To protect my clients’ privacy I have disguised their names and personal details. The medical information, however, is accurate.
Patient Cases
Asthma
Patient Presentation
Gerhardt, a 67-year-old retired banker, was suffering from asthma that had been exacerbated by exposure to his grandchildren’s dog during a surprise visit from his son’s family several weeks earlier. Although he had thoroughly cleaned and vacuumed his house of dog hair and dander immediately after they left, Gerhardt was still having trouble breathing and he needed to use his inhaler 5-7 times daily (his usual dose was 2-3 times weekly).
Examination and Diagnosis
When I went into the waiting room to introduce myself to Gerhardt, he was formally dressed in a business suit, intently reading the Wall Street Journal. A serious man, he explained his problem to me very matter-of-factly. He was polite, but did not engage in an easy dialogue about his health or medical history. His wheezing was audible.
In the treatment room, his distant attitude continued when he once again set about to read the newspaper. I asked him gently if acupuncture had been his own idea and he stated, “My wife insisted.” This made things much clearer for me. I often have spouses, teenagers or young children who come to treatment after the urging, coaxing or insistence of a parent or spouse. When I asked Gerhardt if he would prefer not to receive treatment, he put down his newspaper and said he would give it a try.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) we think that asthma is related to excessive phlegm production in which the Spleen system is not working properly. It often involves a weakness in the Kidney Qi, which we refer to as “the Kidney failing to grasp the Lung Qi”, and typically the Lungs themselves manifest problems. This of course is an over-simplification of the complex asthma process as characterized by TCM, but it gives a sense of the multiple levels that needed to be addressed in order for Gerhardt to achieve improved breathing function.
Treatment
I treated Gerhardt with acupuncture twice a week for two weeks followed by six more weekly sessions before easing off on the treatment frequency.
Treatment Results
Fortunately, the patient does not have to believe that acupuncture will work in order to obtain benefits! On his second treatment Gerhardt reported that his inhaler use, the best measure of efficacy in his case, was down nearly half to three times daily and he had no apparent wheezing. After two weeks he reported no inhaler use for several days and he continued to improve as his course of treatment progressed. At the end of eight weeks of treatment Gerhardt was only using his inhaler once weekly and then only because he was inadvertently exposed to cigarette smoke or dogs during his day-to-day life. It was decided that he would begin to taper off his acupuncture visits first to every other week, then monthly and finally bi-monthly. This worked well for Gerhardt and in the year of treatment he never had another episode like the one that originally brought him to me.
Acupuncture is certainly not a “cure” for asthma. However, as Gerhardt’s case illustrates, acupuncture treatment can help reduce the dosage and frequency of prescription medications which are required to maintain an asthmatic’s airway function, thus decreasing the side effects and also the potential risks of these powerful drugs.
Patient Cases
Female Infertility
Patient Presentation
Sally, a vital, attractive 39-year-old secretary, had been trying to get pregnant for 2 years. Her husband’s sperm tested normal, but Sally’s hormone levels showed that she fell in the perimenopausal range. Because of her test results, Sally had been told by doctors that she was not a likely candidate for insemination or in vitro fertilization.
Examination and Diagnosis
I found Sally to be almost obsessed with getting pregnant. She was anxious about her age, about her hormone levels and about her egg production. She was desperate to be told that acupuncture would enable her to get pregnant since her ‘internal clock’ was painfully reminding her of the passage of time. Her brittleness and excessively intense emotional state provided an important clue to her underlying condition. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we consider strong disturbances in the emotions to be a potentially important cause of disease. In Sally’s case her obsession had resulted in a disharmony that had interrupted the smooth flow of Qi energy throughout her body, the domain of the Liver organ system.
Treatment
I treated Sally once each week for three and a half months with acupuncture, electric stimulation and moxibustion (a heat therapy that consists of applying incense-like burning herbs placed indirectly on acupuncture points). With the arrival of each menstrual period Sally was devastated, but she persisted in receiving acupuncture treatments. After 2 months Sally came to her acupuncture appointment in tears because her doctor told her that her recent blood work indicated that her Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) levels were “too high” for conception. I counseled her that in fact she might not be able to conceive. However, I also reminded her that if lab results were the final word on the subject, when a woman reaches menopause and all of her blood work verifies that status, why then is she told to continue to use contraception for an entire year post menstruation? Clearly hormone levels can fluctuate and the results of a single blood test are not definitive. Sally decided to continue her weekly treatments with me.
