Acupuncture For Newbies

Something like 38% of adults have tried alternative medicine in the United States. That's a good amount but I think we can do better, especially with how smart we are with our overall health nowadays. Everyone is talking about eating right, avoiding GMO's, going vegan, trying the paleo diet, etc.

So complementary alternative medicine is a mixture of acupuncture, chiropractic, tai chi, yoga, meditation, and lots more. Most people I know have tried yoga a few times, some people are regulars with it. Meditation is helpful and seems just about as trendy as yoga. A lot of people are skeptical about chiropractic work but others swear by it (especially after a car accident). While acupuncture is a whole other world to most people; I'd like to walk all the newbies through a typical acupuncture appointment and treatment to take the frightening "huge painful needles" idea out of your head.

Background info: Jade Star Acupuncture has been in business since December 2011 and is shared by Jennifer Parks and Maurianne Montes. Both ladies are licensed acupuncturists who graduated from The Arizona School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Jade Star focus on acupuncture but a lot of the time that includes gua sha, cupping, moxa... sounds like Chinese huh?! But it's all good stuff and you can sound cool when you tell your friends you got "gua sha'd."

How It Works:

1. So you have an issue that's been bothering you a while and you've tried the usual Western medications that helped temporarily but the issue hasn't gone away. For this example I'm going to use myself and an issue I had last year with anxiety and stress from being overworked and underpaid.
2. Stress and anxiety issues are usually so annoying that you can't even think of how to fix them in the moment. I tried venting to friends, working out, yoga, sleeping more, eating better, having a cocktail, deep breathing, everything I could think of to let go of my day and forget about my work stress so I could enjoy the rest of my life. 
3. Making the appointment is easy, just call Jade Star at 881-0827 and see what time is available, so that's what I finally did. It was such a stressful day I actually left work early and drove straight to the office before I had a nervous breakdown. I was lucky enough to get in the same day! 
4. So I walk in and announce who I am to the girl at the desk and she says "Hi! Welcome! I'm Jennifer" with a friendly smile. Okay, this seems painless so far, I just have to sign a few forms and we head to the treatment room. 
5. Jennifer sits down with me at her consult table to ask A LOT of questions. Questions no one ever asks me(like how often I have a bowel movement)! But she reassures me it's all necessary to get to the root of my issues. She explains how in Chinese medicine they do not diagnose like Western medicine, she is not going to tell me I have anxiety but that I have spleen qi(chi) deficiency, or something like that, and then she will use the acupuncture to balance out or replenish that deficiency. So we get through the questionnaire and then she has me lay face up on the massage table and she feels my pulse on my wrist and looks at my tongue(also part of diagnosing my issues). 
6. She explains what is going on with me and my body from a Chinese medicine standpoint and how that relates to what I am experiencing with my symptoms of "stress" and "anxiety." She then tells me how she is going to place the acupuncture needles in different places around my body, make sure nothing hurts, and then leave me to relax for about 20 minutes. 
7. She rolls up my pant legs and places about 12 or 15 needles all over from my calves, between my toes, my wrist, top of my head, center of my chest, and stomach. Most of them I barely felt when they went in, two of them hurt for a few seconds and I'm told those points were to help me "relax" and "stop thinking so much", so maybe that's why they hurt so much. But the pain dissipated very quickly. She then positioned a heat lamp over my feet, asked if I was comfortable and if anything hurt. As she slipped out of the door she instructed me to "just relax." 
8. So I laid there and listened to the relaxing music playing and enjoyed the nice dark room with dim lighting and closed my eyes. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew Jennifer was back in the room asking me how I feel and taking the needles out. 
9. On my drive home afterwards I was a total space cadet! I couldn't hold one thought in my head for more than 2 seconds. I could not even remember the last time I felt so relaxed. Plus I slept like a baby that night! It was fabulous! 

Pretty simple right?! It didn't take long, it wasn't painful, and I had amazing results. The next few days I did feel more relaxed and able to handle usually stressful situations at work with ease. But Jennifer did mention that getting regular treatments would really benefit me since nothing can be cured with one try. So I scheduled appointments for once a week and then eventually every two weeks and it really has made a difference in my life. I am generally happier, stress is totally manageable, and I have energy to do things after work and enjoy my life. 

So now that you have a little insight on what to expect, hopefully that takes some of the scariness out of it and you'll give it a try.