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Staying in Balance
Bonnie Diamond, Licensed Acupuncturist Easthampton, Massachusetts 781-718-6325 health@bonniediamond.com
Needlework: Acupuncture offers healing, hope
For all the aichmophobes out there, I will be the first to tell you these do not look like needles
Bonnie Diamond has been practicing acupuncture for over a decade, using fine, flexible pins for her practice of Japanese acupuncture. Based on the same pressure points as other forms of acupuncture and reflexology, Diamond carefully works with her clients to relieve their pain and discomfort.
"[Acupuncture] is an ancient treatment that exists in Western culture," said Diamond. "The goal is to see people feeling better."
Acupuncture, which is used by millions of Americans each year, has been part of Eastern culture for two millennia. For many years, Western doctors considered its healing effects to be a placebo reaction of the body to the simulation of pressure points, but recent research has found the process stimulates a genuine biochemical response in the body.
In a recent Los Angeles Times article, researchers have found when a needle is placed on the point on the foot which is theorized to affect vision, a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan of the brain indicates additional activity in the visual cortex. When a point on the wrist associated with nausea is stimulated, the area of the brain which controls the vestibular system goes crazy.
Acupuncture is now used to help patients suffering from nausea during chemotherapy and after surgery and is thought to help relieve symptoms as much as prescribed medication.
Diamond, however does not need pages of research to prove to her acupuncture works.
In the late 1980s, she was working as a computer programmer and suffering with chronic fatigue syndrome. At the suggestion of a friend, Diamond went to see an acupuncturist to seek some relief from her symptoms.
"[The treatment] took me out of chronic fatigue syndrome for awhile," said Diamond, adding when she was at the acupuncturist, she could feel the energy moving through her body. That experience not only gave her some help with her own problems, it gave her career a new direction.
Diamond attended the New England School of Acupuncture in Watertown where she trained in Japanese acupuncture. The Japanese form is differentiated from others by a shallower insertion of the pins and "lighter style ... more minimalist."
At her practice on Bedford Street, Diamond is very thorough in investigating her patient's pain and history. When I arrived, I not only filled out the patient history form but Diamond also asked me questions while reading it to make sure she understood what I was experiencing.
Lying on the table with a pillow under my head and knees, I felt slightly apprehensive about the procedure. I had heard patients do not feel the needles, but now that I was here, seeds of doubt were sprouting like weeds. To calm my fears, Diamond showed me the individually sealed, stainless steel pins, so fine they can be bent in half without breaking. To insert them, Diamond uses a hollow plastic tube, tapping the spring on the top of each needle. When inserted, the needles do not stand up straight, but rather lie against the body.
To begin, Diamond took my pulse in my wrist, listening to both my heart and what my other organs were up to. Determining my liver, the organ responsible for energy, was not performing the way it should, Diamond now knew where to begin. Feeling the tension through my shoulders, she inserted needles in my hands, ankles and feet. She then attached polarized cords with black or red alligator clips - vaguely reminiscent of jumper cables - to the needles in my hands to the needles in my feet.
After my cord treatment, Diamond continued to located points of tenderness in my shoulders, seeking the opposite point in my legs. When she hit the spot, I felt a distinct movement through my body. The feeling was only temporary, but it gave distinct credit to the ideology.
Overall, my experience was one of peace with little discomfort. Yes, you are aware of the needles, but not in an injection, getting-blood-drawn kind of way. These are subtle and relatively painless. At the end of my treatment, Diamond gave me some interdermals. These small needles with a loop on the end are left in the skin after treatment. Small enough to be covered by a Band-Aid, they are intended to continue treatment up to five days after the session. I left with five.
I left Diamond's practice without the headache I walked in with and a feeling of lightness.
"I look at health as a puzzle," said Diamond. "Certain pieces need to be unlocked. Once they are unlocked ... the way the whole person is changes."
*Reprinted with permission from the Lexington Minuteman |
