those fine lines and wrinkles at bay, and also relaxing the face and decreasing that stress.
It's up to you. I would try both, especially if you're already spending money on Botox, at least trying cosmetic acupuncture and seeing if it has enough of a benefit for you to consider maybe not doing as much Botox or doing baby Botox or whatever. But this unfortunately is one of those questions where it really comes down to you and what you're trying to look like. So.
That's on you.
Next question, does it hurt? This, I talked about a little bit in the beginning, but most of the time the spots that I find are the most painful are the ones around the eyebrows. That muscle is used so often that, and none of us are really massaging it or anything. So that one is usually very tight.
And I do find that that one can be a little bit painful, but the thing is, once the needles are in, you're not going to feel pain. It'll be quite relaxing actually, especially with the body acupuncture as well. So sure, they might be a little prickly going in depending on where it is. Usually that forehead area, especially in the eyebrows is where I find that it's most painful for patients. It's not pain that you're like,
my god like this is unbearable I could never do this again but it definitely is like like that's tight I can feel that for sure and then once it's in you're you're like is it still in I can't even tell so it's very minor pricking pain or kind of just like a like a dull ache when it first goes in but then you shouldn't feel anything really
Finally, how much does it cost and is it covered by insurance? I'll do the insurance part first. Usually no. We even struggle with getting all types of acupuncture, like depending on, you know, what it's being used for covered. But there are ways to get around that. If acupuncture is covered by your insurance, you can't label a
treatment as cosmetic acupuncture and get that covered. Similarly for FSA and HSA usage, they're not going to cover that or allow your funds to be taken out for cosmetic acupuncture. But if we add in needles to a regular body acupuncture session, then you can get that body acupuncture session covered. So if it's for, you
let's just say pain of some sort and your insurance company does cover acupuncture for that, then yes. It most likely will not be a full cosmetic acupuncture session. Like there are points on the head and the face already that we incorporate into regular acupuncture sessions. especially, I'm sure you guys have seen this one, but it's right in between the eyebrows. It's called the Yintang That I put in almost everyone just because
I don't know, that's what we do. We just put it in everyone and it does kind of help to relax that muscle a little bit. So for instance, that one, there's other ones on the scalp and on the forehead that are used for let's say headaches or balance method or whatever. There are a ton of points on the face that are not specific to cosmetic acupuncture. So technically, if you...
come in for something else, we might end up putting points on your face. And therefore, kind of creating a pseudo cosmetic acupuncture session, it won't be anything crazy or as targeted as obviously coming in for a full cosmetic acupuncture session. But if you talk to your provider and they say, yeah, these points can also help for whatever else you have, digestion pain.
all the things, then it's a two for one and there you go. But I just want to make it clear that a cosmetic acupuncture session that you book is much more specific and targeted and uses different needles sometimes and concentrates them a lot more and uses different techniques than just using the meridian points that are on the face. So
That's that on insurance. If you book a cosmetic acupuncture treatment, no insurance will not cover that. And then in terms of how much it costs, I practice in LA. So it's probably some of the highest that you'll see. Usually it's New York, LA, and then a few of the other big cities, but I have lived in New York. I'm from New York.
so I can really only speak to those two cities. It's not just because I'm trying to be elitist, it's because that's literally all I know in terms of the landscape. For me personally, I do in-home acupuncture.
I charge $400 for an initial session and that's just if you want a single one-time session and then I do packages for if you book five sessions or ten sessions and then you get a couple hundred dollars off of those. That though is for in-home acupuncture so I come to you and I set literally everything up. It is not a walk in the park for me.
So that's that on that pricing. It ranges for me for in-home from $350 to $400 and I actually think that's not bad at all for in-home. And then for the other practice that I work at, it's high $200 per treatment. And then there are some places where you could probably get it in the $100 somewhere.
Most places in LA that I see that are more popular, it's usually going to have a two in front of it. 250 is usually what I see. That comes with though a whole massage thing before with gua sha and cupping and facial cupping and then body acupuncture and the facial acupuncture and then sometimes we'll have a red light involved too.
So you're getting a lot for that price. It's not the same as getting some other treatment where that treatment is all you're getting. Cosmetic acupuncture, when you see that being advertised, usually it encompasses other modalities to help the effectiveness of that facial acupuncture be as prime as possible. So that's something to keep in mind there.
For other states, I'm sure you can get it for low 100s. I listened to a couple podcasts of people who have practices in smaller towns and they say, you know, they're kind of like the only one who does that within a huge radius in their state. And they can't, they can't imagine charging over $200 for something like that because that's not
the demographic of where they live. So that is a hundred percent dependent on where you are. But I would say for bigger cities, you're probably going to see around 250 per treatment. And then like I said, that eventually gets more and more and more spaced out. So over time, you'll probably end up spending much less than you would for other modalities such as Botox or filler. So you don't have to keep up with it quite as much.
but you can weigh the pros and cons and also the cost to benefit ratio and see if it makes sense for the area that you live in specifically. But yeah, it's not cheap, but it's also, I don't think, expensive for what you get. It really is a spa-like experience. The lights are dimmed down for 30 minutes usually. Could be more depending on the place.
but you'll have infrared light on to keep you warm. Some places do red light specifically for the face as well. And then you just get to lay there with the needles in for 30 minutes. It's very relaxing. puts you into theta brain waves. So it's literally a free meditation. It's like forcing you into one. Cause I know it can be difficult to get yourself into a meditative state. So
This is something that kind of just forces you into there. And I've never had a single person after an acupuncture appointment say that they're not incredibly calm. Most people fall asleep. So that's something to think about too. It's kind of like spa plus medical. And it's an overall really great way to relax the whole body.
and decrease that cortisol and constant chronic stress that I would say most people are dealing with.
Let's summarize by saying that cosmetic acupuncture is a viable alternative to other beauty treatments that are out there. It is a whole body approach to overall skin enhancement and aesthetics. Of course, there's a huge plane going over my head because LA
horse. Okay, it's mostly gone. But yeah, it is a viable option. It is targeting all your muscles at once. It is not just spot treatment or spot correction. We do take into account how all of the muscles are coming together to create influences on each other.
So even if a muscle, let's say, is underused and one is overused, acupuncture is kind of balancing out those two and stimulating the one that is underused and relaxing the one that is overused. Acupuncture is modulating and it's a seesaw. It's not increasing, it's not decreasing. In the body, it has a modulating
effect. So it is bringing you back into balance and it is helping the body to respond to areas or places that are not running optimally. So I hope that this answered questions thoroughly. I tried to do these with no editing and no takes or anything because I don't
really want to do a whole edit on a podcast because I do everything myself. So I just pause in between different sections to give myself a break. But my brain can sometimes, you know, malfunction for a second or I might get tongue tied. So hopefully everything in here made sense and it's not too rambly. And yeah, if you want to find me,
I have all my stuff linked usually in any of the notes. So this is published onto sub stack first and foremost and then it also goes up to YouTube and Spotify and I might do Apple too. guess I should but you can find me in the links that are provided and I do in home LA visits and then I also work at a practice in Pasadena if you're
more of an in-person, you like to go to a place sort of thing. And then I also do telehealth appointments for anyone across the United States who wants to get some herbs for any condition that they have. And that's a whole intake. And then we do that via Zoom, or I should say via my EHR, but same thing via video call, basically. So yeah.
Thank you for listening and I will be back probably with a period one again. We'll see.
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