Community Acupuncture
A summary of Fractal: About Community Acupuncture, by Lisa Rohleder, L.Ac.
Summary written by a patient volunteer
The origins of acupuncture are long lost and probably precede written records. In 1991, a well-preserved mummy with tattoos at, or near, a number of recognizable acupuncture points was discovered near the Austrian-Italian border. Archaeologists determined that the mummy, christened “The Iceman”, died around 3300 BCE. Does this mean that acupuncture - or something like it, was practiced in Europe in the Bronze Age? One thing we do know is that acupuncture is common throughout Asia, including China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. It has been practiced in Europe since the 1800’s, and is practiced today in Latin America, Australia, and North America.
Acupuncture first arrived in the United States (and Canada) in the 1800’s by two different routes: Chinese immigrants practiced it in their own communities; and through medical doctors who decided to try it after reading journal articles about French physicians who experimented with it. Acupuncture received widespread attention after Nixon’s 1972 visit to China. James Reston, a New York Times reporter, needed an emergency appendectomy and received acupuncture for postoperative pain. He was so impressed with the results that he wrote an article about his experience.
The first American acupuncture schools and professional organizations were founded in the 1970’s; and some states passed laws that legalized acupuncture and licensed practitioners. In the US and other Western countries, where white people began to practice acupuncture in significant numbers, the model of delivery changed from acupuncture practiced in groups as they were in Asia, to treating one patient per hour in an individual room, like psychotherapists or massage therapists. The cost of acupuncture education and treatments skyrocketed. Therefore, most people with ordinary incomes could not afford the oldest, simplest, safest form of health care in the world. Consequently, people would save up so they could get one treatment every six weeks or so, which is no help at all for any real health problem. Using one treatment when ten are called for is like taking one pill out of a course of antibiotics and expecting it to work. This is where community acupuncture comes in to provide a setting of several chairs in a large room to accommodate several people to receive treatments at the same time. By 2006, it was clear that there is a lot of interest in community acupuncture, because our health care is in an expensive, dysfunctional mess. Community acupuncture is cheap, simple, and effective. It is too old to be patented, so it does not make money for investors. If acupuncture were a drug, it would be a wonder-drug and the pharmaceutical company that held the patent would be very rich, because the list of conditions that acupuncture can relieve is very long.
Although no one knows exactly how it works, it seems to stimulate the body’s self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms. This means it can treat a wide range of problems without causing major negative side effects, that often come with drugs. In fact, the main side effects of acupuncture are all positive: increased energy, reduced stress, better sleep, improved moods and often a general sense of well-being and relaxation. This makes acupuncture particularly helpful to Americans in the 21st century, because we are some of the most stressed out people in history. Some people speculate that acupuncture works by interfacing between the body’s nervous system and circulating system, and certainly it seems to improve blood circulation in general, which treats low levels of inflammation. Acupuncture theory suggests that many common physical and emotional problems result simply from “stagnation” - from things not moving well and not working smoothly within a person. As a result, acupuncture is able to treat common problems without medication. Conventional medicine relies heavily on diagnosis via expensive and invasive testing, which often leads to prescriptions and large profits for drug companies, while acupuncture does not involve drugs or surgery, because our internal resources are enough to make a difference in our lives. It is not addictive and there is no way to overdose, while it reduces medical costs to society.
Acupuncture can be a very simple solution to a variety of problems, such as poor digestion, or a strained low back pain, with nothing more than a series of simple treatments. Pain and stress in all their various manifestations may not be particularly complex, but they have a great capacity to make people miserable. It treats every type of conceivable pain, and is good for treating chronic problems such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis, which can be managed, but not reversed or cured; but helps people with chronic disorders to have a better quality of life and reduce the need for multiple medications. In the long list of conditions that acupuncture can relieve is asthma, sinusitis, insomnia, fibromyalgia, hot flashes, infertility, constipation, anxiety, depression, the common cold, PMS, side effects of chemotherapy, and so on. It is so relaxing, that many people who have nothing wrong with them use it on a regular basis because they enjoy it so much. The person receiving the needles and the person who inserts the needles really do not know how the body will react to acupuncture, but it is the safest health care in the world.
You can find out more info about Community Acupuncture, and where other Community Acupuncture clinics are located at these links.