Treatment Results
I met Sally in the treatment room before her 15th session. She was gowned up and ready for treatment, but rather than waiting on the table, she was standing somewhat awkwardly next to it. I asked her if she was all right and from behind her back she produced a huge bouquet of flowers. She happily announced: “I’m pregnant!” And today she is the mother of a healthy son.
Out of the dozens of clients who have come to me over the years with infertility issues, two proved unable to conceive. For almost all of the women who have sought my help, however, TCM has proven to be remarkably effective in treating gynecological issues.
Patient Cases
Insomnia
Patient Presentation
Jeff was a 31-year-old Paramedic and Firefighter from California who I met in New York City while I was treating rescue personnel in the days following 9/11. He was basically healthy and doing ‘righteous’ work, as he put it, but he also told me, almost as an aside, that he was a life-long insomniac who slept only two hours a night. He had lots of energy, but he also often felt tired, though he could not sleep.
Examination and Diagnosis
I met Jeff while I was treating patients at the Javits Center in a glassed-in pavilion that overlooked the floor of the huge arena that was a hub for all rescue teams from around the nation and even some foreign countries. Combine the noisy, brightly-lit chaos just outside the sleep curtain with the psychological distress from working twelve hour shifts at the “Pile” and it was clear that finding replenishing sleep would be a necessity for these workers. However, it was clear, too, that even if one did not have a history of insomnia, sleeping might pose a challenge under these conditions. Jeff had the additional disadvantage of being a chronic insomniac before he arrived.
Sleep, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, is thought to be the domain of the Heart. We say, ‘the Heart houses the mind’. In Jeff’s case, and this is often true of young men, his vitality and fiery energy had begun to dominate his softer, cooler side.
Treatment
I offered to treat Jeff with acupuncture for his insomnia, however I told him that it was unlikely one treatment would make a huge difference on a problem with which he had suffered for years. Still, I was there to be of service, just as he was, and we agreed I would do what I could in our one opportunity together.
Treatment Results
There is a phrase in Hospital Emergency Departments, ‘treat ‘em and street ‘em’. It sounds harsh, but it is exactly what we did after 9/11. We would treat whoever came through the door in need to help prepare them to go back out to the “Pile,” hopefully in better condition than before, and typically we would never see them again. Only rarely did we obtain any feedback about a treatment. Jeff’s case was such an exception.
It was at the end of my ten hour shift and I was in the ‘chow’ line waiting to get dinner when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see Jeff beaming at me, refreshed and looking rested. He told me that shortly after the acupuncture treatment I had given him eight hours earlier he had gone back to his cot and slept soundly for five hours. Five hours, he repeated, grinning! For him, that small amount of extra sleep was remarkable and, for me, his gratitude made it extremely sweet.
Patient Cases
Non-Healing Clavicle Fracture
Patient Presentation
Jeff, a 27-year-old long-haul truck driver broke his collar bone (clavicle) in a pick-up basketball game. His doctor told him that it was a clean break and should heal on its own within a month. He gave Jeff a sling and recommended that he not use his left arm in order to allow the fracture to mend itself. The doctor told him to come back for x-rays in 3 weeks. Jeff followed his doctor’s instructions and did not use his arm, but at his return visit the x-ray revealed no bone growth had occurred to reattach the two ends of the broken collar bone. His doctor suggested he take calcium and return in 3 more weeks for another x-ray. Once again, the follow up x-rays revealed no bone growth. At this point, the doctor told Jeff that if his bones did not begin to knit together, a plate would have to be surgically inserted to attach them.
Jeff had always been afraid of needles. However, the thought of surgery was more terrifying. Although he felt some trepidation, Jeff came to me because he heard that I had been successful in treating his type of problem.
Examination and Diagnosis
Except for his broken clavicle I found Jeff to be a healthy, non-smoking, non-drinking man with a reasonable diet, considering his profession. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) bones are considered to be in the domain of the Kidney energy, however Jeff did not present with any obvious deficiencies. This was a case where the symptom was the only problem.
Treatment
I treated Jeff twice weekly for 2½ weeks. At each visit he was treated both with acupuncture and also with electric stimulation of the needles in the vicinity of the fracture.
Treatment Results
Immediately after receiving his first treatment Jeff reported that he experienced absolutely no pain from the needles. In place of his state of anxiety, he now felt a wonderful sense of peace. Three weeks after his first treatment with me, Jeff returned to his orthopedist for another x-ray. This time the x-ray revealed substantial bone growth.
