Acupuncture Services of Central NY

The Spleen in Chinese medicine is a yin organ. The Spleen is partnered with the Stomach, a yang organ. Together they are responsible for transforming food and drink into Qi and blood during the digestion process.

When the Spleen energy is strong, appetite and digestion are good. When the Spleen function is weak, there may be poor appetite, abdominal bloating, water retention and weight gain, and loose stools.

The Spleen controls the muscles and four limbs. When the Spleen is strong, nutrition from food is extracted efficiently and energy is distributed to the muscles. When the Spleen is weak, a person feels fatigued, especially after eating. Muscles will be weak. In severe cases, muscles may atrophy.

The Spleen not only distributes the essence of food to the body, it is also responsible for the transformation of fluids. Poor distribution of fluids may result in edema or the production of phlegm. The Spleen dislikes dampness. Dampness can hamper the function of the Spleen whether this is due to diet (too much cold or raw food) or weather. High humidity and cold, damp weather may affect the Spleen. Women in particular are prone to an invasion of exterior Dampness especially during the menses or following childbirth.

The Spleen not only plays an important role in the production of Blood from food, but is also said to control the Blood. When the Spleen energy is deficient and this function of controlling the Blood is impaired, a person may bruise easily. Nosebleeds and heavy menstrual periods may also occur due to Spleen qi deficiency.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 04:13 AM | The Spleen in Chinese Medicine

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

After reading “Battlefield Acupuncture for the Clinical Practitioner” by Dr. John Amaro, I just had to learn more about this technique. A little research led me to this great article by Dr. Richard Niemtzow himself. Dr. Niemtzow developed this new auricular therapy protocol in 2001. His article gives very specific step by step instructions, diagrams and photos for needle placement to achieve almost immediate pain relief.

I decided to try the technique on several of my patients who had been suffering from chronic pain. I have one patient in particular that I have been seeing for several months for severe back pain. Having been in an auto accident ten years previously, and having fractured several vertebrae, he had been making progress with some of my other acupuncture protocols for back pain. When I first met him his pain level was 8 on a scale of 10 most of the time. With weekly treatments, we were able to give him several days of complete pain relief after the treatment and when the pain returned, it rarely exceeded a 5 on a scale of 10. He had tried other therapies over the years with little relief and was very happy with this improvement. I, on the other hand, am always looking for new ways to relieve pain.

With Dr. Niemtzow's instructions in front of me, I inserted an ASP gold needle into the cingulate gyrus point on his left ear and told him to walk up and down the hallway for a few minutes. When he returned, I asked if he noticed a change in his pain level. With disappointment showing on his face, he said “no, not really”. As the instructions stated, I put a needle in the same point on the other ear. He stood to start down the hallway again and turned to me with a big smile on his face. “That's the ear! This is amazing!” he said. When he returned from his hallway stroll, his pain had decreased 60%. I inserted the other four points in that dominant ear and let him rest on the table for a half hour.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 02:17 PM | Battlefield Acupuncture: A New Pain Therapy

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?

When I was about 35 years old I began feeling extreme fatigue with generalized aches and pains, kind of like the feeling you get before you get flu. I visited a few doctors and the answers were always the same, “You are a single mother with full time job what do you expect, of course you are tired.” Blah, blah it was not an answer and there was never any relief.

I finally found a doctor who gave me an answer and diagnosed me with fibromyalgia.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 06:04 AM | Acupuncture For Fibromyalgia Testimonial

Last weekend I attended a NIA workshop at the Kripalu Yoga Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts. Carlos Rosas, co-founder of the technique, led our “Dancing Through Life” workshop. NIA, an acronym for Neuromuscular Integrative Action, is an amazing mind, body and spirit approach to fitness.

You may think that a website devoted to acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an odd place to be discussing a fitness technique, but if you consider that TCM also focuses on keeping the body in balance to maintain health by addressing the mind, body and spirit of each individual, you will see that there is a definite correlation.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 04:54 PM | Mind Body Spirit Fitness - The NIA Technique

The World Health Organization has recognized over 40 common health problems that acupuncture can effectively treat. Most people are aware that acupuncture treats pain, but many do not know the wide range of painful conditions that are commonly improved with acupuncture. Acupuncture treats pain anywhere in the body, including but not limited to: back pain, frozen shoulder, carpal tunnel syndrome, TMJ, trigeminal neuralgia, arthritis, fibromyalgia, sciatica, plantar fasciitis, shingles pain and migraines.

But acupuncture can also treat digestive disorders such as nausea, acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome. It is commonly used to treat asthma and sinus problems. Acupuncture is very powerful to treat gynecological problems including PMS, menopausal symptoms, endometriosis and even infertility.

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Posted by Webmaster at 04:00 PM | What Can Acupuncture Treat?