Article from the Website: Healthcare Medicine Institute

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently recognizes more than 40 conditions that can be treated with acupuncture. However, it is important to remember that acupuncture treats the whole person, not just the condition. Even if your condition is not listed below, you may still benefit from acupuncture.

Pain: this is one of the most common and well-known conditions that respond quickly to acupuncture treatments:

• Back Pain (lower, middle or upper), sciatica

• Dental Pain

• Facial Pain, Bell’s, TMJ

• Headache / Migraine

• Joint Pain, tendonitis

• Neck Pain

• Post-operative

Chronic and difficult conditions such as:

• Arthritis

• Fibromyalgia

• Chronic fatigue syndrome

• Depression/anxiety

• Insomnia

• Weight loss

Women’s Health conditions:

• Infertility

• Menopause

• Menstrual disorders

• Morning sickness

• PMS

Neurological conditions:

• Multiple sclerosis

• Stroke recovery or prevention

Other commonly treated conditions recognized by the World Health Organization:

• Addiction

• Arthritis

• Asthma

• Common cold or flu

• Depression

• Digestive Disorders

• Eye Disorders

• Frozen Shoulder

• Hypertension

• Hypo-tension
  

• Insomnia

• Season allergies

• Repetitive Stress Injury, sprains

Read the full report of the World Health Organization Clinical Acupuncture Trials

    Community Acupuncture is a way of offering acupuncture, based on a sliding fee scale, making it affordable for all. The Community Acupuncture movement began in 2011, with the opening of the first clinic in Portland, Oregon. Acupuncture is a process in which the most benefits are achieved from regular treatments, because acupuncture is about wellness. Our suggestion is to have more than one treatment, or as many as you can. Each time deepens and strengthens your wellness. I have seen the health benefits of receiving regular acupuncture treatments in my own life.

    Some people say they prefer community, because it feels good to have other people around. It certainly is an opportunity for you to allow yourself to relax and enjoy a quiet time.

    We need you to make yourself comfortable in the treatment room, relax in a chair, take a blanket, and put your feet up while we treat you. Community may require a little flexibility on your part. Sometimes you may find someone sitting in your favorite chair, or, hear another person snoring. Please adapt to these circumstances. Also, feel free to bring favorite pillows, blankets, earplugs, or headphones from home.

    We will make every effort to speak softly. If you do hear noises, please allow them to take you deeper into a meditative state.

    In terms of how long you want to stay, tell us at the start of your treatment if you need to be somewhere at a certain time. Once your needles are in, take some time to rest and, or, take a nap. When you feel done, open your eyes and give us a meaningful look (if your eyes are closed, we will think you’re asleep and might not be so quick to wake you).     So, acupuncture is the insertion in strategic places in the body of very thin (hairlike), filiform (solid), sterile, needles which are said to move the blockage out of the path in order  for the body to heal.

    When inserted, there may be a sensation of dullness, aliveness, coolness, heaviness, numbness, mild ache, or warmth. The body takes note of this and either, electrically, or neurologically, stimulates a focus in that area for the body itself to create a healing.

    So, how does it work, really? There is no simple answer to that question. Possibly there is yet no scientific answer. We might say that it stimulates the body’s own natural pain killers, endorphins,  as a reason for why it works as anesthesia during surgery.

    Neuroimaging studies show a variety of ways in which the insertion of these tiny needles affects the brain and body. Acupuncture stimulates blood flow and tissue repair at the needle sites, sending nerve signals to the brain to regulate the perception of pain, and to signal the body’s healing abilities. These are shown on MRI. When the needles are rotated by the practitioner they are shown to wrap around connective tissue, and again, send releasing signals to the body via these meridian, or Qi highways.

    Recent scientific  studies, using functional MRI, have shown that the brain is signaled when one receives acupuncture, and responds by increasing immune system elements and activating neurotransmitters. If disease is considered to be an imbalance in the body system, then acupuncture activates the body’s own healing energy  through manipulation of Qi, blood and body fluids, and, thus, the body sets up it’s own healing system.

    Lisa Rohleder and Skip Van Meter, the couple that started the original community acupuncture clinic in Oregon,  received inspiration from the traditional Chinese bed setup when they traveled to the East. Since then, the community acupuncture movement has grown from one clinic to over 300 worldwide. This growth in the community acupuncture movement comes at a time when acupuncture is becoming recognized more and more as necessary preventative medicine. Acupuncturists all over the country are pushing for acupuncture to be covered under Obama’s new health care plan. By 2014, Section 3502 of President Obama's health care reform could mandate the Bureau of Health Statistics to formally recognize acupuncture as a profession, opening the door for people to have more wellness options.

- Dona McGlennen L.Ac.

    Spend some time thinking about what you would like to achieve from your acupuncture treatment.  If you have several conditions or symptoms you would like to address, rank them by priority.  On your first visit to the clinic, you will be asked about your chief complaint.  Secondary issues will also be noted and addressed as the treatment progresses.

The following suggestions are provided to help you have a safe and relaxing experience with acupuncture.

• Eat a light meal 1 to 2 hours prior to your visit.
  
