Part I: Why You Should Have A Family Acupuncture Doctor? | 【于博士文章系列】为什么要去看针灸医生（一）？

I have been an acupuncturist for decades, and according to my experience, every first-time patients fear the needles. However why have this practice not been abandoned, and instead have been accepted by more and more people around the world? Well, I can write a 20 pages long essay to talk about this---I will not do that, but one of my patient said this: “if this thing has lasted for thousands of years, then there must be a reason.”

This patient frequently travels to Vancouver for business. Several months ago, he booked an appointment for his achilles tendon rupture, but did not have time to come. Until recently he finally made to my clinic to check out his heart problem (palpitation). I checked him and found that besides the heart problem, the rupture on his tendon has become a hard bump. Therefore I set up a plan of ten treatments, including for the heart and for the tendon. On the third treatment, his tendon is healed almost 70%. Unfortunately he had to travel to Miami, therefore we have to delay the treatment until next time.

Some of you may be surprised that acupuncture can also treat heart problem. Indeed, in traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is categorized as the one subject that can be used to treat all other thirteen subjects.

Two days ago I met a masseur from Europe. He asked me if biting the two sides of the pinky nail an effective emergency treatment for heart attack. He said he read this method in a book introducing TCM. I told him yes, because the inside of pinky nail is the “shaochong xue of xin jing”(lit. shao chong point of the heart channel), and the outside of pinky nail is the “shaoze xue of xiao chang”(lit. shao ze point of the small intestine). Both these points are used for emergency treatment. In acupuncture, these two points can be more efficiently stimulated by needles. In my experience, I know that both acute and chronic heart problem can be effectively treated with acupuncture.

What about other illness? Here is an example of myself: several months ago, after dinner I suddenly felt cold and my throat was burning---even hurt when I drank water. My body temperature reached 38.5 degrees. I tried to sleep, but woke up soon because of sore body and severe sore throat. I was worrying that my clinic is booked full the second day. Therefore I took out needles and tried to treat myself: I started at shao shang point and qu chi point. My throat felt better, but several hours later the fever became more serious. Then I pierced lao shang, zhong shang, shao shang points and immediately I felt better. I slept until 5 am and woke up, and continued piercing for five minutes. Then I slept until 8 am, and I felt fully recovered. That day I worked for 9 hours efficiently. In fact, if any family member feels sick, I usually treat them with acupuncture--and it works most of the time.

After I moved to Vancouver, I also had chance to treat many new problems that I had no chance to treat in China. For example: prolonged pregnancy, which is recorded in ancient medical books, but I had no chance to try in China because nowadays all Chinese women like to take the caesarean section whenever it is necessary or not. In Canada, where natural birth is valued, I finally had the chance. My clinic is closed to a midwife office, and there were occasionally women who had the problem came for help. For them I always pierced their he gu and san yin jiao points for 20 minutes according to the ancient books, and they usually gave birth within 6 to 12 hours. Now I heard the midwife office has learnt the method.

One last example is a patient suffering from kidney stone. She flew from China and started to feel sick when she landed. She did not want to go to the hospital because she had no insurance. She suffered for one night and came to me for help. I pierced three needles in her jing men and tai xi points, and she felt relaxed and felt asleep.

Acupuncture is also particularly effective to treat headache, back pain, tooth pain, and allergic rhinitis.

Acupuncture can be used in almost all cases, because all sickness is related to the “channels” of body, and acupuncture is dealt with the “channels”. I can explain more about the “channels” in the future.

Dear friends, if you want to have a treatment that is effective and is free of side effects, try acupuncture!

