HS-ACUPUNCTURE.COM's Portland Office!

*We have moved. Stay tuned for new location -- 773 Congress Street*

Come experience some of the many benefits of Chinese medicine -- refreshed energy, better sleep, and improved digestion; freedom from pain or headaches; treatment for anxiety or depression, auto-immune conditions, menstrual irregularities, and sports injuries. 

My current office hours in Portland include Sunday aternoons, and arrangements may be made for other days. In addition, I will continue to see patients in my Brunswick office, next to the Wildflours gluten-free bakery on 54 Cumberland St. 

CLASSICAL CHINESE MEDICINE: A Sophisticated and Comprehensive Framework

I practice Classical Chinese medicine, which is a sophisticated and comprehensive medical system, providing a wide range of treatment strategies to meet your individual needs and address the root cause of any condition.

PASS IT ALONG...

Please feel free to spread the word and forward this message to someone who might be interested, and let me know if you have any questions.

Your treatment table and refreshed health awaits... : )

Honoring Our Veterans & Community Protectors

December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, found me honoring our veterans this year by volunteering free acupuncture at the Mid-Coast Veterans Council. This is an important part of my community service, and I enjoy meeting new faces and visiting with familiar ones every time I do it. They are a great group of people.

Likewise, I extend my commitment to our protectors in our communities by offering generous discounts for acupuncture as part of Code Gratitude, available to all men and women, who have served or are serving in Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, Military or related agencies.

*For more info about the benefits offered through Code Gratitude, visit here: http://codegratitude.com/listings/hs-acupuncture/

*For more information about free acupuncture for veterans at the former Brunswick Naval Air Base, visit here: http://mid-coastveteranscouncil.org/

*For more information about how the military is using acupuncture in combat, read here: http://www.usmedicine.com/agencies/department-of-defense-dod/auricular-acupuncture-convenient-technique-for-battlefield-pain/

A big thank you to all those who keep us safe and save our lives!

The Many Styles of Acupuncture

Classical Chinese Medicine vs Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) vs 5 Element vs Korean Style vs Japanese Style Acupuncture....

What's the difference?

The unique traditions of Chinese medicine have much to do with the history of China, with its ever evolving social, intellectual and political influences.

Books could be, and have been, written about this development, as multi-layered as its dynasties. I recommend these two books from my shelf, if you are interested in learning more about Chinese medicine's journey to the Western world:

 Click images for links.

While I am by no means a scholar on the topic, here is a thumb-nail sketch of some of the basic differences among these various styles of acupuncture:

*Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): I once heard said that a more accurate name for Traditional Chinese Medicine might be Modern Chinese Medicine, in that its origin dates back to the 1950's, when Chairman Mao had the medicine simplified in order to serve an expanding Chinese population and to be able to export some of the medicine's basic tenets to the West. In order to mirror Western medicine, many of the mental and spiritual elements were peeled away. Most acupuncturists in the USA know or practice some form of this tradition.

*Classical Chinese Medicine: Classical Chinese medicine is what had been practiced prior to the 1950's, with its rich philosophies and various schools of thought and traditions. An understanding of the mind and body as part of one integrated whole is essential to a Classical medical perspective. Whereas TCM works mostly within the 12 primary meridians, Classical Chinese medicine includes five meridian systems, resulting in 70 meridians with which to work, enabling the practioner a greater level of precision and application.

*Five Element Acupuncture: JF Worsley (1923-2003) also sought in more modern terms to reunite the spirit with the mind and body in the medicine, with focus and attention on the Five Phases or transitions in the cycle of life.

*Japanese Style Acupuncture: is often meridian based, relying on palpation, and with its gentle needle insertion techniques can be considered a refinement of the Chinese tradition.

*Korean Style Acupuncture: is well-known for specializing for microsystems such as the hand.

Within each tradition, there is also variation based on the individual practitioners and their own unique collection of training and continued education as well as personal cultivation.

I hope this overly brief synopsis can provide you with at least a framework for appreciating these traditions.

Contact me if you are curious about any other style of acupuncture you know about or have experienced and would like to see discussed. 

SPEAKING WITH MD's

Click here for UNC Medical School Program

I was invited to speak to a group of medical school students at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. The Med School had arranged an introduction to alternative therapies for these future MD's, and I was there to represent the perspective of acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

My hope was to demonstrate how care by an acupuncturist could complement a Western or allopathic medical doctor's care for patients. Here are some highlights from my talk:

*Focus on the Individual: In Chinese medicine, we like to say that our focus is on treating the individual, not just the condition. This often means that we frequently spend more time with our patients, both within our appointments, as well as on a weekly and monthly basis, and therefore over the course of the year.

In terms of treatment, instead of one approach, like advising aspirin for a headache, there are many ways an acupuncturist can treat a patient with pain. We base our acupuncture point prescriptions and herbal formulas, not only on the quality, location, duration and frequency of the patient's experience of pain, but also on the unique diagnoses provided by the patient's tongue and pulse. Many times we will refer back to the patient's pulse during treatment to ensure they are getting the care they need to alleviate their symptoms.

*Safe Treatment, Many Tools: Before I was introduced to the class of medical students, I displayed a few of the many tools available to acupuncturists in providing safe and effective care for our patients. These tools include: needles, moxabustion, gua sha, cupping, e-stim, herbs and essential oils. Click HERE for pictures. Both the variety and safety of these treatments, without dangerous side effects, enable acupuncturists to deliver an individualized, high standard of care.

