Fitness Diet Health Zone

On August 13, we published an article on the field of acupuncture. It’s a mystery to most people. But some of you have had experience with the treatment. Here are a few of your emails:

I am a licensed acupuncturist and a Doctor of Pharmacy. I was interested that you were writing about acupuncture. I think it is always good for acupuncture to have info pieces out there. I would change a couple of things however. Written items go back 3,000 years. Non-written items go back 5000 years. It really is a whole rational medical system of thought. And we do give Oriental Medicine diagnosis that sound like weather reports: Heat Cold, Dry, Damp Heat, etc. Mostly, we think in patterns, not causes. In most cases, a person will come in with one complaint, like insomnia, and then find that not only that is better but so is the palpitations and night sweats.

I have done and received a lot of acupuncture. It is amazing to me. I am in awe with how simple it is to understand and to work with. It is absolutely wonderful in conjunction with Western medicine. Western medicine is great for very serious things: breaking a bone, cancer, heart attack, stroke. Oriental medicine is very good at preventing those things from happening. It is not a quick fix, more like a dimmer switch and a change in lifestyle.

By the way, MD and DC can do acupuncture with 100 hours training; they do a few great points. We (LAc) must do 2,600 hours training and can give diagnoses. Thanks for letting me add my two cents.
-Donna Peterson LAc, PharmD

I am 53 years old. Started smoking at about 10. By the time I was 15 I was smoking full-time. I tried to quit so many times. Tried everything. Nicotine patches, Nicotine gum, group hypnosis, the drug Zyban. I did quit for a while but was always edgy and nervous. The desire never went away. As a last hope I tried acupuncture. What a miracle! Not only did I quit craving the cigarettes, but I was calm! The experience was so relaxing. It will be 3 years on August 30.
-Helene

I have been receiving acupuncture treatments for headaches and various other minor health related issues (e.g. sinusitis). I have been relieved of many headaches and minor health conditions. I also started losing some weight and had more energy when I was receiving these treatments on a regular basis. I also believe that these treatments helped me with the way I show my age. I have less wrinkles on my face and the bags I used to have under my eyes have diminished. If I continue getting acupuncture treatments on a regular basis, I know that these bags will disappear. The treatments can get very expensive with the out-of-pocket costs.

On the other hand, these treatments don’t require prescriptions for medicines and the time spent waiting to get the needles turned provides time for a certain amount of “relaxation or down time.” I personally recommend these treatments to my work colleagues and family members. Not every one is ready for this alternative method of treatment. However, I hope that the medical profession changes and that the insurance carriers understand the benefits of acupuncture.

The doctor I receive these treatments from is an M.D. and is certified to treat with acupuncture. Dr. Dunn’s father has been a professor at the University of Texas Health and Science medical school. He received his training from his father and I am definitely a proponent for acupuncture.

Thank you for taking time in reading my email.
-Josefina C.

I am currently living and working in South Korea. About three and a half months ago I suffered a finger injury in a hockey game which caused my ring finger on my right hand to swell up which was very painful and limited the movement of the joint. Basically I couldn’t and still can’t completely close my hand in to a fist. I tried several methods of therapy including anti-inflammatory medicine, a splint, and medicated wraps. I saw several different doctors and nothing seemed to work. All x-rays were negative for fractures or breaks.

Anyways, during a brief visit home to Canada my family doctor said that there isn’t much that can be done for an injury like this except to wait it out. He suggested ultrasound, but wasn’t certain it would be effective. When I returned to Korea I searched for a place that offered ultrasound (which is by no means an easy thing to do here) and I ended up in a place which offered both ultrasound and acupuncture.

The doctor is fully accredited, and so I hear, somewhat famous for his acupuncture treatment. He said that it would be much more effective than ultrasound in this situation, so I decided to try it out. He said it would take about a month or so to heal (which isn’t so bad seeing as it’s been three already).

So I’ve been getting the treatment for two and a half weeks now and I haven’t seen any results in terms of the swelling going down or an increase in the mobility of the finger, however the pain which I felt on a daily basis has been greatly reduced. So it appears to be working at this point. I should say, at times, it is a little bit painful when the needles go in and come out, but it all depends on where they are placed. Obviously there are some tender points along the finger that don’t have a lot of padding. He usually works all the way up the forearm, and aside from the finger, it is other wise painless.

Sometimes they heat up some of the needles. Sometimes they attach some kind of burning incense either on or beside the needles, very much like something you would see in an 80’s Steven Segal movie. After the regular treatment, he uses another larger needle that looks a lot like a pen to puncture certain areas where they draw blood from. This hurts. I’m not really sure why they do it and it’s a little too complicated to explain seeing as we don’t speak the same language, so I just let him do his thing. Also something you might be interested in, they also offer an acupuncture/herbal tea diet program where they specifically blend tea according to your weight loss needs. I’m not sure if this is going too far or not. Anyways, I hope my experience helps you out, if you want I will let you know if there is any progress in terms of my hand getting back to normal. Thanks.
-Ken