Can I Receive Acupuncture If I Have a Bleeding Disorder or Take Blood Thinners?

The chances of bleeding or bruising from needles may increase if you have a bleeding disorder or if you're taking blood thinners.

Anticoagulant drugs may increase the risk of bleeding after acupuncture

. Doctors should ask patients in detail about their medical history and drug use before acupuncture treatment. People with a heart pacemaker, infusion pump, or other electrical device should avoid electroacupuncture.

Acupuncture is a technique that involves inserting very fine metal needles into the skin at precise points on the body to clear energy channels, with the aim of restoring and maintaining health. Seven provided reports of sufficient quality to evaluate the safety of acupuncture in 384 anticoagulated patients (3974 treatments). These observations do not support the attribution of the cause of the bleeding to the combination of acupuncture and anticoagulants, but rather suggest that anticoagulant combinations were a major problem. Acupuncture appears to be safe in anticoagulated patients, as long as the puncture is located and has the appropriate depth.

The incidence of minor bleeding was 8.31 per 10,000 acupuncture sessions, while the incidence of severe bleeding was 4.26 per 100,000 needles. Electroacupuncture is an improved form of acupuncture that further stimulates acupuncture points or acupuncture points. The acupuncturist may suggest weekly visits or more than once a week over a period of several weeks or longer. In total, four women received 51 acupuncture treatments without electrical stimulation at local and distal acupuncture points.

The treatment involves applying fine needles through the skin, and while in most cases these needles don't even draw blood, anyone with a clotting or clotting disorder can experience excessive bleeding if they undergo treatment. The risk of procedure-related bleeding in anticoagulated patients receiving acupuncture may be lower, but the issue has not yet been fully investigated. The presence of anticoagulation with warfarin, controlled by oral vitamin K to reverse anticoagulation, probably aggravated moderate bleeding in an episode of deep puncture. In a variant of acupuncture known as electroacupuncture, the doctor can use a device to generate electrical pulses along the needles.

People who are taking anticoagulants, such as warfarin, are also not recommended to use acupuncture as these medications have an effect similar to that of some bleeding disorders, as the user will likely bleed profusely if they receive acupuncture.