When Acupuncture May Help

From a well known mainstream publication:

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese procedure in which points on the body are stimulated using a number of very fine needles.

Here are conditions and symptoms that may benefit from acupuncture, courtesy of the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

    * Nausea triggered by chemotherapy or surgery.
    * Menstrual cramps, low back pain or headaches.
    * Fibromyalgia or osteoarthritis.
    * Asthma.
    * Carpal tunnel syndrome or tennis elbow.
    * Stroke rehabilitation.
    * Addiction.

Speak to your doctor to find out if acupuncture may be right for you.

[GrandmaA]

My insurance company will only cover it if it is done by an M.D. and  for nausea and pain, not for hep.C. I told them I have lots of nausea and pain.  It really helps relax you. I almost fell asleep last month. I go tomorrow for another one and a B12 shot.

[Forseegood]

I think it's good for fatigue too, so good to see you, and I'm so glad youre done!

[orphanedhawk]

My nurse at CPMC used to work for Dr. Misha. He recommended acupuncture for sxs.
  I thought, right, turn me into a human dart board, just want I want, another hole poked into me !!
    
    Having said, that I know people who swear by acupuncture.

[Forseegood]

the first time I ever did it, I was so nervous I was almost shaking (I'm such a wuss!) and then he had to prove to me that it didn;t really hurt, and it really doesn't - just the tiniest pinch, and that's  only on places where there isn't much fat, like your feet...

but really, you hardly can even feel it, if the person is good, and you should only be going to a good person....

After the first time w/out the apprehension, it's the most relaxing thing you do outside of a message...

one thing, it can lower blood pressure in some people, so if youre blood pressure is already very low, make sure you tell the practitioner that...many people's insurance already pay for this oddly enough, or 1/2 and if they don't, they sometimes work w/ you on saying it's a therapeutic message, etc...(shhhhhh lol.)

I found it's really the only thing that helps with my fatigue, the only thing really...if youre strapped, just doing it on the ears is much cheaper, and that's good for some reason too...it releases endorphins like crazy, so that's why a lot of people use it for pain, even though it works other ways for pain too...be well! My girlfriend told me that she goes to a acupuncture school, and there it's really cheap, said it got rid of her IBS....

[sfbaygirl]

I had a miracle happen to me with acupuncture.  I had an awful head injury at work and was in a daze for months. Couldn't drive, horrible headaches, spent a week in the hospital. I went to an acupuncturist for a month.  Nothing helped much, including the herbs. Then one day they stuck that needle into the right spot in my neck and the cloud that was a daily part of life lifted. It was truely amazing!  I am not one to believe in all the mumbo jumbo stuff, still am not,  but this truely worked. I could drive again, work, etc.  Alternative meds may seem strange to many, including me,  but I gave it a shot and sincerely believe in it now.

[Lady Lauri]

