Bringing Threefers to Hospital Based Acupuncture

This week I experimented with sequencing and combining acupuncture protocols to deliver more impact in our treatments that last 40 minutes and because of demand, are repeated every one to two weeks or more.  If the pain was concentrated in one part of the body I would start by finding the points on the microsystem of the hand that corresponded to area on the body that was at a 8 to 10 pain level, and insert 5 needles in a surround the dragon configuration.  Then I would do Tui Na massage on the area, usually the neck, back, shoulder or hips.  I would then remove the hand needles and explain how they can stimulate those hand points themselves for relief between return visits.  Finally I would place an ear tacks on the part of the ear analogous to the part of the body that is in pain.  All patients treated with this new protocol sequence had 2 or more point reductions in pain.  Next week we'll find out how long their relief lasted.