Before She Tried it, She Thought Acupuncture was CRAZY!

For Mike Williamson, it was just another family-centered Saturday. His wife and three children were goofing around in the backyard of their north Georgia home. He was on the deck barbequing chicken over a charcoal grill and enjoying the happy sounds of his family at play.

Stepping inside for a fresh pair of tongs, Mike returned to the deck to find that the chicken juices had caused the fire to flare up over the meat. Rushing to save the family dinner, he tripped. “Unfortunately, the top half of my body was faster than the lower half. My body flew through the air and landed stomach down in the charcoal grill,” Mike said.

Only after cleaning the charcoal mess and salvaging the chicken did Mike venture inside to peek at his wound. “Oh, this is not good,” he thought. “This hurts.”

As an office manager at a medical facility, Mike knew to seek immediate medical treatment. He was diagnosed with severe second degree burns and put on a standard round of antibiotics, silvadene ointment, and gauze wraps.

“In one week, I was not healing. I was in constant pain and discomfort, and I was starting to have an allergic reaction to the antibiotics,” Mike lamented.

A co-worker suggested Mike try acupuncture, and even though he was not too keen on the idea of having needles poked in his already ailing body, he decided to give it a try.
“The pain went away after the first treatment,” Mike said. “I was skeptical, but I got off that table, and there was no pain,” Mike said. “My burn crusted over that night. I was afraid it was worse, but within three days and three more acupuncture treatments, it peeled off, and my skin was like baby skin. I hardly have a scar at all.”
Linda Lennear was creating a cozy fire in the hearth last February when she realized the fireplace flue was closed. As a healthcare professional, she knew that a closed flue could be dangerous to her family’s air quality so she quickly reached into the chimney to open the flu. The flames rose to meet her forearm, and Linda was filled with the searing pain of a second degree burn.

After a week of silvadene cream, Linda was still in immense pain. At the prompting of a friend, she decided to give acupuncture a try.


“Before I tried it,” Linda said, “I thought acupuncture was crazy! That’s just way too many needles.” Now, Linda is one of acupuncture’s most vocal converts.

Both Linda and Mike were treated by Sung C. Cho, a licensed acupuncturist at the New Hope Medical Center in Duluth. Cho studied acupuncture under the legendary Master Nam-Soo Kim, a 95-year old acupuncturist with an almost cult following in South Korea. Master Kim is considered a pioneer in treating burn patients with acupuncture.On a recent week day. I visited Cho at the G.D Institute of Integrated Medicine, to learn more about acupuncture and to talk with some of his patients.

WHAT IS ACUPUNCTURE?
"Acupuncture is an ancient Asian healing technique that involves the insertion of tiny needles into specific points of the body called acupoints. Acupuncture is based on the principle that disease and pain are a response to a blockage caused by either excess or lack. Acupuncture restores the body to a state of natural balance and harmony by removing blockages and allowing qi (vital life energy) and blood to flow freely.”

HOW DOES IT WORK?
"No one is 100 percent sure how acupuncture works. There is clear anecdotal evidence that acupuncture provides cost-effective relief for many symptoms and diseases, but many of the studies that were done in the past did not hold up to scientific scrutiny. More and more doctors are performing studies, but still no one knows exactly how or why acupuncture works."

WHAT IS MOXIBUSTION?
"Moxibustion is the practice of warming the skin with herbs next to acupuncture points to stimulate healing and pain relief. Trial studies suggest that a protein is formed in the skin when moxibustion is performed. These proteins may have healing properties, but more research is needed."

HOW DOES ACUPUNCTURE WORK WITH BURNS?

"No one knows the exact mechanism of why acupuncture works to heal burns, but we can guess. Perhaps the heat is transported through the needle outside of the body. Another theory is that acupuncture stimulates the cell to recover. With acupuncture, you don’t cover the injury with cream, only loose gauze. That’s because the skin needs oxygen. The body’s breathing system is 80 percent lung and 20 percent skin."

WHY ISN'T ACUPUNCTURE MORE POPULAR IN THE UNITED STATES?
"It is hard to fit acupuncture into a capitalistic medical disease model. In the United States, the healthcare industry is designed to make money. Acupuncture will never make a lot of money. It is about healing people quickly and inexpensively. It does not keep people in hospital beds, and it does not push the pharmaceutical industry. That just doesn’t fit with the current American healthcare model.

"In Korea, people come from all over the country to see Master Kim for acupuncture healing and relief. But here in the United States, acupuncture is a treatment of last resort. When nothing else works, people will try acupuncture. With time, I think that will change."