Acupuncture Services of Central NY

This morning I left the office of Dr. Christopher Wolter with a clean bill of health. Dr. Wolter is a urologist at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. After three years of being passed from physician to physician, and test to test without a diagnosis, I took it upon myself to travel from upstate New York to what I had heard was one of the finest medical facilities in the world. In April, after eight days of sophisticated medical testing and imaging, Dr. Wolter confirmed that I had a rare endocrine paraganglioma embedded in the wall of my bladder. This tumor was causing my blood pressure to spike as high as 260/140 for several minutes after urination. I returned in June to have DaVinci robotic surgery. I am healing quickly and my blood pressure spikes have been resolved with the removal of the tumor. Thank you Dr. Wolter and the technology of western medicine!

But what I was most surprised and pleased to learn was the level of integration of acupuncture and alternative medicine into the practice and philosophy of a facility as prestigious as the Mayo clinic. Their literature promotes acupuncture for the use of body pain, headaches, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, insomnia, anxiety, depression, weight loss, neuropathy and muscle weakness.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 05:25 PM | Mayo Clinic Acupuncture: The Best of the West Embraces the East

When I was a first year student in my TCM training, in my enthusiasm and eagerness to apply what I was learning to my future patients, I would approach my professors and say, for example, “can Chinese medicine treat fibromyalgia?” Or, “can Chinese medicine treat multiple sclerosis?” Every time, I would get the same response - “what are the signs and symptoms?”

We are talking about a system of medicine that has been around for thousands of years. There really is no frame of reference in Chinese medicine to the Western disease labels that have evolved in modern times. Chinese medicine will always look at everything going on in the body and determine an imbalance of yin and yang, Qi and Blood. In fact, there is a very famous saying in Chinese medicine - “one disease, many treatments...many diseases, one treatment.”

What I love about “The Treatment of Modern Western Medical Diseases with Chinese Medicine”, co-authored by Bob Flaws and Philippe Sionneau, is the detailed analysis of 72 different Western medicine labels and all the patterns of imbalance that are usually associated with them in Chinese medicine. For each of the diseases there is information on the Western etiology, treatment and prognosis. And then a detailed analysis of the disease mechanisms from a Chinese medicine aspect. Acupuncture and herbal treatments are suggested based on pattern discrimination. Summary remarks address the prognosis from a Chinese medicine point of view.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 05:23 AM | What Does Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Treat?

I read the following article by Dr. Amaro quite a while ago, but as a practitioner his message has stuck with me. Often, my new patients will start off our initial consultation with the words, "you are my last hope", because they have been everywhere and tried everything prior to giving acupuncture a chance. The beauty of Chinese medicine is that it looks at everything going on in the body - both physical and emotional - to arrive at a treatment plan. Addressing constipation to treat back pain can be key for many patients when nothing else has worked. Dr. Amaro's complete acupuncture point prescription for constipation referred to later in the article is: Ren 12, 5 and 4, SP16, ST25, 38, 40, GB34, LI2, 4, and BL25 and 42.

“The frog in the well---knows not of the great ocean”!
November 17, 2003
By: John A. Amaro D.C., FIAMA, Dipl.Ac.(IAMA)(NCCAOM), L.Ac.

In the early 70’s when acupuncture was first being introduced to the United States through numerous media reports, the medical profession was less than accepting of this seemingly strange healing art. The first time I had ever heard the statement “The frog in the well knows not of the great ocean” was an angered Chinese response to the American scientific and medical communities allegations of “fraud, quackery and hypnosis regarding acupuncture. Since that time I have used this saying often whenever I respond to someone exhibiting what may be described as “tunnel vision” or the unwillingness to investigate a matter further than what is on the surface.

Since I am personally involved with both acupuncture and chiropractic which unfortunately are two professions which are often very misunderstood by both the public and the medical profession, I have uttered my sentiments about the frog many many times.

Continue reading this entry on Constipation »

Posted by Joyce Marley at 04:18 AM | Acupuncture for Back Pain with Constipation

If you were going to see your physician for a problem with irritable bowel syndrome, you would certainly expect some questions about the state of your bowels. But Chinese medicine diagnosis will always include questions about bowel function, regardless of the purpose of your visit. You would be surprised how the functioning of the bowels is related to so many other issues with your health.

Chinese medicine diagnosis describes disease in terms of an imbalance in the body of heat and cold, dampness and dryness, yin and yang. By questioning the state of all bodily functions, both physical and emotional, and looking at both the tongue and the pulse, a pattern of disharmony evolves. Everything about the stools can be diagnostic – the size, color, consistency, frequency, odor and even the time of day that a bowel movement occurs.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 04:36 PM | Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and The Scoop on Poop

I often give my patients homework to do between acupuncture treatments. This homework commonly involves acupressure. Sometimes small seeds are applied to the ear to stimulate corresponding parts of the body to relieve pain. Sometimes points are stimulated on the hand corresponding to Korean Hand acupuncture points. And sometimes pressure is applied directly to the meridian acupuncture points.

Acupressure can address acute symptoms between the acupuncture treatments which in turn focus on addressing the underlying imbalance in the body that is causing the pain, symptom or disease.

Here is a short video clip I found on YouTube demonstrating the use of acupressure to relief constipation. The narrator explains that this technique can be helpful for those incidences of constipation that many people experience while travelling.

Continue reading this entry on Constipation »

Posted by Joyce Marley at 12:25 PM | Self Acupressure for Constipation