On Halloween, I couldn’t wait to finish my shorter day at the clinic so that I could go trick-or- treating with my six year old son. This year I bought him a Lego Ninjago costume and he looked so happy dressed up at his after school pre-Halloween parade.

PC was my last patient for the day. As I walked to the exam room to greet PC, my staff reminded me that she needed to leave earlier today. Before I started my routine interview, PC asked me if today's visit could be cut by half and still be effective. With my sense of humor, I told her I could easily do that by giving her twice as many needles or inserting the needles twice as deep or cranking up the electro-stimulation twice as strong as I usually do. We both laughed hard...

Knowing PC was a gifted and humble teacher for children with special needs who is always very serious about the relief and relaxation she could get in each minute of her routine visits, I asked her why she had to cut her long awaited acupuncture visit so short. She told me that she wanted to take three kids from her class to buy costumes and then go trick- or- treating. It turned out that these three kids missed the school's parade because their parents could not afford their costumes. PC said that this bothered her the whole day and she could not bear to let her students miss trick- or- treating on Halloween night after already missing the school's parade. My heart sank as I realized that not all kids are able to get the costumes they want on Halloween.   

After treating PC, I told my staff to charge her only half of the fee she usually pays. When she realized she received a special treat, PC said she didn't expect this kind offer and felt very embarrassed. I told her I would feel embarrassed as well if the three kids did not have costumes and missed their trick- or- treating tonight.  

Later, when I picked my son up from after school, he asked me why I seemed so happy. I told him that I just saw an angel on Halloween.

Frank He, L. Ac., QME, DAOM
Edited by Sarah Tang, DTCM

I often see young patients coming in for wrist tendonitis (also known as De Quervain's) resulting from overuse of smart phones. Among these patients are young couples who are doing really well in their life and getting ready to welcome their first baby to the world. As a doctor for over 30 years and a father of three, I often share some knowledge with them-your parenthood is his or her childhood. As soon as your child is born, your life will be different as you experience more work and less sleep. 

Raising a child is not as simple as constantly swiping your phone, before you know your child will have grown up. It takes a lot of physical work: washing clothes, cooking meals and playing games with them. However, based on their current physical conditions, I doubt they would be able to handle all the responsibilities required of a parent. Their parenthood would be less pleasant and as a result their kids' childhood would be less memorable.

Regardless of the cause of their tendonitis, swiping smart phone or giving bath to their child, acupuncture can help reduce pain and swelling. Most patients find that they can recover completely. After recovering from wrist pain/injury, I advise them to begin exercising so that they will become stronger and capable of fulfilling all the physical tasks of raising their kids. 

Frank He, L. Ac., QME, DAOM
Edited by A dedicated parent Jessica Mutschler

Beach volleyball.  Too many people on the court.  Player 1 bumps into the person behind and steps on the edge of the foot of player 2.  An audible three pops are heard.  “POP, POP, POP!” and player 1 goes down into a crumpled pile.  Player 1 has felt this before, and though it had been 18 years since having such a bad injury, Player 1 goes into immediate shock. The leg begins to shake and the ankle starts swelling.  Player 1 is emotionally devastated. The only difference from all the previous ankle ligament tears is that this time she was with a group of acupuncturists, one of whom happened to have some needles with her and was able to give Player 1 immediate treatment--once she was carried off of the volleyball court.  The swelling, which had started so quickly, halted almost as soon as the needles were inserted.  After a few minutes with points placed both distally and locally to the injury, the shaking also stopped.  The physical trauma was severe but the acupuncture had already started controlling the damage so it did not continue to escalate.

Within two hours of the injury, Player 1 was given internal herbs for acute trauma and had the ankle wrapped in a plaster of San Huang San (Three Yellows Powder), an herbal alternative to an ice pack.  Addressing the inflammation and pain internally and externally at the same time are part of a “Die Da” protocol (injury treatment from a long lineage of Martial Arts practices).  The plaster was kept on over night and re-applied for the next few days to reduce swelling, prevent blood clotting, help clear out stagnant blood, and promote fresh blood coming to the area instead of ice, which temporarily helps reduce swelling but ultimately prolongs recovery time because of restricting blood flow to the injured tissues.  The visible bruising that generally takes about a week to appear with this kind of injury had expressed by day 2 and was already starting to clear by day 4!

