Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
Dr. Like He, a family physician at St. Luke’s in Duluth, offers acupuncture for chronic pain, anxiety and other conditions, often as an alternative to medication.
Acupuncture – the ancient Chinese practice of using carefully placed needles to treat a variety of maladies – has moved into the modern medical mainstream in recent years, with more than 10 million treatments administered in the U.S. every year.
Many Lake Superior region hospitals and practitioners count acupuncture as one of their tools, including Dr. Like He at St. Luke’s Health Care System in Duluth.
Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
The acupuncture profession is tightly regulated, from the packaged sterile needles to required training and licensure for practitioners.
But the China-born family physician and acupuncturist came to this country somewhat skeptical of the ancient medical art.
Like He grew up in China and studied Western medicine, following in his dad’s footsteps. It was only after he’d moved to the United States, while working as an anatomy instructor at Ohio State University’s medical school, that he was inspired to study traditional Chinese medicine. It helped him look at the human body from a different perspective.
“In the past I’d had some exposure with acupuncture, but I didn’t delve too deep into it because it sounded too abstract or complicated to me,” he says. “Because when you have a Western medicine mind, things have to be substantial, objective.”
Tapping into unseen energy channels and measuring distances between critical needle points with the width of the patient’s finger (a traditional measurement called a cun) hardly seemed scientific to him. Yet he’d seen it work as a youth in China, and he wondered if acupuncture might have something to offer.
“When I studied Chinese medicine, I used the Western medicine’s perspective to challenge it: Where’s the consistency between this and the Western medicine? That just helped me to have a better understanding.”
Like He was soon convinced, by both anecdotal results and the growing body of scientific evidence. He earned a master’s of science in Oriental medicine from Samra University in Los Angeles. Now he’s among the new wave of physicians who complement a Western medicine foundation with old traditional treatments like acupuncture, a wave that’s arriving on our Lake’s shores.
In Ontario, acupuncturists must register with the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists. Stateside, alongside licensed acupuncturists and Oriental medicine practitioners, physicians and other health professionals like chiropractors can practice acupuncture after additional training. Some work out of hospitals, from UP Health System to Duluth’s Essentia Health.
Physicians aren’t the only ones being persuaded that the old arts work. Insurance plans, too, are increasingly covering acupuncture. Like He says 80 percent of his patients have coverage. For older folks, some supplemental Medicare plans cover acupuncture.
Courtesy Tara Guzzo
Dr. Tara Guzzo. based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, initially pursued Western medicine, but later took up traditional Chinese medicine after experiencing firsthand its benefits.
On the Ontario side of the Lake, Sault Ste. Marie naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist Dr. Tara Guzzo says most extended benefit plans cover acupuncture.
Acupuncturists most commonly treat chronic conditions like lower-back pain and migraines (though acupuncture can be used to treat much more, from anxiety and PMS to postoperative nausea and the side effects of chemotherapy).
According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, acupuncture has proven effective at reducing chronic pain, even in studies that compare it against “simulated acupuncture” placebos. In other words, the benefits appear real.
It’s a good option for people who want to eliminate or reduce their use of pain medication and who have exhausted other medical options.
“I’ve treated a number of sciatica cases and had some really good relief, where nothing else could get that degree of relief for those patients,” says Tara. She recalls a recent patient who hobbled in with a pain level at 10 out of 10, unable to sit, lay down or even stand comfortably. “And after one treatment, we dropped that pain down to a 2 out of 10.”
So how can a few tiny, hair-thin needles make such a difference?
Courtesy National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
With needles as thin as hair, most acupuncture patients hardly feel a thing when the needles go in.
According to the teachings of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture re-balances the body’s energy. The needles target key points along the meridians, or energy channels, that traverse the body and connect with internal organs.
A malady like pelvic pain, for example, is typically associated with the liver. “I will start to press along the liver channel on the patient and find a tender spot,” says Like He. “Then I usually needle the most tender spot,” manipulating the needle to generate energy.
That’s not so far from still-evolving Western understanding, like the fascia theory. Some researchers think the needles stimulate the body’s fascia, a connective tissue layer that surrounds the organs and muscles. Areas of dense fascia seem to map closely with the traditional meridians, and disrupting these nerve-rich channels with a needle generates a tiny bit of electricity. That seems to activate the body’s healing process.