Jeff was extremely relieved by this news. He subsequently healed completely . . . without surgical intervention.
Patient Cases
Post-surgical Complications
Patient Presentation
Joe, a 72-year-old retired plumber and recent widower, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer four years prior to consulting me. He had a portion of his descending colon and rectum removed and was given a temporary ileostomy. At the six month anniversary of his surgery, Joe had the ileostomy reversed. He was anxious to be rid of the uncomfortable, smelly and annoying bag, however he was not prepared for the problems that resulted once his ‘plumbing’ was reconnected. He found that he was unable to hold his bowel movement because within minutes of eating, his bowels would empty with no way to control the sphincter. This was obviously an embarrassment that kept him from most social engagements, grocery shopping trips, even walks to the mailbox. Worse yet, he could not sleep at night without soiling himself repeatedly. He started taking several Imodium pills daily to stop his movement, which caused severe constipation followed by diarrhea. In despair, Joe began drinking excessive amounts of alcohol to obliterate his unhappiness. His doctor had no solution to offer except to return to the ileostomy bag.
For Joe, acupuncture was a last ditch effort to find some relief.
Examination and Diagnosis
Because this was a post-surgical problem, its origin did not result from prolapse of the rectum, a problem understood in Chinese Medicine as an energetic ‘sinking’ problem—however, it borrowed from that presentation.
Treatment
Since a deficiency in the ‘holding’ Qi resulting from surgical scarring was at the root of Joe’s problem, the treatment principle was to invigorate the Qi, lift the Yang and thereby to mobilize the body’s resources to help control Joe’s lack of rectal control by use of specific acupuncture points.
Treatment Results
After only two visits, Joe reported feeling generally better. More importantly, he could finally sleep for 4-5 hours uninterrupted by an accident. His sphincter control improved, gas was reduced and within five treatments he had cut his Imodium intake by more than half. After a few more treatments and a further reduction in Imodium, he was able to be away from home 4 hours at a time without leakage and he was even able to dance at his granddaughter’s wedding without incident. It is unlikely that Joe’s problem will completely resolve, however with routine treatment he has a good chance of continuing to increase his rectal control and to improve his quality of life.
Patient Cases
Shoulder Pain
Patient Presentation
One snowy Monday, Jane, a 28-year-old interior designer, called me in tears because she was suffering from terrible left shoulder and scapula pain. The pain had started on the previous Friday afternoon during the beginning festivities of her wedding weekend. On Saturday, a massage therapist had tried to ease her discomfort, but with no success. On Sunday, her wedding was marred by tremendous pain and Jane was afraid that it would also ruin her honeymoon trip, scheduled to begin two days later. Her new husband, a medical resident, urged her to try acupuncture.
Jane was desperate to both eliminate her pain and also to salvage her wedding ‘experience’.
Examination and Diagnosis
Jane presented as a healthy woman with some trigger-point sensitivity and also muscle spasm in the left posterior shoulder girdle. The pain areas primarily involved the Small Intestine meridian. From the point of view of Chinese Medicine, the Small Intestine is an organ system whose primary function is to discriminate what to keep and what to discard: what is of value to the system and what should be eliminated. This is referred to as “sorting the pure from the impure.” It is an an internal activity that is fairly routine, but which can require considerable energy from the body if many urgent demands are placed on a person at one time. My examination clearly revealed that Jane had an energy blockage in her Small Intestine meridian.
Treatment
During this, her first, and only, acupuncture treatment with me, Jane revealed that since her parents live on the West Coast, she had to plan her entire wedding by herself, down to the smallest detail. She told me that besides all of the decisions of her wedding, in her job as an Interior Designer she was constantly choosing and discarding colors and patterns and was simply exhausted by it. Even as she was speaking to me, her muscles relaxed under the needles and the spasms disappeared.
Treatment Results
The following afternoon Jane called from JFK Airport, ecstatic that her pain was completely gone and happy that her honeymoon could proceed without this torment.
Ordinarily acupuncture may require more than one treatment for maximum benefit, but this case is an example of the occasional ‘silver bullet’ effect.
Patient Cases
Stress
While I see clients with many different issues, the most common and insidiously pervasive is stress. Stress reduces the functioning of the immune system, compromising the ability of the body to combat disease. Stress alters our internal hormone levels, the pH of our blood, the rate of our heart and the pressure within our arteries and veins. It can slow our digestion or cause diarrhea; can produce headaches, eye strain, palpitations, hair loss, heart burn, low back pain and insomnia. The list of symptoms associated with stress goes on and on. Because the mind-body connection is so fundamental, the link between stress and disease is inseparable.