The deviation from previous ankle injury experiences, seeing the visible signs of more rapid recovery and feeling less pain and restriction than any prior torn ligaments, also helped Player 1 with the emotional component of chronic injury.  She was much more positive and hopeful about her recovery.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbs are useful in addressing minor to severe injuries. This is a case of a severe acute ankle sprain on a person with a long history of chronic ankle injuries. When there is repeat trauma to an area, our body “remembers” this injury pattern and damage can be much more severe and slower to repair than expected.  A sort of “PTSD” of the body, if you will.  When left untreated, or using the classic RICE (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) protocol, the injured area does not repair as quickly as desired or as completely as necessary for full recovery.  Fortunately, using the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine, there are alternatives and ways to overcome the vicious cycle of chronic injury.

A patient of a chiropractor received a pneumothorax after a dry needling treatment in 2015. Chiropractors and physical therapists use acupuncture needles to perform a crude form of acupuncture called dry needling.

I don't care about who was doing the Dry Needling or acupuncture as long as one is trained and licensed to perform such art. Please don't take my post as a personal offense or disrespect to a profession of PT or DC. As an acupuncturist and teacher myself, all I care about is why this happened and how I could prevent this from happening in my own practice and my interns'.

Pneumothorax happens to acupuncturists' practice as well and probably even more frequently. You can easily find the cases reported to acupuncture Board involving pneumothorax on its website. It's all about how much training, whether within scope of practice, how clinically competent the practitioner is... 

​For more details on the news, please follow the link at the end of this pot. Thanks!

Good luck needling!

Frank He, L. AC, QME, DAOM, Professor of Acupuncture

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfmaude/detail.cfm?mdrfoi__id=5383935

The expression originates from the Great Depression, when money (and food) were scarce. “To have a good meal under your belt” meant that you ate heartily that day. If you did not have enough food, you would have to “tighten your belt” because you’d lost weight and your pants would be falling off. (Sue Allen Clayton )
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Born in 1960's in a small village in Northern China, I had experienced the shortage of food. I went to boarding school for my high school and everyone had the same amount of food at every meal, regardless of one’s gender or size. Therefore, the most effective way to fight hunger was to tighten my belt. My older siblings did not attend boarding school and had more to eat, which was probably why I was the shortest one among three siblings.

Entering medical school, I was primarily known as an athletic guy. I often received more food with the same amount of money because staff at the dining hall simply liked me very much and felt I needed more food due to my consumption of energy in sports. Sometimes, I would get more food than I can eat and I would simply share with friends. With the increase of food supply, I surprisingly grew an extra inch taller during my medical school years.

After graduating from medical school, I made some money and could afford more food-meaning I was supposed to gain more weight. However, I always remembered to tighten my belt. That’s why my neighbors often asked if I was eating enough, because I looked so “thin”  while most people at my age have been carrying a supersized belly, a sign they were well off. Though annoyed, I'd always jokingly say the same thing, “I am still working up in life.” By tightening my belt, I am still able to fit in the pants I used to wear during high school :)

The original purpose of tightening one’s belt might have been to prevent pants falling off. However, I have my own understanding of the idiom from my personal and medical perspectives: First of all, by tightening your belt, you’d maintain a relatively consistent volume in your stomach for the amount of food you should eat. Secondly, when tightening your belt, you can keep your stomach between your waistline and your diaphragm so that it would not stretch and hold more food than it should otherwise. Moreover, your stomach would become smaller and you'd feel fuller sooner when eating your meals.
My personal observation of the obesity epidemic in the developed countries is that it comes from food surplus and over-consumption. This is why some obese patients choose to reduce the volume of their stomach. Whenever I treat overweight patients, I always wonder: if one can simply tighten the belt to prevent obesity, why would one choose to undergo tummy tuck or even bariatric surgery?

For the sake of your stomach, please tighten your belt.

Practitioner Leia Sutton-Barnes shares pictures from her recent sky-diving adventure in Santa Cruz country with Skydive Surfcity. Here's a reminder to all of us to enjoy the thrills of life and the outdoors!