My own foray into the “worlds” of Shamanism

This post is in response to the requests of clients to learn more about Shamanism and what happens during the Shamanic treatment. To schedule your own appointment with me call Glow’s office. 206 568 7545

It began after a “dark night of the soul” which occurred during the time of my two ACL (1992, 1995) reconstructions and one major meniscus repair. It wasn’t until my first Shamanic session that I started to get a framework for my own personal “spiritual” experiences, some of which had been fairly disconcerting and life changing.

 At first I thought, it was PRETTY kooky. But hey, I was already an acupuncturist and many people think that’s pretty crazy too. I received my first session as a gift and didn’t know what to expect. She asked me what I wanted to focus on and I was unclear. I didn’t really have any problems. Finally, I conceded that having been born and raised in the country, I sometimes found the city noise, lights, and traffic to be a little much. Was that something she could help with? She said we’d find out. I don’t remember much else from that first encounter. I lay on the ground and she shook a rattle near my head. I relaxed. Afterword, I no longer felt that way about the city. I found that interesting.

 Betsy  and I began to work together in the same office.  I noticed that with certain issues, she helped people address in a couple sessions what I felt would take many more,  if not years to treat with acupuncture. This included physical, emotional and spiritual issues. I’ve included a small study through Kaiser that shows promise in the treatment of jaw pain with Shamanic medicine. Kaiser study on jaw pain

I asked Betsy to be my mentor and began training in 2002.

Shamanism is not a religion (unless you want it to be) although it can add depth to any religion. It is an ancient healing modality which uses near universal principles and archetypes to access spiritual information and facilitate healing.  It provides direct access to personal spiritual information. It is worlds of archetypes and storytelling. It is realms that we all know and have access to like nature, and myth. Anyone who has ever felt healed after a good book or a poignant movie understands that image and messages at the right time can feel like they are “just for us” and have profound effects. It’s also about connection or reconnection with our natural state, and our natural world.

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Wall Street Journal Article on Acupuncture

• HEALTH JOURNAL
• MARCH 22, 2010

 

Decoding an Ancient Therapy

High-Tech Tools Show How Acupuncture Works in Treating Arthritis, Back Pain, Other Ills

• By MELINDA BECK

Acupuncture has long baffled medical experts and no wonder: It holds that an invisible life force called qi (pronounced chee) travels up and down the body in 14 meridians. Illness and pain are due to blockages and imbalances in qi. Inserting thin needles into the body at precise points can unblock the meridians, practitioners believe, and treat everything from arthritis and asthma to anxiety, acne and infertility.

WSJ’s health columnist Melinda Beck tests out acupuncture as an alternative means to reduce her neck and back pain.

Does It Work?

While scientists say further research is essential, some studies have provided evidence of acupuncture’s effects.

• Arthritis of the Knee: Acupuncture significantly reduced pain and restored function, according to a 2004 government study.
• Headaches: Two 2009 reviews found that acupuncture cut both tension and migraine headaches.
• Lower Back Pain: Acupuncture eased it in a big study last year, but so did a sham treatment where needles didn’t penetrate the skin.
• Cancer: Has proven effective in reducing nausea and fatigue caused by chemotherapy.
• Infertility: Improves the odds of pregnancy for women undergoing in-vitro fertilization, according to a 2008 review of seven clinical trials.
• Addiction: Often used to help quit smoking, drinking, drug use and overeating, but there is no conclusive evidence that it works.

 

After decades of cynicism, Western medical experts are using high-tech tools to unravel the ancient mysteries of how acupuncture works. WSJ’s Health columnist Melinda Beck joins Simon Constable on the News Hub to discuss.

As fanciful as that seems, acupuncture does have real effects on the human body, which scientists are documenting using high-tech tools. Neuroimaging studies show that it seems to calm areas of the brain that register pain and activate those involved in rest and recuperation. Doppler ultrasound shows that acupuncture increases blood flow in treated areas. Thermal imaging shows that it can make inflammation subside.