This may be long! As I have stated in other post.....2-3 yrs. of going to same Dr.'s office, (seeing 7-8 different Dr.'s thru 7 years there, bad ALT's/AST's for years, no one ever noticed!) but past 2-3 years saying "SOMETHING is wrong! I am sick", hearing over and over "oh your fine, oh your healthy, you look great. your depressed, take prozac" ( Never took. I am NOT depressed, have a great  life! Well, a bit now maybe!) I was starting to think it WAS all in my head??
  FIRST visit to acupunture/chinese med Dr.....FIRST exam... "something is wrong with your liver, it is very weak", with her never seeing any blood work! I than went back to regular Dr. and said CHECK MY LIVER! He than goes thru past blood work in chart and say's...." Why has no one ever checked your liver???" I had been to them 4 times in the 3 mths. before I saw her!  I have had bad LVT's from back to 2000 there! Had I not seen her, I'd still not know I have Hep c., stage 3 fibrosis and would not be starting tx, let alone would still be doing the weekend rodeo drinking! Everything this Dr. has done helps me! I go to her religiously and she is who got me into one of the best hepatologist at Shands. She is all for combining eastern and western medicine to treat and convinced me to treat. She also will be doing my shots for me (for FREE).  AND treats my sister with cancer pro bono! At any time if I don't have the $ to go, she will still see me. ( she call's my sister to please come in more,-for free!) I pay for one visit a week now, she see's me all I need and during tx wants me to stop by a few times a week-no extra cost.  My Dr. at Shands and her are correlating with my case, he send's her notes-results each visit. I start tx Sept 25th and she assures me she can help much with my sides, let alone what she has helped with my fears. I was sent there ( my ex/current great guy!) to quit smoking. I'd had pneumonia, than chronic bronchitis. She saved my life! I'd be cirrhosis by the time the others caught it. I can walk in there with a wheeze, cough, I swear as I lay there 30 minutes with meditating music, de-stress time and 20 needled in, I can feel my brochs opening. I leave with clear breathing. I could go on and on, getting too long! I can not praise this woman enough or how I believe in it all. Everyone should consider this and there ARE many that will do cheap, sliding scale or even free for you.
She absolutely saved my life, my future quality of life, my future. Where would I be in 5 more years had she not found this, as YEARS of 'regular' Dr.'s never did? Hep Dr said in 7-10 years I would have cirhosis without tx.
Whew...can ya' tell I am all for it ? :)
                                                              LL

[Lady Lauri]

P.S. We estimate I have carried this over 30 years! Been at the same Dr.'s office the past 7-8 years that never caught it.
I want to add that... in all this...finding out 'in time', 2 Dr.'s correlating in my tx, timing on Phase 3 trial (free tx and care and for 6 mths. after OR until any lasting sides are better!) , type 2b, both jobs flexing for me and ready to help, 3 sons all helping-'there' with me in this, a man (the ex again current:) that would give me his own liver-ready to do all he can, my sister, friends, a very good prognosis...... I am very blessed in all this and I don't forget it. I simply can not whine when reading your stories (my sisters struggle also) and I may ask for help with the fears, questions, but won't forget how blessed I am and TRULY feel for all of you with so much worse going on and bearing thru tx after tx. My heart goes out to you.
now someone copy this for when I whine or have riba rage :) LOL
               Sorry about so long!                    LL
                                                        

[orphanedhawk]

  I know it does work. I've had great results with relaxation from acupressure.

However, during tx I got the strangest skin sensitivities, couldn't even handle being touched at all, at times. I honestly think the brain gets effected and something nuerological is thrown out of synch.

Like you LL, I've had this for maybe 30 years. I'd been to a dermotoligist about my red spider bumps for years. They always say one thing, "sun damage." No one ever mentioned that they even could be caused from an ailing liver.

A reflexologist in Asia pointed at a chart on the wall, straight to the liver, while working on my feet. To some it seems odd but the parts of our bodies, like the universe, are not disconnected entities.
                                                                              Peace.

[Forseegood]

I'm glad you pointed this out, I know the popular thing to do is be very "science bent" on this forum, and I like to think I'm scientifically minded myself, I value western medicine greatly, and am so grateful for scientific breakthroughs, drugs, all of it...I also know there are people out there who take advantage sick people, and make huge claims for certain alternative practices and potions for the money, etc...but nothing is black or white to me...and many alternative things I have done and use do work, not to eradicate the virus, but to help....I'm here to testify! ha ha!

When I was first diagnosed, I was totally freaked out about this diagnosis, and I hadn't had a biopsy yet.....of course back then, not very educated about the disease, and my alarmist mind.....I thought for sure I had prob a year or two to live, at most!

My nutritionist, acupuncturist Chinese med doctor looked me over (he works with UCLA now) and told me that I had "mostly virus" problems, and that my liver hadn't taken that much of a beating at all, etc etc...I would probably only be a stage 1 on a biopsy, etc....just from my symptoms and from some of the other ways of diagnosing he uses...do you know, that once I got all the scientific tests, it went completely in line with what this guy said? I don't think these practices should be counted out outright cause it's not based on Western Medicine.

