Friday, October 27, 2006
I am thinking alternatives
I am thinking about accupuncture. I know a few people who swear by it for so many reasons. I am thinking about calling one (who is partially covered by my health insurance!) and having a consultation at least. My knees have been hurting (as is my back again). I think it must be all related to my weight - which could be metabolic, gastrointestional, or psychological. Accupuncture is supposed to help all of those. So - maybe I will give it a shot!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
As far as your metabolism and weight are concerned, I think you should wait until you've seen the endocrinologist so that you can get some baseline numbers. But I know acupuncture has done a lot of people a lot of good, so it's definitely worth considering. A friend of mine found it was the only thing that managed her postpartum depression (and a skeptic told her that the acupuncture was only psychosomatic -- well, so what if it is! It's a mental illness to begin with!). But research shows that acupuncture really works for a lot of things; they just don't know why yet! So I say, after next week, go for it!
I just put in a grant application for an accupuncture program to help people who are trying to quit smoking. Apparently the research was done in the 1950s for this and they found it was really successful, but at the time there was no particular interest in stop-smoking programs so it kind of languished. It's been revived, and the most recent study had a 40% success rate for people who used auricular accupunture to help them stop smoking, which is a pretty good rate for anti-smoking treatments.
And I remember hearing about the accupressure technique of burning mugwort by the pinky toe of a woman carrying a breech baby to help the baby turn, and it also was remarkably successful, even though it sounds so loony that it hardly seems like a likely help. They call it moxibustion now.
So I say go for it--see the endocrinilogist and find out if there is any mainstream approach you can use, and if you don't see the results you want or if he thinks he can't help, then try accupunture.
I was planning on waiting until after the endocrinologist tells me I am just getting old and fat before I take the next step. I have to admit I am very surprised that you all didn't scoff at me. I thought you would just say that this was a flaky new-agey Amy idea. I agree with you Emily - there are things that can't be explained - but they still work! Even the whole "flow of energy" concept makes sense in a flaky new agey way. Besides - I think my problems are mulifaceted. I think there is gastrointestional issues, metabolic issues, AND psychological issues - that one Western specialist may not be able to address. I have to say though - after my big post quit smoking weight spike - I am more convinced that it may be primarily metabolic. I don't know.
Post a Comment