Can acupuncture help with that?

(Originally published in 2021)

Most people have heard of acupuncture, but many people don't fully understand how it works or what kind of diseases and symptoms it can treat. I thought I'd highlight some interesting cases my clinic has seen over the years.

The easiest thing to treat with acupuncture is pain: all types, any location, acute or chronic. Most people, oddly enough, don't think of acupuncture first if they are injured or have acute pain. But, truly, that is where acupuncture shines the brightest. I can't tell you how many hunched over, limping, immobile people have hobbled into my clinic and walked out upright with little to no pain after just 45 minutes. So I thought I wouldn't really highlight pain-related conditions because there are just too many to talk about!

One mechanism of acupuncture that really excites me is how easily acupuncture can stimulate our autonomic nervous system (ANS). Our ANS is made up of three branches: the sympathetic, also termed "fight or flight," the parasympathetic, or "rest and digest," and the enteric nervous system. So, when people have any symptom that is related to an organ that is not behaving properly, we have a simple and effective way to tell that organ to speed up or slow down. Of course, there are many other possibilities of why organs and metabolism can be dysfunctional, but with some differential diagnosis, we might try this kind of treatment.

Some details and demographics might be changed to protect patients' privacy. We had a case where a person had struggled with decades of relentless stomach pain. They had every test under the sun and everything was normal including blood work. Essentially, nothing was wrong with them, except the excruciating stomach pain. After doing a thorough assessment, we were able to postulate that the stomach pain was potentially due to a hyperactive sympathetic nerve controlling the stomach. If the stomach can't relax because it has too much of that fight or flight nerve impulse, it will have difficulty digesting and refilling stomach acid. After a few sessions, the stomach pain had minimized dramatically, and after a short while, it was gone completely! A simple needling around certain nerves that research has shown stimulate the relaxation portion of the autonomic nervous system helped them tremendously! We have also had numerous patients come in for either inability to urinate, or too frequent urination. These are other very easy cases to deal with. We simply stimulate the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system to speed up or slow down the nerve impulses that control the bladder. I've even had severe cases where patients were either having to wear protective padding all the time or had to get catheterized because of too much or too little bladder control. These treatments made a huge impact on these patients' lives!

Another fun type of case we see pretty often is for labor induction and pregnancy complications. We see many women who suffer with breech babies, and after less than 20 needles and a 25-minute nap, we get to see these babies turn to the correct position. Sometimes it happens at home after a few hours; other times we see it right there in the clinic. If a woman is due to have her baby within two weeks or is past her due date, we can always help! We have had a few water breaks in the clinic but most labor inductions happen a few hours after 1-3 acupuncture treatments. I was part of a grant study in New York City to find the efficacy of acupuncture during labor to reduce complications and progress labor safely. The outcomes were very positive! I was able to not only give acupuncture to women who were actively laboring, but also in the operating room! I still run into patients who I did a labor induction for or came in for fertility issues, and their kids are now in middle school. I love that!

Fertility is another slam dunk at our clinic. Our fertility specialist, Dr. Jill, has more training than most acupuncturists have and has a clinical doctorate with even more training in fertility. She's helped more women get pregnant than we can keep track of at this point. We recently had a case where the patient was told she had less than a 1 percent chance to conceive. She was older with some hormonal complications. After treating her with acupuncture, she became pregnant after only one month!

Another great visible disease we see dissolve in front of our eyes is the swelling from both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. We see many patients who have been unable to wear their wedding rings, fit into their closed-toed shoes, or even put gloves on from extreme joint swelling. After a few sessions of medical acupuncture, we see the redness and swelling reduce. Acupuncture works to fight off many inflammatory cells that are directly responsible for redness, swelling and other complications of arthritis.

Some people respond far faster than others and some patients need a heavier focus on decreasing systemic inflammation to assist the acupuncture efficacy. It is always amazing to see how painful someone's joints can look, and then witnessing them going back to normal.

These are just some examples of interesting cases we see on a daily basis. As acupuncturists, we do tend to see some of the most unique and difficult cases. Mostly because many of our patients come to us and say, "I have tried absolutely everything else there is to try and this is my last resort."

It's officially been 10 years this month that I've been treating people with holistic medicine here in Evergreen! I'm so passionate about helping people, and I feel so honored to continue to do so here in my hometown! My clinic is now open 7 days per week!