Scientists are also finding parallels between the ancient concepts and modern anatomy. Many of the 365 acupuncture points correspond to nerve bundles or muscle trigger points. Several meridians track major arteries and nerves. “If people have a heart attack, the pain will radiate up across the chest and down the left arm. That’s where the heart meridian goes,” says Peter Dorsher, a specialist in pain management and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. “Gallbladder pain will radiate to the right upper shoulder, just where the gallbladder meridian goes.”

Many medical experts remain deeply skeptical about acupuncture, of course, and studies of its effectiveness have been mixed. “Something measurable is happening when you stick a needle into a patient—that doesn’t impress me at all,” says Edzard Ernst, a professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter in England and co-author of the book, “Trick or Treatment.” Acupuncture “clearly has a very strong placebo effect. Whether it does anything else, the jury is still out.”

Even so, the use of acupuncture continues to spread—often alongside conventional medicine. U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army doctors are using acupuncture to treat musculoskeletal problems, pain and stress in stateside hospitals and combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Delegations from Acupuncturists Without Borders are holding communal ear-needling sessions to reduce stress among earthquake victims in Haiti. Major medical centers—from M.D. Anderson in Houston to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York—use acupuncture to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy.

In a 2007 survey, 3.2 million Americans had undergone acupuncture in the past year—up from 2.1 million in 2001, according to the government’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The most common uses are for chronic pain conditions like arthritis, lower back pain and headaches, as well as fatigue, anxiety and digestive problems, often when conventional medicine fails. At about $50 per session, it’s relatively inexpensive and covered by some insurers.It is also generally safe. About 10% of patients experience some bleeding at the needle sites, although in very rare cases, fatalities have occurred due to infections or injury to vital organs, mostly due to inexperienced practitioners.

Most states require that acupuncturists be licensed, and the Food and Drug Administration requires that needles be new and sterile.

Diagnoses are complicated. An acupuncturist will examine a patient’s tongue and take three different pulses on each wrist, as well as asking questions about digestion, sleep and other habits, before determining which meridians may be blocked and where to place the needles. The 14 meridians are thought to be based on the rivers of China, and the 365 points may represent the days of the year. “Invaders” such as wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness factor into illness, so can five phases known as fire, earth, metal, water and wood.

Using Acupuncture to Treat Stress

View Interactive

“It’s not like there’s a Merck Manual for acupuncture,” says Joseph M. Helms, who has trained some 4,000 physicians in acupuncture at his institute in Berkeley, Calif. “Every case is evaluated on an individual basis, based on the presentation of the patient and the knowledge of the acupuncturist.”

Dr. Helms notes that Western doctors also examine a patient’s tongue for signs of illness. As for qi, he says, while the word doesn’t exist in Western medicine, there are similar concepts. “We’ll say, ‘A 27-year-old female appears moribund; she doesn’t respond to stimuli. Or an 85-year old woman is exhibiting a vacant stare.’ We’re talking about the same energy and vitality, we’re just not making it a unique category that we quantify.”

Studies in the early 1980s found that acupuncture works in part by stimulating the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals, much like vigorous exercise does. Now, a growing body of research suggests that it may have several mechanisms of action. Those include stimulating blood flow and tissue repair at the needle sites and sending nerve signals to the brain that regulate the perception of pain and reboot the autonomic nervous system, which governs unconscious functions such as heart beat, respiration and digestion, according to Alejandro Elorriaga, director of the medical acupuncture program at McMaster University in Ontario, which teaches a contemporary version to physicians.

Vitaly NapadowA specialized MRI scan shows the effects of acupuncture. The top two images show the brain of a healthy subject. In the middle two images, a patient with carpal tunnel syndrome registers pain (indicated by red and yellow). The bottom images show the calming effect (indicated by blue) in the brain after acupuncture.

“You can think Western, you can think Eastern. As long as your needle goes to the nerve, you will get some effect,” Dr. Elorriaga says.

What’s more, an odd phenomenon occurs when acupuncture needles are inserted into the body and rotated: Connective tissue wraps around them like spaghetti around a fork, according to ultrasound studies at the University of Vermont. Helene Langevin, research associate professor of neurology, says this action stretches cells in the connective tissue much like massage and yoga do, and may act like acupuncture meridians to send signals throughout the body. “That’s what we’re hoping to study next,” she says.