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每个病人都好怕针灸，感觉好痛，但是为什么针灸在几千年的历史长河中，不但没有被淘汰，反而被越来越多的各国各族人民所接受？ 我的一个病人说过一句话似乎很有代表性：“能流传几千年历史的东西一定有它存在的理由”。

他为什么来看我呢？这个病人的生意搭档住在温哥华，因此他会来温哥华出差。几个月前曾经因为跟腱撕裂的缘故约过时间跟我见面，只是我的时间不配合最终没见着，这次来看我主要是看心脏（心悸）的问题。他来到办公室时，我在检查他全身的时候还是注意到了他的跟腱问题，因为跟腱中断的地方形成一个突出的硬结，按压时依然会痛。因此我的治疗方案就是治疗心脏病10次的疗程，同时兼顾治疗跟腱问题。第三天复诊的时候，跟腱部的硬结已经得到70%以上的恢复，由于时间问题，病人要回MIAMI，我们就约定下次的10次连续治疗方案。

看到这里大家一定会问：针灸还可以治疗心脏病吗？答案是Absolutely yes！ 在针灸学里有个行话就是一人而兼十三科，也就是说它可以看各科各类的疾病。

我们可以从上面例子再继续深谈。凡是中国人都知道，不管什么原因，一个人晕倒了，他们会去按压人中穴急救。前两天我在Salt Spring Island 遇到一个欧洲来的按摩师，他问我如果心脏病发作，是否可以用牙齿咬小指指甲的两侧以救急？他说是从一本介绍中医的书籍里学到的，我说是的，因为小指指甲的内侧正是心经的少冲穴，外侧则是小肠经的少泽穴，在针灸学上这两个穴位都是急救的穴位。由于外国人很难理解经络和穴位，作者就用这简单的方法告诉读者心脏病的急救。当然作为专业医生，我应该会用针灸针来完成这个治疗。其实不管急性还是慢性的心脏病，针灸的作用都是很有效的。

那其他的病呢？来举几个例子吧：在几个月前，我突然在晚饭后无明开始感到乏力 、发冷、咽喉痛、全身酸痛、说话嘶哑，甚至喝水都觉得嗓子痛，并伴随着胃部不适、恶心。我知道这是感冒的症状，当时体温在38.5度，后来一定又升高了。我很快入睡又很快醒来了。我想到诊所第二天约满了病人，临时取消已经来不及。在这种情况下，我决定给自己急救：先从少商和曲池刺络开始。由于自己扎自己，效果不理想，只是嗓子略好了点，几个小时后又开始疼痛，发烧可能更严重了。因为有点晕，就再给自己刺络老商、中商、少商和行针。这次针灸全部到位，针后立即感觉浑身轻松，嗓子疼痛明显减轻，温度下降，睡到早晨5点左右再次醒来，还略感全身不适。于是取廉泉、尺泽、鱼际、三里，行泻法留针5分钟，之后再次睡去。八点钟起床的时候，症状全消，工作9小时，精力充沛。

事实上我们家里的人如果谁有不适，基本上都是我的针灸在起治疗作用。如大女儿小时候数次半夜突发荨麻疹，我都是帮她针灸曲池和大椎，十分钟左右痒去疹退；二女儿发高热，也是我用针灸去热的。

还有在国内从来没遇到过的一些疾病，在旅居温哥华期间碰到了。如怀孕过期不生产，在来加拿大之前，只是在古书上看过学习过，在国内没机会实践，因为没人会去找你看，都跑去剖腹产了。而崇尚自然产的加拿大，针灸可谓大显神威。由于临近Middle Wife的办公室 ，以前经常有过产期的孕妇来求问。合谷、三阴交两个穴位留针20分，基本在6-12小时内分娩，真是针到孩生！现在据说middle wife也学会自己做了。

头痛的病人、腰痛的病人、牙痛的病人、过敏性鼻炎，针灸治疗对其总是特有功效。

前几个月看了一个肾结石的病人，从国内回来，刚下飞机的当晚就开始发作。因为没有医疗保险，还不敢去医院就诊，挺了一晚上，第二天来我诊所就诊。在我扎入京门、太溪三针后，病人就开始安静下来，留针20 分钟，病人已然入睡。

读者朋友们，读到这里你一定都明白针灸治疗的范围很广，包罗万病，因为所有的疾病都跟经络有关，而针灸就是专门通过经络来治病的医学。那什么是经络呢？简单说来经络就是身体内部的信息能量通道，将来我们可以单独深入探讨。当然每个医生的精力有限，不可能面面俱到。但如果你的身体不适，想得到一个没有副作用的治疗和调理，针灸应该是你的第一选项！