*Time Spent With Patients: As mentioned earlier, most acupuncturists often see their patients weekly. This time and opportunity for ongoing follow-up allows an acupuncturist to get to know their patients, but also places acupuncturists in an uniquely advantageous position to monitor and refer patients for Western medical treatment as needed.

*Whole Patient Approach: An acupuncturist's focus on the whole patient can sometimes translate into support in the coordination of the patient's care. As Western medicine becomes increasingly specialized, this support can prove helpful to a patient overwhelmed by a recent Western medical diagnosis, for example.

*Scope of Practice: As acupuncturists, we do not make Western medical diagnoses, but we are taught how to recognize the warning signs for medical emergencies. This means that we know when to refer a patient with an irregular heart beat, or a serious infection, or even visual disturbances suggestive of tumor development. While there seems to be an acupuncture point to provide relief for everything a human being might experience, an important aspect of an acupuncturist's training is knowing when to refer to Western medical care.

*Herbs & Pharmacology: An acupuncturist's schooling includes pharmacology. This means that not only do we study the impact of the herbs we prescribe, but we also understand what drugs do, as well as their side effects, and furthermore, how herbs and drugs interact. At least at the present moment, it is unlikely that Chinese herbology is included as part of Western medical school training. This fact makes acupuncturists uniquely qualified to understand the interactions of pharmaceuticals and Chinese herbs. 

*Adjunct Therapy: From chemotherapy and IVF (in vitro fertilization), there are more and more studies, which demonstrate the improved results experienced by patients, when patients combine their Western medical treatments with Chinese medical care.

*Diet & Nutrition: This may be changing in Western medical schools, but the focus on the nutritional counseling that acupuncturists receive as part of their Chinese medical training prepares them to help patients seeking healthy diets and lifestyles.

Before I ended my talk, I couldn't resist offering to needle a point on each med student, allowing them to feel for themselves the hair-width thinness of an acupuncture needle, in contrast to a hypodermic needle. The point I chose was one indicated to relieve stress and soothe frontal headaches, LI 4, which seemed particularly well received by the group.

Have you or someone you know benefitted from combined Western and Chinese medical care?

Acupuncture Points Seen Through the Eyes of Modern Technology

Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena.  Click here for the article & sources. 

For those of you who have personally benefitted from an acupuncture treatment, confirmation that acupuncture points exist may not surprise you.

However, I always think it is interesting when modern technology enables us to visualize, or even better understand, that which we may already know, at least from the level of our own experience.

In the article, which featured this image and others like it, modern technologies such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), infrared imaging, LCD (liquid crystal display) thermal photography, ultrasound and other CT (computerized tomography) imaging methods were used to provide visual representations of acupuncture points on the body.

The acupuncture points in the image above, in such pleasingly vivid color, features the area on the inside of the wrist and includes points along the Lung, Pericardium and Heart meridians.

The theory is that acupuncture points lie along various trajectories that run usually longitudinally through the body. Stimulation of these points with a needle, or with moxabustion, or even an essential oil, serves to benefit not only the organ to which the meridian refers, but also the various bodily functions as well.

Much can be said about how and when to use the various acupuncture points. There are well over 400 points on the body and head, even the ears, each one with its own specific indications.

Some of the functions of the points in this image include the regulation of the heart beat, eliminating night sweats (especially in combination with another point along the Kidney meridian on the lower leg), improving lung function, alleviating insomnia, treating anxiety and subduing nausea.

While this research is in itself interesting, the true value of a study such as this one may lie somewhere within the intersection of these ancient and modern perspectives.

Science, as one of the leading languages of our current culture, seeks to elucidate mystery. As the ancient tradition of Chinese medicine has been, and continues to be, translated into English, so, too, can it be interpreted within scientific terms. Perhaps science can shed light into the mystery of how acupuncture works.

THAT acupuncture works is already accepted. The World Health Organization lists many conditions, for which it considers acupuncture to be effective treatment, including the following:

1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment:

Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhoea, primary
Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Headache
Hypertension, essential
Hypotension, primary
Induction of labour
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction of
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Periarthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Renal colic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow

2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed:

Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
Acne vulgaris
Alcohol dependence and detoxification
Bell’s palsy
Bronchial asthma
Cancer pain
Cardiac neurosis
Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
Cholelithiasis
Competition stress syndrome
Craniocerebral injury, closed
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
Earache
Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Female infertility
Facial spasm
Female urethral syndrome
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
Gastrokinetic disturbance
Gouty arthritis
Hepatitis B virus carrier status
Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
Hyperlipaemia
Hypo-ovarianism
Insomnia
Labour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Ménière disease
Neuralgia, post-herpetic
Neurodermatitis
Obesity
Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
Postextubation in children
Postoperative convalescence
Premenstrual syndrome
Prostatitis, chronic
Pruritus
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Raynaud syndrome, primary
Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Retention of urine, traumatic
Schizophrenia
Sialism, drug-induced
Sjögren syndrome
Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Spine pain, acute
Stiff neck
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
Tietze syndrome
Tobacco dependence
Tourette syndrome
Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Urolithiasis
Vascular dementia
Whooping cough (pertussis)

Is there a condition on this list, for which you would like to try acupuncture?