Related

• Acupuncture Benefit Seen in Pregnancy
• Aches & Claims: Using Acupuncture to Ease Chronic Pain

“ My former spouse had shingles. Doctors told her that the terrible pain would probably last 2 or 3 years. She got acupuncture treatments, plus some Chinese herbs, and the pain was totally gone with 6 weeks.:

—Alan Agardi

Meanwhile, neuroimaging studies at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have shown that acupuncture affects a network of systems in the brain, including decreasing activity in the limbic system, the emotional part of the brain, and activating it in the parts of the brain that typically light up when the brain is at rest.

Other studies at the Martinos Center have shown that patients with carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful compression of nerves in the wrist, have heightened activity in parts of the brain that regulate sensation and fear, but after acupuncture, their brain patterns more closely resemble those of healthy subjects. Brain scans of patients with fibromyalgia show that both acupuncture and sham acupuncture (using real needles on random points in the body) cause the release of endorphins. But real acupuncture also increased the number of receptors for pain-reducing neurotransmitters, bringing patients even more relief.

The fact that many patients get some relief and register some brain changes from fake acupuncture has caused controversy in designing clinical trials. Some critics say that proves that what patients think of as benefit from acupuncture is mainly the placebo effect. Acupuncture proponents counter that placebos that too closely mimic the treatment experience may have a real benefit.

“I don’t see any disconnect between how acupuncture works and how a placebo works,” says radiologist Vitaly Napadow at the Martinos center. “The body knows how to heal itself. That’s what a placebo does, too.”

Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com

 

 

 

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Call to action

Many of you may remember when I volunteered, giving acupuncture for post traumatic stress, after hurricane Katrina. That experience was incredibly powerful for me. I have never  felt so connected, so part of the human family. This kind of disaster knows no boundaries. It crosses lines of wealth, race and status. I saw homes flattened.  There were men whose eyes were dull and who owned nothing more than the clothes on their backs. They had lost everything. Those homes left standing had the pungent stench of toxic mold.

Acupuncture served as a reset button for the central nervous system.  People who hadn’t slept thru the night since the storm were sleeping. The nightmares were less and the flashbacks less frequent. They were profoundly grateful for the help they received.

 In the wake of the devastation that Haiti has experienced Acupuncturists Without Borders is again offering their services to those in need.  The following is an excerpt from their update sent out this past week. I encourage you to donate to this worthy grassroots cause. http://www.acuwithoutborders.org/index.html Seattle can help Haiti!

AWB Executive Director, Diana Fried, and AWB Haiti

Operations Manager, Julia Raneri arrived in Port-au-

Prince, Haiti Wednesday morning, February 3. We

wanted to send you a brief report as soon as possible

from the field.

Diana says:

“We were able to land here after all and didn’t need to do

the grueling drive from the Dominican Republic. There

are lines and crowds of people waiting for food

distribution and buildings flattened everywhere. Everyone

has heart breaking stories to tell. We have already given

several treatments. Roger Brierre, friend of Jean and

Eric, our generous and lovely Haitian hosts, is driving us

around in his truck. Now and then the ground under the

truck moves, and Roger says his heart jumps because

he fears it is another earthquake.

Here is an excerpt from the New York Times on January

28:

“Meanwhile, government health officials on Thursday

reported that the psychological impact of the disaster is

becoming more apparent in the symptoms being seen at

general clinics run by Doctors Without Borders.

One, in the rural town of Leogane near the epicenter of

the Jan. 12 earthquake, reported that about half of the

people receiving treatment were suffering from mental

trauma….

The International Medical Corps, which is overseeing

operations at the general hospital in Port-Au-Prince, also

brought in a mental health specialist to help begin dealing

with emerging concerns of post-traumatic stress

disorder and other problems.”

Roger Brierre, Diana and Julia’s current guide, sends a message:

“We want to say to all American people and the government of the United States that have been helping Haitians that we really appreciate their help. However the earthquake was so devastating to our people. Please do your best to keep helping the people of Haiti.”Trauma recovery will definitely be needed as the rubble clears, and survivors have water, emergency medical care, food, and shelter.

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