A couple other sensations that we don't want are shooting electric feeling if we hit a nerve, or sharp feeling of being to close to a vein. Neither does much harm. The worst that happens is you get a small bruise in area. We never get any residual effect from hitting a nerve. You should tell acupuncturist if you feel electric or sharp sensations, and they can change location or direction of needle. These are rather rare occurrences, though.

Basically, acupuncture is very comfortable, and what little temporary discomfort might occasionally occur is more than made up for by its relaxing and healing effects.

Since then, in practice:

A jet-skier had a severe case of hives for 6 months, had been to many MD's, had spent about $11,000, and had gotten no relief. He couldn't sleep comfortably, work, or be out in sun. Doctors were ready to admit him to UCSD. He came to see me, and after 2 acupuncture treatments and 2 days of a 7-day herb formula, his skin was completely clear. When I lasted talked to him, he was getting ready to race in world jet-ski finals at Lake Havasu. Oh, and his entire treatment cost less than $200.

A 9-month pregnant woman came to me because her baby was facing wrong direction. Her MD wanted to physically turn baby from outside, or put her through surgery, cost, and scar of a C-section. I heated an acupuncture point on each of her little toes 10 times for 3 days, and baby flipped. She was ecstatic and thanked me profusely.

Several of my patients have had weakness and nerve tingling in their fingers that starts deep inside shoulder (supraspinatus nerve impingement). The only alternative is surgery. This usually takes about 8 acupuncture treatments to cure.

Healed Healers Healing You

Many Chinese Medicine students decide to become an CM physicians after being significantly healed (and impressed) by it. About one-third of them come to profession for this reason.

A friend of mine had lupus and was treated by MD's with steroids- she gained 40 pounds. She was told to expect to live only another 10 years or so. She tried chinese herbal medicine, and it put her lupus into remission. She was so impressed that she decided to make chinese medicine her profession.

# 4 It's Simple AND Complex

At first you are captivated by simple poetry of CM - but in time you are nearly overwhelmed by its depth and complexity.

The Advantages of Simplicity Option

You can diagnose and treat disease at varying levels of complexity. You can always go back to simpler perspective if you get lost in complexity- this is advantage of CM- at times, MD diagnoses are complex and elaborate, but they lack a treatment to address them. Western Medicine is great at describing in minute detail what is wrong with you, but it can't always fix problem.

Nearly Limitless Complexity and Variation

CM also can be complex- there are 29 or so symptom-patterns which manifest in one or more of 12 organ-systems, and there are dozens of pathomechanisms involved by which pathogens and organ dysfunctions affect one another. External influences can manifest in different ways in different people. We trace this by taking into account individual's constitutional excesses and deficiencies. There are thousands of herbs; about 400 are used commonly, and each has 3-4 functions. There are hundreds of acupuncture points, each with functions and empirical indications. These are only basics- there is a vast amount of variation within Chinese Medicine... but just these basics map out a matrix of thousands of relationships and insights.

#5 - it's Intuitive AND Intellectual

Knowing Hands

The 360 or so basic acupuncture points (and there are 100's more extra points) each have a specific anatomical location. Clinically, however, we often treat "ah-shi" point (literally "that's it" - most sensitive area nearby). Ah-shi points are found with help from patient, but acupunturists often find that they "knew" where point was (by feel) even before patient said, "yeah, that's it." Massage therapists experience this too. Patients often say, "How did you know it hurt there?" or "I didn't even know that was sore!"

What are these "knowing" hands? Intuition? A learned kinesthetic wisdom? Both? This goes back to #2, "It's Mysterious."

Both Sides of Your Brain

Most students of western medicine choose their profession for three reasons:

* They want to help people * They're good at science (left-brained) * They want to make good money * The typical CM student, on other hand, is more right-brained, and less money-oriented. In fact, practice management seminars for acupuncturists often focus on idea that "it's ok to charge your patients money!"

This distinction may change as mainstream conception of CM changes; left brain facts and theories are indispensable to practice of CM. As was said in #4, "It's simple AND complex," there is quite are quite a bit of facts and theories to learn, and integrating them in practice takes good analytical skills. And it's becoming clear that CM practitioners can make a great living (see #10 below).

In a way, practice of CM is more balanced than western medical practice or massage because it requires usage of both left and right brains. Biomedicine can be too intellectual (left-brained). Massage can be too simple. In Chinese Medicine, there is an art to:

* Pulse-taking * Communicating with patients about issues that include mental, emotional and physical (in biomedicine, patients are often sent to specialists who can deal with only one part of them. CM in U.S. attracts complex patients.) * Integrating all data into a comprehensive diagnosis (CM diagnosis is more syndrome-oriented and includes complex, often non-linear phenomena), and * Choosing an applying a number of different treatment modalities.

Continued in Part 2!