Just over a year ago, I found myself in excruciating pain. I had herniated the L5-S1 disc in my back. I was given opioid drugs and told by the emergency room doctor who treated me to “find a pain management doctor” so I could refill my pain management prescription.
The idea of taking drugs scared me. In my personal evaluation of most things in life, I ask myself the question, “What is the downside?” Pain medications have a pretty big downside. I am willing to try anything that has limited or zero downsides.
It was with this attitude in mind that I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Marshall Ding, local Park City and Salt Lake City Chinese M.D., Licensed Acupuncturist, and Dr. of Oriental Medicine. While I had never had acupuncture before, I figured that it was worth the cost of the consultation to see if it would work for me. Acupuncture has been around for 4,000 years. With the right practitioner, it is definitely safe.
My Experience With Dr. Ding
Dr. Ding is not just a licensed acupuncturist. He is a Chinese Doctor. Your first appointment with Dr. Ding includes a complete Chinese medical diagnosis and an acupuncture treatment. This appointment can take up to 90 minutes. Thereafter, most acupuncture treatments take about 30 minutes.
At our first appointment, Dr. Ding sold me a peppermint oil and told me to rub it every two hours on the parts of my body where I experienced pain. A Chinese friend later told me that this oil is common in most Chinese households. After my first treatment (which did not hurt), I asked Dr. Ding how many times I would need to return until my pain went away. He told me generally 3 treatments are enough.
I scheduled my treatments every other day (Wednesday, Friday and Monday) and true to his word, my sciatic pain was gone after the third treatment. It was truly a miracle. About a week later I no longer even needed Advil. I returned to yoga first and a few weeks later, I was back at CrossFit. While I engaged in other healing modalities, it was the acupuncture treatments that exponentially drove my recovery.
Acupuncture can be used to treat all sorts of physical maladies, from addictive disorders, musculoskeletal, and neurologic. As there is no downside to the treatment, why not give it a try if you are wrestling with an ailment that Western Medicine is not solving?
Dr. Ding’s Four Commandments of Health
Dr. Ding has a holistic approach to health. A visit to his website (drdingchina.com), reveals his 4 commandments of health, which again, are pretty benign and worth a try:
Running Water is Never Stale. He advocates deep breathing every hour, in through the nose and out through the mouth, while visualizing nature.- “Da, Xiao Wu” to All Things in Life. Make big things small and turn small things to nothing. Mental balance is the key to good health.
- Mini Tune-Up. Take a hot shower with very hot water running from your skull to your tailbone. This increases the “chi” (energy) in your spinal cord.
- Grounding Exercise. Soak your feet in hot water for about 15 minutes to draw energy to the lower parts of your body. He believes this releases stress from the mind.
Have you had an experience with acupuncture? If so, was it positive? Have you visited Dr. Ding? Many of my friends have seen him over the years and their positive endorsements encouraged me to give acupuncture a try.