Pressure Points: Alternative medicine is gaining interest quickly   By Alicia Upano

Cover Perfect Placement: Patient Lynn Sanchez has an acupuncture needle placed into her jaw to relieve the pain from grinding her teeth. Sanchez, a production manager faced with constant deadlines, has been going to Campbell acupuncturist Jacquelyn Lorell for 10 years.

In business, risk may equal reward, but when it comes to a person’s health, a variety of medications aren’t worth the gamble.

As skepticism continues to grow over Western medicine, with popular drugs like Vioxx and Bextra being pulled off the market due to the risk of heart attacks, and studies on over-the-counter medications such as Advil, Motrin and Aleve reporting a higher risk of strokes, consumers are looking for alternatives to ease their pain.

These warnings and reports have individuals like Stephanie Pham steering away from conventional treatments found through Western medicine. After years of struggling with the chronic pain from temporomandibular joint disorder, or TMJ, Pham learned about the potential benefits of acupuncture for patients suffering this ailment. She discussed the use of acupuncture with her massage therapist, who then encouraged Pham to give it a try. The massage therapist recommended Campbell acupuncturist Jacquelyn Lorell.

Now Pham makes weekly visits to Lorell’s practice, A New Day Healing Arts, located on E. Campbell Avenue. Pham’s pain has eased after a few months of acupuncture treatments. She is now able to manage her battle with TMJ without medication.

The difference between Western and Eastern medicine, Lorell says, is in their philosophies. In Western medicine, doctors diagnose symptoms. In contrast, Eastern medicine diagnoses the individual—mind, body and spirit.

Pham says her condition affected more than her body. She was diagnosed with TMJ eight years ago. The condition affects the jaw joint, and symptoms include jaw locking, headaches and pain in the shoulder, neck, face and back. In the past few years, Pham’s pain had become unbearable and she feared it would sap her ability to work, she says.

Doctors prescribed painkillers and muscle relaxers to ease the pain, but the medicine only left Pham feeling worse. The medicine aggravated her sensitive stomach and Pham says she could only take the medication for short periods of time.

Then there was the disconnect with doctors, she says. One doctor refused to believe her aching jaw was connected to the pain in her shoulder and did not treat the shoulder pain. Another doctor said her only option was to manage her discomfort with medication.

"He thought I could live the rest of my life in pain," Pham says. The idea of no relief led to an emotional upheaval and Pham began seeing a psychiatrist.

Lying on Lorell’s table, however, Pham has found freedom from her medical woes. Lorell uses needles and Chinese herbs to balance Pham’s energy, or chi, which helps relieve symptoms throughout the body. Because the body is viewed as a whole in Chinese medicine, the acupuncturist treats Pham’s jaw, shoulder, knee and stomach pain collectively, Pham says.

"So far, it’s working wonderfully," Pham notes.

Lorell, a licensed acupuncturist who has been practicing for 12 years, says Pham is not alone. Many patients with a high sensitivity to antibiotics have made their way to Lorell’s acupuncture table. Lorell has practiced in Campbell for six years. During this time her approach has been to keep patients healthy without medicine or to help balance their prescription routine. The acupuncturist also treats individuals with fibromyalgia, infertility, allergies and bipolar disorder.

Anna Rudel, a member of the Campbell chapter of the American Business Woman’s Association, says she has seen an increase in arthritis patients seeking out acupuncture as an alternative medicine since Vioxx and Bextra were taken off the market. While acupuncture cannot reverse arthritis, Rudel says, she treats her patients to increase flexibility and decrease the pain caused by this ailment.

Spring has also brought a flurry of patients to her door. Many patients, Rudel says, fear their bodies may become resistant to allergy medication or shots. The difference, again, is in philosophy, Rudel says. Western medicine treats allergies by inhibiting the body’s reaction to allergens, such as pollen or dust. From a Chinese medicine perspective, allergies are a state of constant inflammation. "We strengthen the body so it doesn’t have to be on red alert all the time," Rudel says.

To the skeptical, acupuncture remains more of an old wives’ tale then a science. The practice is based on invisible chi, which traverses the body on energy highways with stops at every major organ. The therapy utilizes needles, which Westerners often connect with painful injections. Often it also includes Chinese herbal medicine as dietary supplements.

"The reality is in the treatment," Lorell says.

Times have changed, and integrating acupuncture with Western medicine has become more common, Lorell says. The process, however, is still a very individual experience. Because the treatment is based on energy, a patient must first find an acupuncturist he or she can trust and form a connection, the Campbell cupuncturist says.

Lorell receives many of her patients by referral. Some patients continue onto other acupuncturists, while patients like Pham, after trying others, have settled with Lorell. Many of Lorell’s patients are new to this form of treatment.

In fact, Americans only discovered the treatment in 1971, according to The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. That was when New York Times reporter James Reston visited China and wrote about a Chinese healing art that eased his pain after surgery. The treatment worked by inserting needles into specific points in his body. The news report also said acupuncture relieved many ailments and had been used by the Chinese for thousands of years.

Only a few years later, in 1978, California led the nation by being the first state to license qualified acupuncturists as primary care providers. By 2001, more than 60 colleges in North America were graduating 1,000 new acupuncturists each year, according to The Acupuncture Answer Book by John Dirk Tousley.

Both Lorell and Rudel are graduates of Five Branches Institute, College and Clinic of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Founded in 1984, the institute has trained many South Bay acupuncturists with a four-year program to become licensed acupuncturists, the equivalent of a master’s program. The original campus was founded in Santa Cruz. This year the institute opened a second campus in San Jose.

Even after the acupuncturists graduate they must complete an additional 30 hours of continuing education classes annually as part of their California acupuncture license.

Five Branches Institute focuses on the five aspects of traditional Chinese medicine. Along with acupuncture, classes include the study of Chinese herbs, nutrition, energy work such as tai chi or chi gong and massage therapy.

Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of more than 2,500 years. The practice is predicated on the idea that all human beings have chi, vital energy that separates the living from the dead. The energy circulates through the body on 12 basic meridians, all named after internal organs. The spleen meridian, for instance, can stretch from the chin to the toe.

This is why some patients have side effects with medication, Lorell says. One area of the body can be treated with drugs, but adverse effects can pop up elsewhere in the body.

In acupuncture, practitioners have 365 main entry points to the 12 basic meridians. Depending on the patient’s ailments, an acupuncturist may use up to 30 points to insert the needles, Lorell says.

The needles are metallic and hair-thin and inserted at points where the chi is blocked. A healthy person is thought to have balanced chi. Blocked chi leads to a weakened immune system and ailments. The needles, or other Chinese methods such as acupressure, are used to stimulate the chi and promote the free flow of energy.

Although this philosophy differs from Western medicine, acupuncturists are finding that Western doctors are referring their patients for acupuncture treatments more frequently.

Acupuncture complements Western medicine because it helps patients solve the root of the problem, Rudel says. A doctor may prescribe anti-inflammatory medicine for carpal tunnel or Motrin for cramps. The acupuncturist, however, looks at why the carpal tunnel or cramping occurs. Along with treatment, acupuncturists stress the need for lifestyle changes, such as better eating habits and regular exercise.

Lorell and Rudel say this synergy is the new era of medicine.

"It’s going to be a really monumental time when East meets West," Lorell says.

For more information, contact Jacquelyn Lorell, L.Ac. at 408.378.1588 or visit http://www.anewdayhealingarts.com. Lorell’s practice is located at

621 E. Campbell Ave.

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