I haven't had acupuncture for a while - several years ago, I developed fibromyalgia and unfortunately, acupuncture seemed to aggravate it for me. I've heard that other people have a different experience, but I had to stop.

When I did get regular acupuncture, I get it every couple of weeks, it usually helps right away and the benefits last a while. How long depends on your general health, whether you're in the middle of a flare, etc., but I didn't need it every week (also, couldn't afford it every week). I did find that going on a regular basis helped my general health, so for me it worked in two ways: one, by offering symptomatic relief of pain and two, by a more long-term general wellness kind of feeling.

Acupuncture needles are inserted along what is called meridians. According to Chinese medicine, our energy (QI - pronounced chi) travel along meridians/lines in the body and illness happens when some of these meridians are blocked. This is a huge generalization of Chinese medicine - there's much more to it than I can recommend that if you do get acupuncture, you talk to your practitioner about it. It's fascinating. Where the needles are inserted depends entirely on the diagnosis of practitioner gives you. For instance, RA is known to be caused by "damp heat" - which makes sense if you think about it, RA does feel like a sort of soggy heat - and there are certain points in the body that address dampness. I think one of them's around the elbow. There's another point on the top of your head that helps general wellness and then, of course, there are the points that address pain in specific joints.

Let us know how it goes, please? I think there are a lot of users who would appreciate a first-hand account of acupuncture and RA.

check out if there are schools of acupuncture, Chinese medicine or a college of naturopathic medicine near you - places like that often of student clinics where people studying to become practitioners or naturopathic doctors treat patients under the supervision of accredited/license practitioners or naturopathic doctors and where the treatments offered either at a much reduced price or on a sliding scale. The website of the Association of American Naturopathic Medical Colleges may be able to direct you to a college near you or be the first step to finding a student clinic or perhaps the clinic that offers treatment while charging on a sliding scale.