healing wisdom

should i try acupuncture?

~ Sean Rachlin, L.Ac. exhale 980 Masdison NY

For those of you who have toyed with the idea of trying acupuncture, but haven’t quite gotten there for whatever reason, let me just share a little bit about my first experience with acupuncture.

About 8 years ago, I had been experiencing some unexplained mid back pain. I had heard about acupuncture in the past, but didn’t know much about it. So, I read some literature, spoke with others in the field and decided it was a good time to try it.

During the first part of the session, the practitioner looked at my tongue, felt my pulse and asked me a whole bunch of questions. In fact, I couldn’t believe how many different questions I was asked. The practitioner wanted to know so much about me and how all of the different systems of my body were functioning. It was much more than what I had expected for a back pain problem. At the time, I couldn’t quite understand why it mattered if I was often thirsty or that my tongue was a little bit redder than normal or that my pulse was wiry. I didn’t realize a pulse could be described like that. All of this questioning and observation also made me realize that I hadn’t been sleeping that well either. This was something I knew, but it didn’t really hit me as something problematic until that moment. Anyway, why did it matter that I was thirsty or I hadn’t slept so well that week. What was the connection between that and my painful back.

Now I know better. It turns out that my Liver qi was stagnated. Interestingly, it also turns out that the area of my mid back that was aching me was the location of acupuncture points that connect directly to my liver. In Chinese medicine, the liver is responsible for the smooth flow of qi throughout the body. Since my liver was not happy at the time, (which apparently was a result of a stressful and transitional time of my life), it was unable to appropriately do its job of keeping my energy moving smoothly. As a result, the stagnated energy in my body began generating heat and drying out my insides which not only made me thirsty, but also agitated my heart and my spirit, thereby affecting my sleep. How could I have been so blind?

When it came time for the acupuncture treatment, I was a little nervous about having needles put in my body, but to my surprise, it was really no big deal. Once the needles were in, I found I was able to relax in a way I hadn’t experienced before. After the needles were taken out, the practitioner used a technique called cupping. Glass cups which had all of the oxygen removed in order to create a vacuum were placed on my mid back where they created a suctioning of the underlying muscles and tissue. This helped to further release the stagnation of my back muscles. Okay, so maybe my back was purple from the cupping, but having all of that stagnated qi released helped my blood to circulate and really reduced my pain. The purple color disappeared within a few days.

Needless to say, my experience with acupuncture was extremely positive. My back felt significantly better, the rest of my body more relaxed and my mind much clearer. What I learned from this experience was that, not only was it necessary for me to relieve the stagnation in the local area of my back, but it was vital for me to have my liver functioning well. This would allow my energy to continue flowing smoothly, prevent my liver from wreaking havoc on my back and the rest of my body and help me to sleep better. I also learned that I really was under a lot of stress. Sometimes you don’t realize how stressed you really are until you are relaxed. The acupuncture treatment not only helped relax me, but helped me to feel clearer in my mind, better in my whole body and helped me realize that I needed to make changes within my own life in order to be healthy in the future.

So, a change is what I made. Within a week after my treatment, I was no longer a starving actor, but a starving student, enrolled at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine to begin my training in a 5,000 year old medicine that has transformed my life and has allowed me to help others on a path to better health.

Try acupuncture. You may be pleasantly surprised. I know I was.