DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Acupuncture is making its way into the everyday lives of the great state of North Carolina!

The room is dim, peaceful. Soothing music plays in the background, but otherwise all is silent. You lie, sheathed in a sheet, on a padded table, with thin metal needles studding multiple parts of your body a proverbial pincushion. And youve never been more relaxed in your life.

If this sounds familiar, chances are youve experienced the ancient art of acupuncture, which originated in Asia thousands of years ago and has been used in the United States for about two centuries. In the state of North Carolina, acupunctures history is briefer at least officially. Just ask Page Paterson, who was there at the very beginning.

License 001

“When I first went to school, there was no law in North Carolina about it,” says Paterson, a licensed acupuncturist who holds a masters in acupuncture and currently operates out of the Wilmington Acupuncture and Counseling Center. “The acupuncturists across the state went to the attorney general, who told us to get a license in another state. When theres enough of you, he said, you can lobby.”

So it came to be that in 1989, Paterson opened up a practice jointly in Wilmington and in Chapel Hill. “There was no other acupuncturist here; in Chapel Hill, I joined an existing practice. I worked two days a week in Chapel Hill,” Paterson says. She built her Wilmington clientele by giving talks at the Sun and Moon bookstore, no longer in operation, and by word of mouth. “In five years, I was busy enough that I sold my practice in Chapel Hill.”

Paterson wasnt alone. Across the state, an ever-growing group of physicians wanted to use homeopathy in their practice, and an increasing number of acupuncturists were calling North Carolina home. The time had come to lobby for licensure, and, as luck would have it, the process took just one year. In 1994, Page Paterson became the very first acupuncturist licensed in the state of North Carolina, a distinction to which the framed certificate on her office wall, with its distinctive “001,” attests. “We wrote a good law,” she says, smiling.

That year, Paterson joined an elite group of six other individuals who received their acupuncture licenses. Today, according to the Community Acupuncture Network (CAN), around 400 licensed acupuncturists reside in the Tarheel State. Seventeen of them call Wilmington home (source: North Carolina Acupuncture Licensing Board). While our states acupuncturists constitute a mere fraction of the 27,965 U.S. licensees (as of July 2009), its a far cry from the seven pioneers who successfully lobbied for licensure sixteen years ago.

The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the United States acceptance of acupuncture as a complementary treatment method for all types of ailments, including fibromyalgia, migraines, infertility, cancer pain, asthma, drug addiction, osteoarthritis, and more. In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed acupuncture needles from their “experimental medical device” list. The U.S. Department of Education now recognizes the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, which has links to approximately 50 acupuncture schools. Multiple sources, including the National Institute of Health, have conducted studies and summits on the techniques efficacy and effectiveness.

Despite these developments, theres still a long way to go. “If youre thinking of doing acupuncture, be sure you go to a licensed acupuncturist. In North Carolina, chiropractors and doctors can do acupuncture without training for it specifically, and its covered by insurance,” Paterson warns. Insurance coverage or the lack of it can be a significant impediment to receiving acupuncture treatment. “Progress Energy covers acupuncture, and so do a few other companies. But Blue Cross Blue Shield NC isnt required to cover it,” she explains. Instead of traditional insurance coverage, they offer acupuncturists a compromise: lower your rates for our customers, and well include you on our list of providers. Its a compromise that Paterson and others like her, including local acupuncturist Daerr Reid of East Coast Acupuncture cant afford to make.

This Valentine’s day why not try couple’s acupuncture? This can bring you closer to your partner and bring your energy together.

Last month, I wrote a “Living Well and Beautifully” post about the preventive value of acupuncture, which uses hair-thin needles to affect and balance the flow of Qi (pronounced “chee), or “vital energy,” in the body. But in honor of Valentine’s Day and lovers everywhere, I’ve got a new proposition: Why not use acupuncture to get closer to each other?

We’ve all heard of couples’ massage, where the two are simultaneously attended to by therapists working in the same room. Well, the same principle applies here–but instead of merely relaxing, the couple receives acupuncture at the same time to help balance their energies, boost their personal connection and enhance their relationship.

A quick primer, in case you don’t know how acupuncture works. A trained practitioner inserts needles at specific points along the body’s energy pathways (called “meridians”) to restore the body’s proper energy flow. When the Qi is flowing in harmony, the body is naturally in a state of good health; when it’s not, Qi can become obstructed, throwing the whole system out of balance. What acupuncture does is that stimulates specific areas on the body associated with “out-of-balance” organ functions and their pathways to bring back balance.

For guidance on how this works for couples, I talked to Caroline Jung, L.Ac,. MSOM, a board-certified acupuncturist at the Tiffani Kim Institute Medical Spa. At our facility, couples can relax in a dimly-lit room where treatment tables are covered in plush red blankets and fresh flowers adorn the space, creating a romantic feel. Couples are welcome to talk while the acupuncturist administers the treatment–which Caroline says “makes it an even better experience. It really enhances it because you’re sharing what you’re feeling with the other person.”

The acupuncturist focuses on opening the flow of the “heart channel,” which corresponds with joy, and the “liver channel,” which corresponds with anger and stress. Says Caroline: “When you reduce the stress, it relaxes all the muscles. Working on channels that traverse the reproductive areas of the body” also bring real benefits to couples. (But don’t worry–those needles get inserted into the legs, hands and earlobes, but NOWHERE near the genitals!)

So what benefits will you get? Increased overall blood circulation. Increased Qi flow. And better regulation of the body’s hormones. All these enhance and support the body’s reproductive system, and when these are regulated and in balance, couples are likely to have optimal fertility and an enhanced libido. Perfect timing for Valentine’s Day, I say! (If clients want, they can follow this joint acupuncture session with a couples’ massage to continue the shared relaxation experience.)