Probing Acupuncture

Using needles to rid a person of backaches, headaches, indigestion and a host of other disorders may seem counterintuitive.

Acupuncture aficionados, however, will be the first to point out that these tiny needles can bring big relief.

I first tried acupuncture a decade ago to help with a chronic health condition that conventional Western medicine could not resolve. After a few months of treatments, not only was I healed but I also felt less stressed overall.

Additionally, I slept better, and got colds less often.

Acupuncture is based on a traditional Chinese model of health and illness, first outlined over 2,000 years ago in the ancient text The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.

Can You Feel It

According to this system, illness and disease are caused by imbalances in a person's qi or chi (pronounced "chee").

Qi is usually described as one's life force or vital energy. It flows through the body by a series of channels called meridians. Visit an acupuncturist and you're likely to see a poster on the wall that maps out these meridians (and their corresponding acupuncture points).

There are 12 main meridians, which relate to the five major organ systems: heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach/spleen, liver/gallbladder. Acupuncture points fall along the meridians, and to treat a patient, an acupuncturist assesses imbalances in the qi and major organ systems using a person's pulse and symptom description.

Then, hair-thin acupuncture needles are inserted to redirect blocked qi flow, which harmonizes the relationship between the systems and results in relief from pain or illness.

Scientifically, exactly how acupuncture works is not well understood. For pain management, acupuncture has been proven to stimulate endorphin responses in the body, but even acupuncturist and physician Dr. Bruce Gilbert told me that doctors still don't understand how acupuncture reduces anxiety or relieves chronic conditions -- they just know that it does help.

As Baton Rouge acupuncturist Kenneth Chow points out, "Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years and has been proven to help with many conditions, so most [patients] don't really care how it works."

In both China and Japan, acupuncture is an integral part of their health care systems; since 1995, acupuncture needles have been approved for medical use by the FDA here in the U.S.

A licensed acupuncturist (LAC) trains for at least three years. Licensing regulations vary by state, but most require acupuncturists to pass the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

A growing number of traditional Western physicians are incorporating acupuncture, because, as Gilbert points out, "Our patients are going to acupuncturists, whether they tell us about it or not."

Gilbert, who runs a urology practice in Great Neck, N.Y., is one of the directors of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA).

Gilbert became interested in acupuncture after a patient of his reported relief from a chronic condition after undergoing the process. Gilbert decided to take the accelerated physician training in acupuncture offered by the AAMA, and has not been disappointed: "Time and time again, patients come in for acute events and the acupuncture is like voodoo -- it just works."