Friends, you no doubt know that most of the time, yours truly is a veritable wreck. Knees, shoulders, feet - you name it - every part of my body is continually tested to see what it is made of (sorry, Mom). Between the long days of class, work, hardcore physical training, and constant sleep deprivation, something is bound to give. Pushing through aches and pains here and there is standard operating procedure for endurance athletes, but you do hit a real snag every once in a while. Shortly before leaving for China, I burned up some pavement and blew up and down a mountain, leaving a thrashed ligament in my right foot.
Finding myself in China, the birthplace of acupuncture, it would only be fair for me to seek traditional treatment. I'm a firm believer in acupuncture, and have been for quite a long time. Several years ago, I had a serious knee injury from cycling - bruised tendons, torn up ligaments - I could barely walk. For months I tried cortisone shots, physical therapy and constantly fought off doctors who wanted to put on me on the operating table and do some cutting. At 17, I didn't think full-body anesthesia, bright lights and cold steel were what I needed - I knew my body could heal itself. So I searched for "holistic" treatment - the umbrella term for any non-traditional medicine. I was extremely lucky to find Tiru Liang, a Chinese doctor with over 30 years of experience in applying acupuncture. Seeing Tiru twice a week for a month put me back on my feet, and in a few more months, I could run again. I believe that healing is an art, not a science, and Tiru is one of the best practitioners of any art I have ever come across.
With my right foot aching and Tiru several thousand miles away, it was time to get traditional, locally. Several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to meet Josh, an Arizona native who has lived in Beijing for 6 years. Besides knowing all the good restaurants in this city, Josh knows where to go for acupuncture, and would be instrumental in getting me past the Chinese registration (his Mandarin is quite good) and into the hands of a capable physician. On Josh's recommendations, we visited the Guoyitang Institute/Hospital of Traditional Medicine in Chaoyang.
Josh and his fiancee - very soon to be wife - Sunny. I met Josh at a Hutong School dinner several weeks back. He is very well connected and teaches English to many different groups in Beijing including Chinese air force officers, college students planning to study in the U.S, and employees of various embassies around town. He also teaches Mandarin to foreigners such as myself.
The lobby is a fur-ball of activity. Registration on one side, herbs for sale on the other, and locals waiting or scurrying about with paperwork wherever you look.
After Josh and Sunny picked a leg/foot specialist for me to see, we paid the registration fee and headed over to the building next door to see the doctor.
The second entrance was even more elaborate than the first, adorned with intricate decorations such as this Yin and Yang sign. If I had to dream up some interior design, I would make a traditional Chinese medicine hospital look just like this.
Dr. Seng, the physician I saw, turned out to be precisely who I was looking for. Knowledgeable, calm, collected, fast-moving - and English-speaking. As you can guess, I have to compare any acupuncturist's skill to that of Tiru, and this guy was definitely up there. After I explained my problem, I received the requisite-doctor-roll-of-the-eyes from Dr. Seng - doctors always have a hard time understanding why people such as myself like to push the envelope and punish their bodies. I didn't even mention to him that I typically run barefoot. I figured the less he knew, the better for all of us. After some brief examination and prodding of my foot, he proceeded to insert the needles - putting them precisely where I would have wanted them. It is a common misconception that acupuncture is not supposed to hurt, and if it does, it is not done correctly. This is totally wrong - the point of putting needles inside of your body is to accelerate the body's natural healing systems, which may not be focusing on the ailment in question as much as you'd like them to. By inserting needles into the meridians through which "Qi" (the body's energy) flows, you tell your body to "get working on this, NOW". Obviously, if something hurts, it may have to hurt even worse before it gets better - that is acupuncture. So did I feel nice and cozy and dreamed of flowers and unicorns when Dr. Seng stuck me up with needles, hooked up the electrodes, and ramped up the electricity flow between them? If you are masochistic enough to consider sharp pain nice and cozy, then your answer is yes.
There are 4 needles down at my foot, with 2 more positioned on the leg (you can see the one by the right knee, sticking outward). Running electricity between pairs of needles is even more beneficial. The act of acupuncture does not actually heal - it may even damage the tissue further - but the body's reaction will be one of renewed healing, far stronger and faster than it would have been had you simply laid on the couch waiting for the pain to subside. The heating lamp on the right further increases blood-flow to the foot, bringing the macro-nutrients/minerals needed for healing. I would be seeing Dr. Seng three times per week (at 20 min per treatment) until the pain has fully subsided - acupuncture can take time, but it is time the body needs to heal properly - no quick fixes, please.
Just what the doctor ordered: authentic German beer is probably one of the best ways to recover after you've let an acupuncturist try to turn your foot into Swiss cheese with a box of needles. We took ours at the Drei Kronen Brauhaus, a 700 year-old Bavarian brewery by way of new Beijing.
Amid a sea of Bavarian colors, note the Israeli flag - Josh is Jewish - next to the Ukrainian one. Yeah, we drank to continued international cooperation, but not in those lofty words. To peace!
Standard Sergiy Disclaimer: for the overwhelming majority of acupuncture patients, needles are not inserted deep and pain/discomfort is absolutely minimal. The electricity pulsing between needles is adjusted by the doctor at your bequest - he asks you how much juice you want and you let him know if you want a couple turns of the unhappy-face dial. Most people prefer a slight tingle, but I have found that a high level works for me - every pulse brings a vivid sensation of pain throughout the injured region and up the leg. Obviously, I know what works for my body - massive doses of whatever it is we're talking about - but this is not the case for everyone. Don't let this article discourage you from seeking acupuncture treatment: it is a comfortable, more natural, and more permanent fix than popping pain-killers on a daily basis, or worse, submitting to a surgeon. Besides musculo-skeletal issues, it has also been known to cure addictions and mental disorders. Simply put, if you are having problems, find yourself an experienced practitioner and give it a try.
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