I've been to two hepatologists that told me that people who have Hep C but are in early stages of the disease as far as liver damage, have no symptoms from the Hepatitis C...

Bulldoooky! Sometimes western trained doctors can't see the forest for the trees, it just makes sense that if you have a underlying infection for many years, and it's smoldering, that your immune system would be trying to fight it off, hence, the fatigue, etc...

What happens, in my view,  is that maybe these docs have talked to some patients that don't get any symptoms, (and mysteriously, there are many) and they extrapolate that out to everybody else, and they conclude that any symptoms I'm experiencing must be all in my head, or some other etiology...maybe it's true to some extent that some of the symptoms could be from menopause, etc...but when I was more symptomatic, I had the exact symptoms, in the very same way, of many people I spoke to on these boards..it was one of the only thing that validated me, that I wasn't crazy, and my Chinese Med doctor validated me, he had dealt with many hepatitis patients...

I've been using acupuncture for years, and different types of message, and have benefited greatly.

[PSP-n-Me]

Hey sweetie - I hope you are feeling good these days - I have a question I was hoping you could answer - Before I found out I have active HCV I was getting acupunture done for tendonitis - My question is this ;  what kind of, if any, sterilization do they use with those needles? - I never even noticed whether they were disposable or reused.. - God I would feel awful if I thought I infected people by using the same needles I did...

Thanks *dip*

[Forseegood]

Oh man, if I ever saw an acupuncturist use a needle that he/she didn't get fresh out of the little plastic container (that he has to tear open in front of me).....he'd get my right foot flying towards his ear --- if he tried to stick me with that! ha ha ha ha!

A new needle, every time, it's their policy...then they throw away the old little needles that they have used on you...in special containers too...they are regulated here...

I remember when I first started having it done, I'd be lying there in the low lighting, with that new age music, and I'd be so fidgety...Hey, when is he coming back? Where is that guy? Did he pass out in the other room or something? you know, bitc, bitc, bitc in my head, instead of enjoying the experience...

Now I'm sorry when he does comes back in to remove them, I really get into it, the relaxation, healing, etc...I hope youre feeling better too kiddo...

[orphanedhawk]

My husband has a chronic back problem from an old injury. At the time of the accident, his orthopaedic surgeon told him not to get surgery, it could make his condition worse. Since then every medical doctor he's seen has suggested surgery or prescribeddrugs that only mask the pain. All of these procedures have left him in worse shape.

  The only thing that's helped is deep tissue massage and chiropractic adjustments. Foot reflexology helps too and of course relaxation.

The AMA has done an excellent job at selling itself as the only true way to health. Through the legal system they did away with the competing homeopathic hospitals and doctors decades ago. Now, people are scared to try so-called alternatives. They are debunked as nonsense. Our arms are twisted into paying for health care which is neither about health or care.

  If you haven't looked at Dr.Misha Cohen's web site, I suggest you do. Dr. Gish co-wrote a book with her called the HepC help book. It includes Chinese as well as alapathic medical approaches for HCV.                                  OH

[PSP-n-Me]

thanks so much for the info - when I read the acupuncture thead it reminded me of when I used to go and I freaked - I am soooooooooooooooo glad to hear they use new needles everytime - Yes, I too liked to go there - It really helped my tendonitis - you know what's really weird, since I have been on Interferon I have not had one bout with it...Usually pre existing conditions worsen on Interfeon, go figure LOL

I am doing better these days - Had a very bad spell with severe anemia (it was my own fault, I fought my Hep Nurse for not intervening with Procrit LOL) but after 4 shots of the booster I feel stronger...Thanks for asking :)
*dip*

[Forseegood]

preachin to the choir over here sweetie pie! he he he...I'm going to try this email thing on you and some other people soon, hope it works...I think about you and hope youre doing okay...sounds like it...now I'm going to watch one of my favorite movies..."Election"....