• Avoid alcohol on the day of your treatment.
  
• Avoid heavy exertion immediately before, and after treatment, including heavy working out
  
• Allow enough time so that you are not rushing to and from your visit.
  
• Wear loose, comfortable clothing that can be rolled up to your elbows or knees
  
• Please avoid perfumes or fragrances on the day of your appointment
  
• You may want to empty your bladder

Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments have four parts. First is the questioning, or asking. I may ask you about some things that you might not think are connected to your chief complaint, for example, your emotions, sleeping patterns, and bodily functions; these symptoms will show me patterns of disharmony.

There is a listening and smelling portion. I will be listening to your voice as you speak.

There is a palpation, or “feeling” portion. I will check your pulse in six different positions. I will also be looking at your tongue for the color, coating and shape. With your first visit this will take longer, perhaps one half hour to forty-five minutes.

After the needles are inserted, plan on resting for about twenty minutes. During that time you may feel heaviness, electrical sensations, deep relaxation, a floating feeling, or very little. Pain is never ok. Tell us immediately if that is the case. We come in part way through the session to see if you are feeling okay and possibly stimulate the needles.

After the needles are removed, sit up slowly and drink a glass of room temperature water. If you can, avoid iced drinks, cold foods, cold showers or cold drafty areas for twenty-four hours.

Since individuals vary, it is difficult to state definitively at the time of your first visit how many treatments will be required for your concern.

The ideal approach to illness is to begin treatment as soon as possible.  The sooner you seek help, the easier it is to treat.  For longstanding illnesses, weekly treatments may be required for several months in order to have a curative effect.


Once you initiate a healing process, it is important to follow through on treatments.  The more consistent you are, the better the likelihood of results.  The effects of acupuncture tend to be cumulative.

After you are feeling better, we will likely recommend an additional few treatments.  The goal of these "maintenance" treatments is to further strengthen your body to prevent the reoccurrence of the illness.

Maintenance treatments keep your body in a state of health, and are the most recommended plan.

- Dona McGlennen L.Ac.

    I have been working with scars for a time now, having first been introduced to its usefulness by my New York teacher of Constitutional Facial Acupuncture, Mary Elizabeth Wakefield.

    Scars are the body’s healing mechanism. They may be created because of accidents, surgery, disease, severe sunburn, self-inflicted, or, of unknown etiology.    

    From a Traditional Oriental Medicine perspective, there is an interruption in the free flow of Qi in the superficial fascia under a meridian. At some point later, that scarred area may begin to ache because of insufficient blood flow.

     Acupuncture works very well to help heal a scarred area. Threading under a scar area breaks up adhesions, or, that pulling effect on the deeper, surrounding tissues, which can even affect digestion, circulation, and respiration. Acupuncture also lessens hyperpigmentation (liver spots) by promoting Qi and blood circulation to an area, (from my teacher Kiiko Matsumoto). Sometimes we use a technique called “surrounding the dragon”, by placing several needles facing the scar in a circle towards each other to stimulate blood flow through it.

    Scars also have cellular memory, and as a result have a prolonged effect on the body, even though the original injury appears healed. Often the memory of the original trauma associated with it, comes forward, allowing an emotional release to take place.

    Many modalities may be useful in restoring the interrupted balance in the system. Systems like Myofascial release, microcurrent stimulation, and cupping, as well as external products like Vitamin E, Tamanu oil, Helichrysum oil, homeopathics and Nattinokinese (for internal scarring), may be useful.

- Dona McGlennen L.Ac.

    For a long time I have been aware that stress can cause heart problems in persons with normal coronary arteries. This condition was first described in 1991 with many names, including “broken heart syndrome”. It’s name originated from the Japanese word for an octopus trapping pot, a round vessel with a narrow neck that resembles the ventriculographic appearance of the heart at the end of systole.

    There have been reported increases in this condition from many countries in the past few years. Demographically, most have occurred in women ages 58 to 75. Some times there is no triggering event. And, quite often, no prior heart problems. When there is a sudden severe stress, often there is a surge of catecholamines, and, or, microvascular ischemia. Remember stress activates the fight or flight response. The things that typically precede this condition include deaths in the family, catastrophic medical diagnoses, excessive gambling, tensions related to financial difficulties, sometimes fear of domestic abuse, and environmental stressors.

    Patients may present to an emergency room with all the symptoms of a heart attack. Ruling out recent emotional stressors is an important helpful tool for diagnosis.

    In Traditional Chinese Medicine, emotional issues are the first things we consider and treat. There is a tacit agreement that the body can, and will, heal itself, if given the opportunity to relax. In the Western medical world, anyone over the age of fifty who is going to have surgery must have an EKG. It was surprising to me to note how many people had had heart attacks sometime in the past, of which they were unaware.

    Traditional Chinese Medicine performed as Shiatsu, Tuina, or acupuncture can change the way you deal with stress. Most people feel that stress is a given in our human world. Perhaps so, that’s hard to say. Nevertheless, I can decide to change the way I handle it, and I am very grateful for these tools.

- Dona McGlennen L.Ac.