|
Acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years to treat many
different ailments and conditions. In recent years, with the development
of the economies here in China, many are now looking to acupuncture as
a process to help maintain youth and beauty. Facials, weight-loss and
skin treatments have become quite popular. Curiosity got the better of
me after my own mother, someone typically an adamant
disbeliever in such practices started going to a private hospital to
get acupuncture to reduce her tummy. Her friend Mrs. Lin has gone in
for 3 months and lost over 25 pounds with a noticeable reduction of
waistline. Yet her facial features remained intact so she still looked
vibrant and vivacious. My mom was convinced after that and went in,
also losing some 10 pounds mostly around her waist in a matter of
weeks. Her enthusiasm convinced me to reluctantly go and check it out.
On Thanksgiving Day, I decided to take the plunge and found myself at
the weight reduction clinic located in the GuoBin Medical Center in
Jing An District. My first observation about this place was that it was
really, really clean. A good thing if one is going to have a close
encounter with needles. Upon entering the area of the clinic that does
beautification and weight loss, I had to walk past a row of women
waiting for different such treatments both conventional and
traditional. The clinic I was looking for was at the end of the
hallway. It somehow figured I had to walk past all these beauty-seeking
women to go get my treatment. Well, no one ever said vanity was limited
to the fairer gender.
As I entered the acupuncture clinic, I was greeted by, a petite young
lady doctor who I found to be the chief practitioner there, Dr. You. We
did an initial consultation where I asked lots of questions about the
procedure, her background, side effects and of course the price and
effectiveness of the treatment. Dr. You had studied acupuncture all her
life. her father was an acupuncture master so all her sibling, seven of
them in all, were taught this art and most still practice this in
different medical establishments across the country. In fact, as we
chatted, one of her younger sisters, who works for a multinational
company as a health consultant, stopped in and helped with my
questions. This sister has also come into this clinic to perform
treatments.
After our discussion we proceeded into the treatment room. With my
shirt off and pants rolled up, she proceeded to wipe down the areas to
be worked on with rubbing alcohol, after which she unpackaged new
needles for use. The procedure only took about 3 minutes with her
tapping needles into spots where she instinctively directed them. I
looked down to find over 20 needles about the thinness of a hair,
protruding from my abdomen. She also added a few in my arm and legs.
The ones in my legs were the only ones that I felt a more pronounced
tingle from. The rest were at most a small pin-prick.
I then waited in the treatment room, laying on the bed with about 30
some needles sticking out of me. It felt like a porcupine to run my hands
along the needles in my abdomen. I only felt the pressure but no pain.
If I flexed my muscles, I could make certain needles feel more pronounced
or feel my skin and muscle move around the needle, but seriously, no pain.
35 minutes of waiting with the needles in place seemed short as I was
fascinated by the whole experience.
|
|
At 35 minutes, Dr You then reappeared in the room and in about 1
minute, removed all the needles. I had little red pin-prick marks at a
few spots, but no rash or reaction to the treatment. Small side effects
such as rash can occur to people with very sensitive skin, and
occasionally you may get a little bleeding, but I had none. No blood,
no pain, no itch. No problem.
Upon getting my shirt back on, I came back out to the waiting area and
we then discussed the food situation. I inquired about any dietary
limitations and was told really the main thing was to avoid late
eating, avoid large portions of starches, sugars and other
carbohydrates but that otherwise, eating healthy meals even in healthy
portions is fine. She did suggest a reduction in eating too many fatty
foods and starchy foods though and to avoid alcohols and coffee. Red
wine however was recommended as it seems the anti-oxidants in red wine
are a positive contributor to the process and the body’s own balance.
One important thing she did stress though was that this process helps
the body metabolize energy quickly. Since the body metabolizes sugar
before carbohydrates and carbohydrates before fats, it was best not to
recharge the body with too many sugars and carbohydrates initially as
the treatment will then only block the retention of the newly
introduced sources of energy and not help metabolize the fats we are
looking to reduce. Thus a reduction in sugar and carbohydrate intake
was highly recommended for the best results.
It was untimely that I went in for my first treatment on Thanks Giving
Day as that night’s meal was to be a feast. While I did reluctantly
reduce my carbohydrate intake that night, reducing my potato
consumption by quite a bit, I still found myself some 3kilograms
heavier the following day. But in the days that followed, I almost
immediately adjusted back to my starting point and am now looking
forward to my next treatment.
|
