How often should I get Acupuncture?

Often a patient will come in for an acute condition, say a sore neck or a painful back, and after the problem is gone they want to continue to get acupuncture for general health and well-being. How often should this person come in for tune-up treatments and why? As far as why you would want to get ongoing treatments, acupuncture when done regularly improves our overall health. Regular acupuncture will keep the body in balance, fine tuned. When the body is in balance everything will work better and your overall health will increase. I have seen this multiple times with patients who have been coming in for some time. They almost all will tell me that they get sick less or that their allergies are better or gone, of that they have gotten off certain medications. As far as how often to come in, it depends on things like age and overall health. Older people should come in more, once every 2 weeks if possible for a while and moving to once a month or so. Younger people can benefit from a few treatments for a number of weeks and then spread it out to once every 5 or 6 weeks. I have seen patients with decades-old chronic conditions who feel better after several visits and then stay because they feel much better . I see even more of these patients, unfortunately, that give up too soon to see the long-term benefits.