A summary of Fractal: About Community Acupuncture, by Lisa Rohleder, L.Ac.
Summary written by a patient volunteer
The origins of acupuncture are long lost and probably precede written records. In 1991, a well-preserved mummy with tattoos at, or near, a number of recognizable acupuncture points was discovered near the Austrian-Italian border. Archaeologists determined that the mummy, christened “The Iceman”, died around 3300 BCE. Does this mean that acupuncture - or something like it, was practiced in Europe in the Bronze Age? One thing we do know is that acupuncture is common throughout Asia, including China, Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. It has been practiced in Europe since the 1800’s, and is practiced today in Latin America, Australia, and North America.
Acupuncture first arrived in the United States (and Canada) in the 1800’s by two different routes: Chinese immigrants practiced it in their own communities; and through medical doctors who decided to try it after reading journal articles about French physicians who experimented with it. Acupuncture received widespread attention after Nixon’s 1972 visit to China. James Reston, a New York Times reporter, needed an emergency appendectomy and received acupuncture for postoperative pain. He was so impressed with the results that he wrote an article about his experience.
The first American acupuncture schools and professional organizations were founded in the 1970’s; and some states passed laws that legalized acupuncture and licensed practitioners. In the US and other Western countries, where white people began to practice acupuncture in significant numbers, the model of delivery changed from acupuncture practiced in groups as they were in Asia, to treating one patient per hour in an individual room, like psychotherapists or massage therapists. The cost of acupuncture education and treatments skyrocketed. Therefore, most people with ordinary incomes could not afford the oldest, simplest, safest form of health care in the world. Consequently, people would save up so they could get one treatment every six weeks or so, which is no help at all for any real health problem. Using one treatment when ten are called for is like taking one pill out of a course of antibiotics and expecting it to work. This is where community acupuncture comes in to provide a setting of several chairs in a large room to accommodate several people to receive treatments at the same time. By 2006, it was clear that there is a lot of interest in community acupuncture, because our health care is in an expensive, dysfunctional mess. Community acupuncture is cheap, simple, and effective. It is too old to be patented, so it does not make money for investors. If acupuncture were a drug, it would be a wonder-drug and the pharmaceutical company that held the patent would be very rich, because the list of conditions that acupuncture can relieve is very long.
Although no one knows exactly how it works, it seems to stimulate the body’s self-healing and self-regulating mechanisms. This means it can treat a wide range of problems without causing major negative side effects, that often come with drugs. In fact, the main side effects of acupuncture are all positive: increased energy, reduced stress, better sleep, improved moods and often a general sense of well-being and relaxation. This makes acupuncture particularly helpful to Americans in the 21st century, because we are some of the most stressed out people in history. Some people speculate that acupuncture works by interfacing between the body’s nervous system and circulating system, and certainly it seems to improve blood circulation in general, which treats low levels of inflammation. Acupuncture theory suggests that many common physical and emotional problems result simply from “stagnation” - from things not moving well and not working smoothly within a person. As a result, acupuncture is able to treat common problems without medication. Conventional medicine relies heavily on diagnosis via expensive and invasive testing, which often leads to prescriptions and large profits for drug companies, while acupuncture does not involve drugs or surgery, because our internal resources are enough to make a difference in our lives. It is not addictive and there is no way to overdose, while it reduces medical costs to society.
Acupuncture can be a very simple solution to a variety of problems, such as poor digestion, or a strained low back pain, with nothing more than a series of simple treatments. Pain and stress in all their various manifestations may not be particularly complex, but they have a great capacity to make people miserable. It treats every type of conceivable pain, and is good for treating chronic problems such as diabetes, hypertension, and arthritis, which can be managed, but not reversed or cured; but helps people with chronic disorders to have a better quality of life and reduce the need for multiple medications. In the long list of conditions that acupuncture can relieve is asthma, sinusitis, insomnia, fibromyalgia, hot flashes, infertility, constipation, anxiety, depression, the common cold, PMS, side effects of chemotherapy, and so on. It is so relaxing, that many people who have nothing wrong with them use it on a regular basis because they enjoy it so much. The person receiving the needles and the person who inserts the needles really do not know how the body will react to acupuncture, but it is the safest health care in the world.
You can find out more info about Community Acupuncture, and where other Community Acupuncture clinics are located at these links.