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

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?

In a previous article, I explained the function of the Liver in Chinese Medicine philosophy. The proper functioning of the Liver, from a Chinese medicine point of view, is probably the most important factor in ensuring our physical and emotional health.

So, what can cause a disruption in the free flow of Liver energy? Stress, anger, resentment and repressed frustrations in life will do it every time! These emotions, when experienced for a prolonged period of time, will cause the Liver Qi to stagnate. Diet and lifestyle, in particular the excessive consumption of spicy or greasy foods and the use of alcohol and nicotine, will contribute to or aggravate a Liver imbalance by generating heat in the body.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 06:31 AM | Symptoms Of A Liver Imbalance In Chinese Medicine

As a teenager and young woman, I suffered horribly with painful menstrual periods. Every month, for several days before my period, I would feel bloated, tired and irritable. Just the pressure of the water in the shower would be intolerable on my tender breasts. I would crave sugar (especially chocolate). And the day before my period, I would literally be bedridden with knife-like cramps that would cause severe nausea and vomiting.

My mother took me to the gynecologist. They found absolutely nothing wrong with me and told my mother and me that all of these symptoms would probably disappear after I had my first baby. Just what every mother wants the doctor to tell her sixteen-year old daughter!

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 01:48 PM | Do You Suffer from PMS?

From Rosemary - New Hartford, NY

I am a type 2 diabetic and have survived breast cancer twice. I have peripheral neuropathy (from diabetes and chemotherapy) and consequently have chronic pain. Additionally, I have frequent headaches and recurring digestive disorders. My acupuncture sessions with Joyce have given me immediate (and increasingly long term) relief unlike anything found in traditional medicine. Traditional medicine offers drugs that sometimes address the symptoms but are almost never without side effects. For me, acupuncture effectively treats my chronic pain with no side effects. More importantly, during the sessions and when I leave her office, I feel completely relaxed, without pain, and energized.

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Posted by Webmaster at 02:55 PM | Acupuncture Patient Testimonial - Peripheral Neuropathy, Headaches, Digestive Disorder

Migraines are recurrent headaches that may or may not be associated with visual or gastrointestinal symptoms. Pain may be one-sided or more generalized. Women are more prone to migraines than men, suggesting that hormone imbalance may play a factor in the etiology. Triggers associated with migraines include stress, fatigue and weather changes. Some people are sensitive to alcohol and foods containing MSG, tyramine and nitrates.

Western medicine attempts to manage migraines with various drug therapies - often effective, but often with side effects. Many research studies have been conducted that confirm the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat chronic headaches, particularly migraines. Patients who received regular sessions of acupuncture reported fewer, less severe headaches and commonly used less medication.

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Posted by Joyce Marley at 08:16 PM | Acupuncture Treats Migraines

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?