Is acupuncture safe and are there any side-effects?
Extensive research has shown that reported adverse events following acupuncture are incredibly rare and that most side effects are mild and pass very quickly. Serious side-effects following acupuncture are uncommon with research showing that on average only 1 in 10,000 treatments results in a significant side effect.
Getting treatment from a registered acupuncturist ensures that the person is a fully qualified practitioner who has completed a degree-level training or equivalent. The training includes aspects of western medicine (anatomy, physiology and pathology) and 3500 hours of study have been undertaken. All needles are pre-sterilised, used once and disposed of safely after the treatment.
There are very few side effects from acupuncture treatment from a fully qualified practitioner, which are mild in nature and self correcting such as occasional bruising around the needled area or dizziness. Cupping and Gua Sha can leave a temporary mark (like a bruise) but these should clear in a few days.
What does acupuncture feel like?
The acupuncture needles are very thin (normally 0.2mm which is as fine as human hair) making it possible to slide into the skin and so should be painless. The needles come with a guide tube and the patients generally can only feel the pressure of the guide tube on their skin and not the insertion of the needle. The sensation that patients can feel when the needle is manipulate which is DeQi which can be a dull ache, a dragging or tugging sensation. This shows that the acupuncture point is being stimulated and most patients enjoy feeling this sensation.
What to expect from the first treatment?
Please ensure that you do not have an empty stomach or have just had a heavy meal before the treatment.
It is a good idea to wear loose clothing around the arms and legs as many acupuncture points are located here. If this is not possible, you will be supplied with a patient gown.
If you are on any medications, please bring a list with you.
How will I feel after a treatment?
Most patients feel very relaxed during treatment and may feel a little tired afterwards, therefore this should be taken into consideration if you plan to drive or operate heavy machinery immediately afterwards.
It is also recommended not to drink alcohol within a few hours of the treatment or undertake strenuous exercise.
Most patients feel leave the treatment feeling more relaxed and have an improved sense of well-being.
How many treatments will I need?
This is difficult to answer as each treatment plan is specific to that individual, but in general you should feel a benefit by 4 – 6 sessions. Generally speaking, the longer you have had the complaint or if it is complex in nature, then the longer it will take to correct. Please be assured that you will not receive more treatment than is needed.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Acu and Ear Care Services Ltd privacy notice
This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site https://justinewestacupuncture.co.uk
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age.
Justine West of Acu and Ear Care Services Ltd is the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
Contact Details
Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Acu and Ear Care Services Ltd
Email address: jwestacupuncture@yahoo.com
Postal address: 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
Telephone number: 07414 231235
It is very important that the information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. Please let us know if at any time your personal information changes by emailing us at jwestacupuncture@yahoo.com
WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.
We may process the following categories of personal data about you:
- Communication Data that includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
- User Data that includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back- ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business.
- Marketing Data that includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).
Sensitive Data
We do not collect any Sensitive Data about you. Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at jwestacupuncture@yahoo.com. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
We do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling.
HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may collect data about you by you providing the data directly to us (for example by filling in forms on our site or by sending us emails).
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you made a purchase or asked for information from us about our goods or services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.]
Before we share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes we will get your express consent.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by emailing us at jwestacupuncture@yahoo.com at any time].
DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
- Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
- Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
We are subject to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations that protect your personal data. Where we transfer your data to third parties outside of the EEA, we will ensure that certain safeguards are in place to ensure a similar degree of security for your personal data. As such:
- We may transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data by; or
- If we use US-based providers that are part of EU-US Privacy Shield, we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place; or
- Where we use certain service providers who are established outside of the EEA, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.
If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
DATA SECURITY
We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.
DATA RETENTION
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at jwestacupuncture@yahoo.com
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.
If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.