posted
So, I have a 3 inch thick file from visiting the acupuncture school for my post partum anxiety, OCD and the like. And for other fatigue issues and pain. No diagnosis, no clue about the Lyme. I stopped going, got sicker and got my Lyme dx.
Now, I see someone in my LLMD's office. What used to help, doesn't. I'm wondering what, if any, value acupuncture has in treatment.
Any thoughts?
Posts: 564 | From Tick Hell | Registered: Oct 2008
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momintexas
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 23391
posted
I have used acupuncture for many things with great results. I stopped going about 2 years ago because my acupuncturist went back to China.
I have often thought about and tried to find any info in whether or not it would work for Lyme.
I think a truly experienced acupuncturist might be able to help and I am looking for one for myself.
How many times have you gone now with the new one? I know every time I did go, it took several visits before I noticed any difference.
Posts: 1408 | From Tx | Registered: Nov 2009
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
I have had poor experiences with student acupuncture, and I think it's all somewhat practitioner-dependent. It's also frequency-dependent for me- I think if I don't go frequently enough I don't see as many results.
It's been great for me for pain relief when I can go often enough. Sometimes the specific pain/inflammation resolves completely and does not return again if I go to enough sessions.
I'd recommend trying out a different practitioner if you aren't happy with the one you have- it really is more of an 'art' than some of the Western modalities, and while there will be a lot of commonalities in what they'll see in Lyme patients, they'll approach us differently depending on the branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine they're trained in, their personal beliefs, and their intuition about what to try.
Finding the right acupuncturist for you is a great recommendation, as others have said above. Ask people you know, and your other health practitioners, to find someone who can help.
Over the years I've gone to about 4 different acupuncture practitioners, and they are all very different in style and in the outcome. The one I currently see is very experienced, skilled, and yes, her intuition is also an important aspect. She was recommended to me strongly by a physical therapist friend.
How has it helped? What is it's value? At different times, we're working on different things. I've been helped over time with:
pain (generalized fibromyalgia stuff, and TMJ, shoulder pain, tennis elbow);
sleep (I wasn't sleeping through the night, nor deeply enough);
immune system boost;
improved energy (have had years of chronic fatigue issues);
boost to cognitive function;
relief from depression, boosting of joy and optimism, feeling lighter;
detoxification;
support for different organ functions;
pre and post operative support;
support through cancer treatment.
So there can be great value in acupuncture treatments. It may take a little time to find the right practitioner, but it's worth it.
Best wishes.
Posts: 873 | From WA | Registered: Dec 2005
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CD57
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 11749
posted
I think it has helped me with supporting my organs in detoxing the treatment.
Posts: 3528 | From US | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
I've always had good results with acupuncture, but now I take part in a technique known as Tong Ren. It was developed by an acupuncturist named Tom Tam in the Boston area. He and other Tong Ren practitioners tap meridian points on acupuncture dolls with metal hammers to release blockages and stimulate the body's natural healing abilities.
posted
I am an acupuncture intern and I study in the US and abroad. Acupuncture helps me tremendously with detox, symptoms relive, and it's a lifesaver when I herx. I agree that you have to shop in order to find the right practitioner but it definitely works.
Posts: 19 | From Rockville, MD | Registered: Nov 2009
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- It all depends on their skill level (and I've been all over the map there until I found one that was wonderful). Acupuncture has saved my life many times. It also imparts a very solid sense of well-being and ease.
Also, many with lyme cannot handle full treatments. Therefore, I recommend seeing ONLY a L.Ac. or ND/L.Ac. who is extremely Lyme Literate. It matters not only so they know the full treatments may be too strong but lyme patients simply are not like other patients. Lyme changes EVERYTHING.
If a L.Ac. is not LL, they will be of little or no help to a lyme patient.
I also think every single E.R. in the world should have a team of acupuncturists on staff. Patients would do far, far better. And, getting rid of the TV in the waiting - exchanging it for a beautiful fish tank - would do wonders.
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Jessica,
The very best of luck to your in your studies. I hope it works out well. Glad to see you pursuing this marvelous field. I hope the field and respect for it continues to grow. Seriously, I suggest a L.Ac. in every medical office, and every medical center. The world would be a better place, indeed. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Just to clarify, I've had GREAT acupuncturists, some with 30 years experience. The problem is that I have never seen one that is Lyme Literate. And, they help me with symptoms, but none before knew about the lyme.
I may go back to other acupuncturists that I saw in the past, now with the Lyme dx. I'll call around.
Acupuncture saved my life during my months of post partum ocd, anxiety, psychosis. Saved my life. But never any more than that. I wondered if maybe it wasn't effective for lyme directly.
Oh, and the acupuncture school? I scared the hell out of the students, so it was almost always the professors who treated me, and I saw the same professor for months at a time (so the student only did the intakes, really).
I was such a conundrum to them, that I suggested they use me, now as a demo/test case to teach their students in Western pathology.
Posts: 564 | From Tick Hell | Registered: Oct 2008
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- While treatments were just $5.00 a session and that was even a stretch for my wallet, I had the same experience with so many students being totally weirded out by my symptoms but so were the instructors, some of whom were excellent but lyme is like nothing else they've ever seen or experienced.
Nothing - nothing - had prepared them for someone with 3 tick-borne infections that had gone untreated for so many years.
And that is why I so strongly advise seeing only LL L.Ac.s who are ILADS-educated.
Even better would be a LL ND who is also certified as a L.Ac. Many LL NDs are also ILADS-members so they've done their homework.
However, if you find an acupuncturist who was trained in China, they are usually extremely skilled and talented all the way around. They totally get concepts for which we don't even have words. They can tell more by reading our pulses than we could ever tell them about what's going on in our bodies. It is truly amazing. Only once was I able to have a treatment with someone so skilled and I needed no words.
You could also share Zhang's book that described some acupuncture points and the GU Article below does, too.
=============================
I'm not seeing the book on my shelf right now but I'm pretty sure it lists certain points. However, this is not cookbook medicine. A L.Ac. should be intimately familiar with lyme - and as for those trained in China decades ago, even if it may not have been called lyme in old China, there were similar manifestations.
======================
You can contact the author and see if he knows of any good LL acupuncturists. He guided me to one in my city that he knows personally.
GU SYNDROME: A Forgotten Clinical Approach to Chronic Parasitism
Heiner Freuhauf, Ph.D., L.Ac. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Brussels
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13480
posted
Peacemama, I think you are asking too much of your acupuncturists!
I always see acupuncture as a FAST symptom relief technique, in case of lyme.
It can help the body in MANY ways, but I think, like with all other treatments, it is not a monotherapy!
I use tapping almost daily, and I tap on acupuncture points. It can do miracles (concerning symptoms).
Dr. K. believes that patients that don't tap daily(on acupuncture points) don't usually get well.
I don't think it will deal alone with infections like lyme and coinfections. But it will help a great deal.
But as said above, it has to be done in high frequency (every day or many times a week), or do tapping in between acupuncture sessions.
Posts: 6199 | From Brussels | Registered: Oct 2007
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