I've been getting acupuncture treatment lately and I've got to say: it is one of the weirdest medicinal practices out there. Some people are inclined to think that acupuncture does not work and is just a bunch of Asian hocus-pocus mumbo-jumbo; however, my acupuncturist pointed out that if it really was a bunch of shit then it would have died out a long time ago. As it stands, acupuncture goes back a very very long time (the specifics of which I am not too bothered about as to wikipedia it).
This acupuncturist is actually a church friend of my mother's (this church is entirely Korean by the way). She often holds church meetings in our house (with tons of bratty kids who come with these church fellows but that is another story all together) and he and his wife come over often as well. I'm not sure when they moved here but apparently (I learned later) business has been going poorly what with the economy and all and he had loads of debt from the immigration. Now I'm sure westerners born and bred here wouldn't know this first hand but I'm sure they can still understand how very difficult it is to come to a new country, where your mastery of the language is just passable, and to make a living there. One can also imagine just how expensive it all is. This burden is one that all these Korean immigrants can relate to and so create a common ground upon which people can bond other than the fact that they're from the same country (which in and of itself is a strong "bonder" for Koreans anyways, harboring, as they do, very strong nationalistic qualities).
My parents held not only this bond and the "church fellow" bond with this acupuncturist but also held his skills in high respect as problems they had been suffering from for so long started to dissipate. My aunt was over couple months ago and she in very poor health... with treatment from this acupuncturist though she went home feeling much better. This guy had a level of skill that was very rarely seen. Thus impressed my mother decided that he was deserving of some advertising and started spouting off recommendations to everyone she knew. Somehow, while I wasn't looking, my mother had turned into a socialite and had tons of people to recommend his services to. Thanks to my mother's fervent advertising to all of her friends and their family, his business is now booming and he's busier than he's ever been. Which I think he thoroughly deserves.
I didn't really mean to linger on the above story so much but hey, I did warn that my posts are rather long (and often needlessly so) at the beginning of this blog. Anyways, that is how I came to be treated by this doctor for free. Yep. Free. Not only that but my parents both still are regular paying customers so I guess he figured that between the two set of circumstances he'd treat me for free. I can't say that I particularly LIKE to go and get needles jabbed in me... but I can certainly see that it is doing me a load of good.
I had horrible back pain and shoulder pain. When I lay in bed at night I have trouble lying on my back because this dull/numbing pain starts to grow right on my spine and I'm forced to turn to my side. It's not gone away entirely (I've been plagued by it much too long for couple weeks of treatment to chase it away) but it's certainly gotten better, so much so that some nights it doesn't hurt anymore. My lower back pain has greatly reduced and my mood has much elevated. The eczema I get on my face after washing it with plain soap (I've been forced to use Cetaphil – a very very gentle cleanser) has disappeared as well. My parents both exclaim at how colour has been restored to my skin. Apparently I used to sport a rather grey-ish ill-looking pallor on my face which has now been replaced with a healthy sort of glow. Not only is it acupuncture but I'm also drinking a medicinal tea which is supposed to work along with the acupuncture. I think stuff like muscle pain easing I can greatly attribute to the needles and the other stuff to the medicinal tea, though I do still believe they intertwine somewhat.
Though one might think that because he is treating me for the pains in my back, he would stick the needles there. Not at all. He attributes the problems I have with my body on my general lack of Chi. Though I didn't quite put it in those terms I've always somewhat known that. I'm a runt. My body is weak. The needles he puts on my arms and legs/feet are for energy, the six needles he puts just above my left knee are for my heart, the one he puts in the crease of my nose on my right side is for my mood energy. It goes on and I can't remember all of it. Especially as he goes through them in Korean and my proficiency is not so great as to really store the information received in that language very well. Oh and apparently, the ankles are crucial to your shoulders. Who would have thought? But he spends a lot of time stretching out my ankles (yes this guy doesn't just do needles, he also massages where needed and stretches where needed) and when he is done he feels my shoulders and I can feel that they have softened up since before the treatment. It is quite amazing and baffling. Ankles to shoulders? Trust me, I don't get it either. But if it works, it works, right? It's not like it was a placebo effect either as the first time he didn't even tell me what stretching the ankles did.
As I've said though, this guy is really really good at acupuncture. A lot better than some other people out there. My mother goes as far as to say that he has a born gift for it. I wish I could recommend acupuncture for everyone if all acupuncturists had the skill of this guy or better (not saying he's the best in the world but at least he gets some results)... but if you do find yourself having some muscle pain, it might not be a bad idea to try out acupuncture. I know it is foreign and strange to a lot of westerners as of yet but try it, who knows what might come of it?
