7.24.2009

The Acupuncturist


OUR FIRST ACUPUNCTURE EXPERIENCE

Last Friday, Jacob attended his first acupuncture appointment.

You see, since childhood, Jacob has suffered from asthma. He of course has medications, in the form in inhalants, that he has been prescribed that prevent asthma attacks from occurring and can also stop an asthma attack once it has already started. Up until recently this dependency on his medication seemed to be the only way to control his asthma for now and forever.

We first became interested in acupuncture about two months ago, when I received a GOOP newsletter on the subject. Our interest was piqued when, specifically in the newsletter, the acupuncturist spoke of her success with asthmatic patients.

As time progressed and we continued to think about and research acupuncture, we finally decided to give it a try. We made an appointment with Roger Stainbrook, the in-house acupuncturist at American Power Yoga, a yoga studio at which Jacob and I have practiced a bit of yoga, employs credible and experienced instructors, and is successful and known in the Dallas area.

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Not knowing exactly what to expect, Jacob and I, with a healthy bit of skepticism, entered the Energy Balancing Center last Friday, ready for Jake's appointment.

The first thing Roger did was gather information about Jacob's condition. He did this by asking questions and by feeling Jacob's pulse points on his wrists.

After gathering some basic knowledge on the condition and Jacob's physiology, Roger explained that asthma is really a symptom or side-effect of a deeper underlying issue; an "allergy" to something Jacob is either consuming, inhaling, touching, or what have you.

So, Roger began testing Jacob for allergies to find out what is causing his asthma to occur. And this is when it really became interesting. This is when my eyes started to peek open to the concept that, perhaps, Western medicine is limited in its ability to treat and heal. And not only that, but also that maybe there are other avenues of medicine that can treat in ways that Western medicine cannot.

As I watched the testing, I couldn't help but be extremely intrigued about the things the acupuncturist was revealing about Jacob's body. Roger discovered that Jacob has allergies to Vitamin C and sugar, and that these allergies are affecting the functions of his heart and his stomach, which directly affect his lungs. So, when Jacob consumes anything containing Vitamin C or sugar, which are two unavoidable nutrients, his lungs are adversely affected.

This is where the needles come in, literally. 8 needles in the feet, legs, wrists, and hands.

The first to be eliminated was the Vitamin C allergy. That's right, eliminated. So, this was our first step. And at Jacob's next appointment, he will eliminate the sugar allergy, which should be quite an adventure. So, it will be after appointment number 2 that we will see how successful this all turns out to be.

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AMANDA'S CAT ALLERGY

The experience was so intriguing, in fact, that I had to experience the needles for myself. So at 10:00 a.m. today, I had MY first acupuncture appointment. During the food allergy testing, we found that I have only a slight food allergy to nuts. Boring.

During the appointment I mentioned that I am allergic to cats. As a child I was not allergic, but suddenly sometime during college I developed a pretty severe and annoying allergy to felines.

So, Roger handed me a container of cat hair and dander and tested the allergy. He discovered that I have an emotional allergy that affects my brain and liver.
I know it sounds weird:
I have an emotional** allergy to cats.

It probably stems from my childhood when my dad (on two separate occasions and with two separate cats) secretly took my pet cat to the pound while I was out of town. Traumatic!

Anyway, in one week I will report back on this cat allergy, and on Jacob's sugar and Vitamin C allergies and we will see what has become of it, and if the acupuncture has worked. On Friday we are going home to Lubbock and I will inevitably have cat interaction.

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**Here is an example of how an emotional allergy forms: [True Story] A man comes into an acupuncturist with chronic back pain in his upper back and shoulders. The acupuncturist runs tests and finds out the man has a pear (yes, the fruit) allergy at the emotional level. Well, how is this related to his back pain? You can trace back an emotional allergy to what year the allergy developed. And, in this case the man's allergy occurred when he was 8 years old. Incidentally, when the man was 8 he fell out of a pear tree in his backyard and landed on his back/shoulder while holding a pear in his hand. Well, the man's body related the pain that he felt in his back and shoulder to the pear in his hand. So, later in life when the man is near or eats pears back pain ensues. And pear juice is used in many artificial sweeteners in processed foods. So there you are.

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Acupuncture image found at freshsolutions.org

2 comments:

Brent Dixon said...

Dang hippies.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Brent. Ha.