I have found acupuncture to be remarkably effective for reducing stress.
Patient Presentations
(1) Mona, 77, came because her own health was delicate, her husband’s was failing and one of her daughters had just died. She needed to be able to function, but she was grieving and completely overwhelmed by the events in her life.
(2) Celeste, 58, came because she had just been diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. She knew her health would deteriorate in spite of anything she could do and, although she wanted to make the most of her remaining months, she could not seem to crawl out of her “hole of misery.” A retired financier, she had recently discovered her artistic side, but could no longer bear to face her easel.
(3) Tiffany, 22, came because her allergies had flared up dramatically. She was finally moving out of her parents’ house, leaving the town she had grown up in to start a career in a city far from home.
(4) John, 47, came because he had a high-pressure job, was the single parent of teenage sons and had chronic hepatitis C. John wanted to relax and to enhance his productivity at work. While he suffered some aches and pains, his primary symptom was a pervasive sense of tension.
Examinations and Diagnoses
Although each of these patients presented with different symptoms and complaints, my examinations revealed that they all had in common an imbalance in energy throughout their bodies. Like driving your car with one slightly flat tire, an energy imbalance increases wear and tear, possibly creating damage and surely causing extra work for the ‘vehicle’, in this case the body. To the extent that our internal energy systems are harmonious, the body/mind/spirit is better able to cope and to heal.
Treatment Results in These Patients
Acupuncture cannot transform the external world and it is extremely unlikely to reverse the pathological changes that, for example, cancer brings, but it can make our internal experience easier. When we are mentally tranquil and physically at ease, we do not compromise our body’s natural defenses and we are better equipped to cope with the challenges life invariably provides. Perhaps even more importantly, we are less likely to add any extra, unnecessary suffering to the experience.
(1) Mona reported feeling at peace in a haven of support. She continued her acupuncture treatments monthly for years.
(2) Celeste died within seven months of commencing acupuncture, but she told me that after her very first treatment the terror of her diagnosis was gone. After receiving treatments for a few weeks she reported feeling more positive and said she no longer felt like giving up and prematurely withdrawing from her life. Although the cancer progressed, Celeste did not let her spirit succumb to it. In the months before her death Celeste began painting again.
(3) After receiving a month of acupuncture treatments, Tiffany’s debilitating allergy symptoms disappeared, and she added that her move to the big city was a success!
(4) John made the commitment to himself to receive acupuncture treatments on a weekly basis and he did so for years. John recognized that the stressors in his life would not let up, but the feeling of balance and accompanying tranquility received from the acupuncture experience made it easier for him to handle his stress with perspective and composure.
Patient Cases
Wrist and Elbow Pain
Presentation
Dick, 39 years old, came to me suffering from intense wrist and elbow pain. As a life-long commercial fisherman Dick was at sea for days at a time, constantly working in cold, wet, dangerous conditions, while frequently lifting heavy lines and nets. For years he had been forcing himself to work in spite of the increasing pain, but it had recently become so intolerable that he worried he might lose his livelihood.
Examination and Diagnosis
A strong, fiercely independent man, Dick was quite healthy except for his wrist and elbow pain, which no longer subsided during his land-bound periods. When I examined him, there were no physical signs of inflammation or swelling, but he demonstrated intense pain when flexing his wrist; a pain which became excruciating when pulling weight. Although this pain followed the Large Intestine meridian, he reported no bowel changes. Chinese Medicine considers the Large Intestine meridian to be one of the metal elements. The emotion associated with this element is grief, which corresponds with loss. Dick reported, with great sadness, that he had recently gotten divorced and he was limited to seeing his twins much less often than he wanted.
Treatment
I treated Dick with both acupuncture and electric stimulation. This approach addressed the specific pain symptoms and also his related challenge of appropriately holding and letting go (which manifested both on the physical and emotional levels).
Treatment Results
After four sessions Dick reported that his wrist and elbow felt much better, with significantly less pain. He then went on another commercial fishing expedition and, upon his return, reported that he had experienced only mild pain while lifting. After three more treatments, Dick pronounced himself “healed”. By this time, he had also become more philosophical about his family situation. I didn’t see him after that for two years, but then he returned for another series of six treatments to restore his pain-free status and enable him to continue in the profession he loved.