My very humbling experience with acupuncture

For those with chronic pain, or any neuro-musculoskeletal issues, one of the things I recommend is acupuncture treatment (after massage therapy, and acupressure or Indian acupressure: Ayurvedic Marma chikitsa).

Unfortunately, most people go to an allopathic doctor when it’s already quite late. The doctor needs to recommend a major chemical bombardment on your system or an invasive procedure. I know this from the experience of my mother, who is a much-loved doctor - one of those very few fortunate people whose profession gels perfectly with their inside world.

Even more unfortunately, all people go to an Ayurvedic doctor or a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner when it’s far too late. They go to them when all solutions coming from the rational, logical, conscious mind have failed. I know this from my own personal experience.

I have been in a very desperate and ‘scary’ situation. I injured my right elbow because of overuse while we packed up to move overseas. There was a lot of heavy work to be done, and adamant as I am, I did it all, ignoring the signs of injury and pain. I thought it would recover on its own in a few weeks. But there was unpacking and setting up a new home to be done as well…

The result was that both my elbows were injured, the right one particularly badly. The injury was not just in the connective tissue, but the muscle as well. I felt as if the flesh was falling off and used elastic bandage ‘to keep it all together’. The muscles would spasm and become a lump under my skin. For the first time in my life, I was scared for my health because it looked like I was losing function of my right arm, the most important limb of my body. And there was no way I could rest it - I needed it for all activities.

My mother gave me gels and even a new-generation medicine that helps repair connective tissue. Nothing helped.

With no solution in sight, I went to an acupuncturist. He had me lie down on the table. He felt my arms. Then he felt my calves just below the knees. I was wondering what he was doing… Then he put a needle into my left calf, on the side, just below the knee and I had the most incredible feeling - as if an electric current passed through my body, and immediately, the pain in my right arm was gone. Down to zero. The lump of muscles in spasm became totally relaxed.

It was another one of those punch-in-the-face moments for me - with my fancy PhD and years of studying the human system, I had never known that the body could function in other ways as well.

If you are a doctor or a biologist - have you known of any direct connection between your right arm and left leg?

Again, I felt cheated by the education system. I felt that I hardly had any real, practical, usable knowledge about our bodies, even being a biologist.

My arms were almost completely healed after a few sittings. Now, after six years, there is still some residual pain, but that’s the topic for another blog post!

For those who are new to this, the concepts of acupressure and acupuncture have originated in India and spread across Asia. The Chinese have preserved the knowledge and practice better than us, and in the recent decades, have brought it into the mainstream.

So, be open to also go to a traditional healer when you develop any issues in your body. They will help your body heal itself.