Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced for millennia because it works.  For veterans, the possibilities are truly outstanding because one of Chinese medicine's areas of significant prowess is its ability to help us let go of the past.  Anyone who has experienced the intensity of war knows beyond doubt how our bodies and minds can hold on to things that happened months or even years ago.  Hundreds of clinics all over the world are bringing acupuncture to vets with great success in treating conditions such as PTSD, depression, anxiety and pain.

The World Health Organization recognizes that acupuncture is effective for conditions such as headaches, sprains, low back pain, sciatica and neck pain.  An article in the Wall Street Journal (3/23/10) reported "After decades of rolling their eyes at the idea, Western medical experts are now using high-tech tools to unravel the ancient mysteries of how acupuncture works".

Each needle always addresses mind, body and spirit.  A great example of spirit-level healing was shared recently in a blog entitled "Healing Combat Trauma". A Marine returning from several deployments in Iraq described his experience with acupuncture:  "After she stuck me (needled me), I went back out to my truck, and I just sat there, for about an hour and a half......I realized it was the first time I had felt happy in two and a half years...I had forgotten what it was like to feel real joy".

Recently I saw a patient who said, "You know, sometimes my logical mind just wants to laugh at this whole process...but I know it works.  I can feel that it is working every time."  You do not have to understand it to heal.  You simply have to have an opened mind.  Soldiers at Walter Reed in D.C. are using it, Marines in combat zones are using it, and now veterans in Asheville, N.C. can feel its effects, too.

                                                        Sarah Thomas, L.Ac.