During a recent Q&A session of a Presidential Town Hall meeting in St. Louis, one licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist in Florissant, Mo., got to ask President Barack Obama what must certainly be one of the most important questions in the minds of all alternative health practitioners.

Below is a transcript of the question and President Obama's answer, which does appear to be positive toward the inclusion of alternative therapies into health care reform.

Q: I'm a licensed acupuncturist and licensed massage therapist in Florissant. And so...

President Obama: I could use one right now. (Laughter.) My back is stiff. I've been working hard...

Supermodel, Elle Macpherson, recently said in an interview with UK tabloid, News of the World, “I have acupuncture regularly and I see a Chinese doctor who treats most common ailments with herbs.” ...

The 61-year-old now relies on acupuncture to keep himself in shape, saying he can't get enough of the practice. "It's one of my favourite things. I get it all the time, like twice a week, for my well being," he told American talk show host Ellen Degeneres. "I just go and get my 'waa' put in place, and get everything moving." ...

In my later years of medical school, I thought that pain treatment was below me. Even though acupuncture was best known for its effective pain relief, I thought that the Western medical world was simply behind as usual. We were amazed to learned all the other diseases we could treat with acupuncture, like neurological problems, immune system dysfunction, anxiety, and depression, and I thought, "Anyone can treat pain. I'd rather focus on something more interesting."...

Research carried out in 2002 indicated that almost 80% of the world's population would suffer from some kind of back pain with lower back pain being the most common type. In addition to the high rate of incidence, back pain is also known to have a high rate of recurrence in patients. With patients trying everything from over the counter painkillers to physiotherapy to gain relief from back pain, Acupuncture comes as a welcome change...

Acupuncture provides miraculous healing of those awful body pains that antibiotics and medicines otherwise fail to reduce. Whether you are suffering from back pain, arthritis, joint pains, or severe migraine/headache, acupuncture has a whole new world of remedies for your intense suffering...

Over the past few years it has been found that as a good alternative way of helping people who wish to stop smoking. The treatment is carried out by the insertion of needles to various specific points on the patient’s body, including a few points around the outer ear. The way the treatment works is that it is supposed to help reduce the cravings a person feels for a cigarette and to help those who are already on their way to quitting smoking. During the first years when the use of acupuncture was being used for helping people to quit smoking it became quite popular and certainly had a large number of followers who began to recommend it to others...

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese healing system that has been found to be successful in effectively treating different type of health conditions. It is believed that this form of treatment is about 2000 years old. Earlier acupuncture was not very widely accepted as a form of treatment in the west. Extensive research and studies were done on this and acupuncture has been found to be effective in curing many diseases. The World Health Organization or WHO has recognized more then 40 types of diseases that can be effectively cured by acupuncture. Acupuncture can successfully cure depression besides several other mental disorders...

There are many different types of acne treatments available, and one that tends to go unnoticed is acupuncture treatment. Results can be varying when undergoing acupuncture treatment though...

While it may be a little hard to discern the success rate, some are saying that acupuncture has about a 90% rate of success for those with insomnia. Others report different findings, but overall it has helped many...

Your eyes are a reflection of your overall health.  Illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease can be revealed in the eyes. Conditions such as glaucoma, optic neuritis or vision loss are often associated with systemic health problems.  It is this interconnection between your eyes and your health that acupuncture and Oriental medicine can tap into and utilize to treat eye and vision problems.  Eye conditions respond well to acupuncture and it has been used successfully to treat a wide range of eye problems for centuries...

When functioning properly, the thyroid gland secretes just the right amount of thyroid hormone to regulate almost all the metabolic processes in your body. Too much or too little of these vital body chemicals and it can drastically influence energy levels, body weight and your mental health. With over 20 million Americans living with some form of thyroid disease, much attention has been given to the many ways that acupuncture and Oriental medicine can treat thyroid problems...

Acupuncture treatments for fibromyalgia (FMS) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME/CFS) are becoming much more common, either alone or as a complementary therapy. Chinese acupuncture dates back thousands of years as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) but only caught the attention of the American public in the 1970s. The National Institutes of Health formally recognized acupuncture as part of mainstream medicine in 1997, saying the procedure is safe and effective at treating a wide range of conditions, including fibromyalgia. Acupuncture Studies In the West, acupuncture has been studied more for FMS than ME/CFS, but many doctors, acupuncturists and people with ME/CFS say they've had success with it. Several Chinese studies have shown it's effective for ME/CFS. Your specific Western diagnosis likely won't be important to an acupuncturist, who uses different terminology to diagnose and treat you. As acupuncture has moved more into the mainstream, many insurance companies have added it to their policies, and some doctor's offices and clinics have begun to offer it at their facilities. Make sure you know the details of your insurance policy before assuming it will cover acupuncture treatments...

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that causes pain, numbness, and tingling in the fingers or hands, particularly the thumb, index, middle, or ring fingers. Loss of sensation in the fingers and weakness in the hands can also occur.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by repetitive finger and hand use (especially with improper positioning). A nerve called the median nerve becomes compressed as it passes through the carpal tunnel, the narrow passageway of bones and ligaments on the underside of the wrist.

Conditions such as obesity, pregnancy, hypothyroidism, arthritis, and diabetes can also cause carpal tunnel syndrome.

Natural Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatments