Acupuncture in the Emergency Room

If you've ever had an unfortunate experience that has landed you in the ER, you know it can be a miserable place.  Waiting in agony, nervous, and stressed from an acute event...  Hard working hospital staff working their best to serve but under pressure...  The great news is that acupuncture is showing promise to help in this environment, especially in alleviating anxiety and pain.  

Acupuncture is a natural fit.  It's safe, noninvasive, has very few side-effects, and much power in soothing anxiety, moderating emotions, and reducing pain until a patient can receive standard medical care.  It has the potential to create a calmer environment for both people in an acute health situation, as well as those trying to serve them.  Please click here to read an interesting preliminary study on acupuncture services in the emergency room.  The study shows a marked reduction in pain and anxiety among patients comparable to administration of analgesic medications.

More evidence spotted: The Portland Trail Blazers are using cupping to enhance their game.

...get it?  ..."spotted"  ;)

While watching the Blazers win against the New York Knicks last Sunday night, a fellow acupuncturist friend and I found ourselves cheering for even more than Blake’s smooth alley-oop to Lillard and every time Wes Matthews hit one of those glorious threes.  As fans of Chinese Medicine as well, an equally exciting moment was to spot the evidence of cupping on Chris Kaman’s shoulder!  Check out the following screen shot...you can see them peeking out around the edge of his jersey.  

And I have to say, judging by the symmetry, location, and depth of sha and coloring, their sports medicine person is doing excellent work.  The Blazers' use of this therapy was also featured in an article in Oregon Live recently.  Based on their great record this season, I’d also have to speculate that rounding out their injury prevention and care with therapies such as these is contributing to their strength and performance as a winning team.

So what is cupping, exactly?

For injury recovery and prevention, cupping is a therapy that enhances blood flow, loosens and relaxes tight soft tissue structures, reduces pain, and increases range of motion to treated areas of the body.  It utilizes small cups, similar to glass jars, which are warmed and gently placed on the skin.  When they immediately cool, they create a vacuum and provide a gentle but powerful traction to the skin and soft tissue beneath it, which provides a sustained stretch to the fascia and muscles and enhances renewed blood flow to the area being treated.  It is excellent for helping remove the stagnancy and tissue restriction that contributes to pain, inflammation, and limited range of motion.  My clients often describe cupping treatment as deeply relaxing, and it is often requested to be added after their acupuncture treatments.  In clinic, I’ve witnessed it restore people particularly well with low back, neck, or shoulder pain, and see great results following as little as one or two treatments.

Cupping is often combined with acupuncture, but can be used as a stand-alone treatment for those who would prefer.  Its uses are not limited to treating only musculoskeletal injury, but is also used effectively for concerns such as asthma, allergies, acute respiratory infections, digestive concerns, and insomnia.  For more, please call 503-288-7668 to schedule a treatment or complimentary consult, or contact me anytime: jon.conant@gmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you.

....and in case you missed that sweet alley-oop, click here.

Peace, Jon

Autumn, a time for release and renewal

In Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a particular energy, channel, set of organs, and emotion.  Within each season, it’s associated energy is at it's peak.  Besides it's time within the season, it is also a part of a greater cycle of transformation that flows through the year.  In this progressive cycle, metal is the energy similar to that of autumn.  Metal is associated with the powers of transformation, protection, release, and inspiration, and the lung and large intestine are it’s represented organs. Emotionally, metal is related to letting go, and often in fall we feel punctuations of loss or grief, resentment, regret, or inspiration to create change.  Autumn is a time where this emotion is both most energized and supported, and offers an invitation to release those things that are weighing on us in order to renew and ensure a more contemplative and nourishing winter, which later supports a more vigorous spring.

Everywhere around us, leaves transform their colors and trees release them to blanket the ground, transforming into fertile soil through the cover of winter to nourish the roots and sprouts in the spring.  Likewise, harvest occurs nearing autumn, in which the nourishing parts of the plant are separated and taken into storage, and the extra plant matter that is left outside to provide the soil nutrients for spring.  Similarly, the lung and large intestine provide a passage of healthy exchange between ourselves and the outside world, where we can release turbid qi outward in order to make room for the pure energy that will nourish us inward.  Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can be very helpful to help facilitate the healthy flow of this energy and it's related organ system, whether it’s manifesting through emotions such as those mentioned above, digestive upset, current or past persistent respiratory infections, or seasonal affective disorder symptoms, to name a few.  For more, please email me, or schedule an appointment or free brief individual consultation.