Chinese Medicine
Everyone knows a little something about traditional Chinese medicine or has, at least, heard of acupuncture. I began exploring both more than ten years ago when I felt particularly desperate about my then five year old daughter's uncontrolled seizures.
I found a good Chinese doctor through a school in Los Angeles, a school, I read, that worked closely with UCLA's oncology department. I figured UCLA had done the research and the school had to be reputable, so I made an appointment and brought my daughter in. The Chinese doctor worked for years with Sophie, and while her seizures weren't cured, her quality of life improved tremendously. She began sleeping through the night and was far less agitated and irritable. We were able to wean her from three very powerful and addictive anti-epileptic medications that did nothing for her seizures but had serious side effects. She began to gain weight and move more easily in her body.
“All maladies are caused by disharmony or disturbances in the flow of energy. Acupuncture treatment is meant to realign or reharmonize these disturbances, and on a more elevated level, to enable the realigned cells to unite with the cosmic energy of the universe,” writes Glen D. Braunstein, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Medicine, Cedars Sinai. In his Huffpost article “Evaluating the Clinical Effectiveness of Acupuncture,” Dr. Braunstein gives an excellent summary of the conflicting evidence about the efficacy of acupuncture and also speaks of its growing importance in integrative medicine.
I now go to the same Chinese doctor that treated Sophie for so many years. When I go more than two weeks or so without Dr. Jin and her needles and Chinese herbs, I can really feel it. I feel it in my bones, I feel it in my sleep, I feel it when I snap at my husband and the kids. I feel it when I watch Sophie have seizures. What I feel is bad, really bad. So, I went back to Dr. Jin today for acupuncture, a tune-up, something or anything to make me feel better. When I got there she took my pulse and looked at my tongue. She asked me how I was and when I said, “irritable,” she told me that I had too much heat. Or was it spleen? In any case, I lay down on the table and while we talked about her ancient parents in China and various other things, she pushed down on spots all over my head right before sticking the needles in.
"Hurt?" she said, while pressing so hard on my scalp I winced.
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