So long as the patient doesn’t have a structural problem, like a broken bone, “if you needle the right point, the patient should notice improvement within minutes, if not seconds,” Like He says.
Treatment isn’t as simple as sticking a few needles near the area of pain, however. You must know the right spots. To treat neck pain, for example, an acupuncturist might insert needles into a patient’s hands or feet. It all depends on the underlying dysfunction, which channel is linked to the area and which points generate the strongest reaction. (The limbs are generally more effective than the torso.)
What kind of treatment schedule might you expect? “As a rule of thumb,” Tara says, “if there is a more chronic condition that I’m treating, we might start more frequent, anywhere from one to two times per week.” After a few weeks, most patients can start to space out their treatments, eventually only coming in when needed, if at all.
Something more acute, like an irritable bowel, might require just a few treatments, on back-to-back days.
Results vary with the individual, of course; some have a better and faster response. But the treatments are cumulative. “Each treatment builds on the next,” says Tara.
Like He compares it to building stamina riding a bicycle; with each treatment, your body’s response becomes more efficient.
Mainstream though it might be, acupuncture still deals with its share of misconceptions. The biggest one?
“I’d say the most common misconception that I hear from people is that acupuncture might be painful,” says Tara. “That’s not true. The needles are really, really thin, they’re as thin as a hair.” You might feel tingling, warmth or a bit of heaviness, if you notice anything.
Patients also sometimes worry that acupuncture will conflict with conventional treatments or medication, but it can be used in tandem. In his family practice, Like He simply adds acupuncture to his options, blending, like his own life, Western and Eastern culture.
Courtesy Taryn Dentinger Lindbeck
Acupuncture can help animals, too. Here, Shaili receives treatment supplemented by mild electrical stimulation.
Acupuncture for Pets
Like their humans, pets can benefit from acupuncture.
Dr. Taryn Dentinger Lindbeck owns Serenity Veterinary Services, based in Eagle River, Wisconsin. She started her career as a traditional veterinarian in Duluth, but discovered acupuncture while researching treatment options for her own horse. He had developed a nerve problem in his neck that required regular steroid injections.
“I was competing in a sport called endurance riding, and we have a zero-drug policy,” Taryn says. “So I could inject him and make his neck better, and then I wouldn’t be able to compete for six weeks after an injection. So I was just looking for something that might help my horse.”
The positive results she saw with the horse won her over. After about a year of training, she received her certification as a veterinary acupuncturist.
She specializes in acupuncture for dogs and horses – though she’s treated cats, rabbits and goats – and travels to clients from Ashland to Duluth.
“Most of them are older animals that have chronic issues,” she says, “arthritis or a bad back or something like that.”
After observing the animal, Taryn talks with its owner about changes in mobility, activity level, appetite and sleeping habits. Can Fido no longer get up the stairs or onto the couch? Is he in pain?
“I try to get a very broad picture of what’s normal for this animal and why the owner thinks that they need some treatment.”
Owners often are looking to improve their pet’s quality of life or to reduce the need for medications (which can have side effects). Taryn has also had success treating acute injuries, allergies and even liver and kidney problems with acupuncture.
After a thorough assessment, Taryn gets started. “The first treatment, the animal doesn’t know what’s going on and they can be a little more restless. But after that, especially with the dogs, they usually really like their therapy. And they’ll come in and just plop right down and go to sleep and really enjoy it.”
For chronic conditions like arthritis or bad hips, Taryn likes to see her four-legged patients every two weeks for the first two months. By then she’ll know if the pet is responding to the treatment, and she can move to a less-frequent “maintenance” schedule of visits, whether that’s quarterly or whenever the owner reports signs of decline.
In some cases, treatments seem to turn back the clock. “I’ve had a couple of old dogs whose owners report that they start getting into trouble again, like when they were puppies – they’re getting into the garbage again, which they hadn’t done in a decade. Which is kind of funny, and I’ve started warning people!”
Taryn charges $120 for the initial session and care plan. Follow-up appointments cost $90.