Acupuncture Talk

Picture of the flyer for the talk

Hi Blogs,
Here's an example of the sense of humour (?) of our all and everything highest manifestation of awareness supreme, God chosen, leader Peter Meier. The talk was on depression and was entitled "Acupuncture: a prick for all occasions". Peter, as I have mentioned before, is a really down to Earth type of person.

I remember when I first walked into his office, in tower one, to ask some questions in my first year. I recall a very large woven and chunky picture on the wall and piles of papers on the floor and around and about. Knowing that the rest of the lecturers were moved to building four I decided on the following ice breaker:

"Must be difficult moving from one office to the next"

To which the reply was something like,

"I'm not moving anywhere."

It was actually situation normal in his office, which I had somehow misjudged!

Then I remarked

"well it's nice to be back", as I had missed some University time in my first year (another story)

"Is it?" I seemed to remember the reply to be.

Peter really helped me on that day with the information I needed to get organised with and he was really nice about it. To my memory someone else walked in while I was getting up and that was the end of our conversation.

Electrotherapy and Acupuncture

Here's the machine.Here's all of us trying them out Jeremy getting electro-courtesy of me dialling up the power
Seems pretty relaxed
Everybody else getting electro too. Different reactions!

Here's a little video of my hand twitching from electro stimulation while Sean Walsh tells us what is happening

Hi ppl,

We had an introduction to TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) today. There are two main types of electro therapy in TCM. Electro stimulation through needles themselves and through surface electrodes. We tried surface electrodes today. Very helpful for pain relief with for example back conditions and sciatica. Basically adding to the overall effect of the acupuncture. We combined it with acupuncture to the lower back as well. This is the first time I have tried electro and once you get used to it the sensation is ok. One interesting aspect is that the patient can take charge of their own treatment and dial the power up or down themselves. The aim is to have stimulation but no pain, as the nerves can shut down if they are over stimulated therefore stopping the benefits. However the frequency can be automatically changed to help prevent this. One aspect of electro is habitualisation. This is when the body becomes accustomed to the stimulation. If you give control to the patient they can increase or decrease the power according to how much they feel sensation over time. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Hand Acupuncture Practice

Another shot of Mark this time with Pericardium 8 needled. Incidentally his black eye still hasn't healed up yet. Thanks for the pic Close up of Pericardium 8 point-OUCH! Thanks Genevieve for the pic

Our class on acupuncture continues. We had a couple of painful points today-well a few actually. The highlights being Heart 1 which is in the centre of the armpit-actually a 2 out of 10 for pain, but it did feel very unusual. Sorry wasn't quick enough to get a shot of that one. Then we had the one pictured-Pericardium 8. The point is pretty much the centre of the palm of the hand. That has been the most painful point for me so far. Much like a bee sting, and we practiced on both hands. What does it do you may ask? It "cools the heart". In TCM Heart heat/fire is associated with insanity to irritability and variations in between. Therefore cooling Heart fire with this point is said to help with these Heart fire signs and symptoms. How does that work? Well PC8 is the fire point of the PC channel and sedation of this point will cool the Qi in the Pericardium and therefore Heart, as they are so closely related. Welcome to the logic of TCM. Basically TCM logic is another story but suffice to say observations came first and grouping of information came second. Therefore a rather strange logic develops to justify results for academic reasons. Somehow it makes sense. Basically if you get a result it works..! How did I feel afterwards? Well pretty much the same. The other aspect of TCM is the intent of the person needling. Which is a meditative idea of focused attention on one point. As this was a practice session the intent is not as powerful because we didn't draw the reasons to mind. Interesting stuff innit.

Inside the UTS TCM Locker Room

This was a quiet dayThis is an inside peak of the room that only students and practitioners see, until now that is. On this day at this moment a lunch shift changeover in the clinic was beginning and I thought it would be fun to see how many people I could get in the shot. It's an interesting pic as there is study, conversation, leaving and coming going on, as well as an example of all the different nationalities on the course. Anybody who has white coat syndrome, the fear of medical intervention from white clothed individuals, please look away.

Black eye from eye Acupuncture

Acupuncture black eye for unfortunate Mark Here is an example of a bruise from needling. The funny thing is that Mark had both ST 1 points needled and only one side bruised. In regards to techniques for needling he said the short and quick technique was the unbruised side and the slower more delicately needled side was the side that came up. I've only seen this a couple of times and after a few days it is gone. Still, that's why we are practicing now. Good work Mark and you look cool

Acupuncture in the EYE!!

Sarah is a test subject, I mean willing participant...Genevieve needles while Peter Meier looks on. Careful placement, check out Peter's hand size-big fella doing a delicate job.
Needle in place, eyes cannot be opened.
Here's a close up of Michael with my needling.

We continue with our acupuncture practice! It looks a bit full on and it's a delicate, sensitive area called stomach 1. The needle passes through the space above the bone into the eye socket but isn't close to the eyeball. I wouldn't say this point is needled much but it is stated that it draws energy to the eyes and is helpful to "calm and cool " the Liver , associated with eyes in Chinese Medicine. Some books state that it is forbidden to be needled too. However it's part of our curriculum. When it was done to me it wasn't painful, but I was definitely a bit nervous.

"Welcome to the Road Kill Cafe"

My latest acupuncture treatment involved increased Qi circulation-not excess hair removal as you may imagine from this pic

The adventures of acupuncture continue:

"Yeah I have got better with the pain levels from getting needled"

This was the last thing I said to my current practitioner I am trying out at the UTS clinic before I was pinned by over ten needles to the abdomen.

Not that I am complaining though. This combination is boosting my energy and I had a couple of others for stress as well. Sometimes all the study and learning can be overwhelming so it's worth getting back to basics and getting a treatment. It can all seem a bit strange sometimes but whenever I get acupuncture there's always some kind of result physically or emotionally.

BTW if you ever want to call our head of faculty during mid sentence on the lecture room phone, this is the response you will get:

"Welcome to the road kill cafe, you kill 'em we grill 'em"

Anyway the lecture was on laser acupuncture-more on that soon.

More from the combat zone

Reading stuff is easy-right? Why does it take hours and hours and hours. This pic is of real sleeping people after 30 minutes of intense readings Tutor group for Chinese Diagnostics. This is a pic of the first group and therefore every body attended it. The second group was an hour later and ten people turned up.
We read about smoke dried hedgehog skin
I am very happy to be following this natural medicine journey but I must admit it is the toughest stuff I have ever done! I really do have a mountain of information to learn and try and understsand for this semsester. BTW I have never seen hedgehog used in the clinic or anywhere else for that matter, let alone smoke dried and I'm sure it's not tasty either.