I would like to explain a little about the theory of Chinese medicine and, in particular, about acupuncture.  It is very different from the theories of Western medicine.  I realize that many Western medicine practitioners discount acupuncture as being ineffective or even quackery.  Yet I have practiced acupuncture for more than 20 years and in my clinic Chinese medicine has proven to be true and effective with every patient.  I therefore do not question or doubt it at all and I ask that you try to understand it.

Acupuncture works with the energy in the body. The body is alive because there is energy that runs through it.  We can’t see this energy but intuitively, we know that the energy is there and we can feel its effects.   When we feel great, we feel our energy flowing smoothly.  When we don’t feel so great, we feel stuck.  When we have pain, it is because the energy and the blood are stuck.  When we feel relief from pain it is because the energy is moving smoothly again.

There are many different ways in which the energy can get stuck.  Some of these ways are emotional, physical, and sexual  trauma.  Chinese medicine has a lot of things to say about trauma. One principle is that with trauma the body and mind are so overwhelmed that the body’s energy doesn’t know how to get rid of it, or how to process it. So the body stuffs the pain and the emotions in a deep place, kind of like when we don’t know what to do with an item at home and we just stuff it into a closet.  However, when trauma is stuffed deep, it takes a lot of energy to hold it there.  Energy that could be used for other things like learning how to have healthy relationships with others or flourishing in our careers.  Keeping the emotions held in can create symptoms and can change our behavior. Eventually, that ‘closet’  it can get so full of emotions that they start to spill out.  This again creates a lot of weird and unexplainable symptoms too like asthma, laryngitis, high blood pressure, headaches, and many others.

It is therefore important to clear out trauma and emotions from the body.  They make us sick.  They do not allow us to live fulfilling lives. They alter our behavior. Acupuncture can clear those emotions out.  Acupuncture is very subtle but it alters the body’s energy so you feel well again.

New theories about what is really behind our illnesses have come out in recent years.  I don’t feel like they conflict at all with Chinese medicine.  One of the new theories that I have been studying recently is how viruses are behind so many of the new mysterious illnesses that have cropped up in the last 50 years or so.  Illnesses like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, adrenal fatigue, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, hypothyroid and other thyroid disorders, and the list goes on. There are actually many more viruses and virus strains than we thought and these new strains are more pernicious and wide spread than they were decades ago.  These viruses can actually live in the body for many many years.  They hide in the liver and spleen and other organs for a while, then they come out and injure the thyroid, then the central nervous system.  All of these stages will create different symptoms in the body. If the body is plagued by viruses, the body will present with mysterious diseases.  The only way to cure those diseases is not only to expel, or debilitate the virus, but also to repair the body from the wreckage it’s caused. Acupuncture can actually help the body get rid of viral loads.  After the virus is released, acupuncture can also help repair the body from all the damage the virus has caused.