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Acupuncture, complementary medicine grows in
popularity
By Scott Nicholson
Acupuncture is getting its point across to more people who want
to complement their health care approaches
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Edward Elliott puts needles in a
patient’s foot to align the body’s energy systems.
Photo by Scott Nicholson
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Edward Elliott, who has acupuncture practices in Watauga and Ashe
counties under the name Hiddenknoll Acupuncture Clinic, said the
perception of the ancient treatment, as well as other approaches
to health care besides the regular visits to a family doctor,
is changing. Part of that change is in the shifting attitudes
of many patients and an easing of the attitude that many health
choices are “Eastern medicine versus Western medicine.”
Elliott said even the terminology is changing. “The word
we tend to use more than ‘alternative’ is ‘complementary,’”
he said, noting that different types of healing can work alongside
Western medicine. “Patients accept more responsibility, like
the notion that they are, in fact, in control of their own health
versus someone else being in control of their health.”
Elliott was one of the first graduates of the Jung Dao School
of Classical Chinese Medicine in Sugar Grove and has been in practice
since 2004. A native of the area, he returned to the High Country
12 years ago to study healing. Since then, he’s learned about
the different ways acupuncture can treat illnesses beyond the
ones most people associate with the treatment, such as sore muscles
or back pain.
“A lot of people have seemingly run out of options for any
kind of result for their issues,” Elliott said of his patients,
who cross all social and educational groups. “Others are
curious. Acupuncture in general treats a wide range of health-related
issues, and can be effective for the more nebulous issues that
people don’t tend to think of acupuncture being applicable
to—usually migraine, muscular, lower back issues are only
the beginning of what acupuncture addresses.”
Acupuncture is a practice thousands of years old and is rooted
in ancient Chinese beliefs about energy, particularly bodily energy
and how it is influenced by emotions, feelings, and environment.
Generally, acupuncture embraces the seeking of balance, encouraging
the body to heal itself.
“This was the ancient Chinese medicine,” Elliott said.
“They did not have alternatives, and they certainly benefited
from its non-intrusive means of treatment for every ailment that
presented itself. There’s no belief system required with
Chinese medicine. It’s not necessary to understand all the
workings of the energetics of Chinese medicine for you to get
benefits of treatment.”
A simplified version of the Chinese medicine’s foundation
is based on the idea of yin and yang, different organ systems
and their relation to nature and the idea of energy systems, including
that of “chi,” or the body’s energy or life force.
“What I tell my patients is there is nothing mysterious about
Chinese medicine,” Elliott said. “We’re talking
about energies that are natural in our universe and world, and
so-called ‘chi’ is the energy that gives rise to our
beings and all things in life, as well as the specific tissue
layers in our bodies.”
The ancient Chinese saw nature and health or illness as one of
five phases: earth, fire, wood, metal and water, corresponding
to different organ systems and layers of tissue within the human
body, as well as external natural forces like weather and the
seasons.
For example, “wood” corresponds to spring, a blossoming
or growth of nature, while in body it relates to muscle, tendon,
liver and gall bladder. Imbalances within any of the five phases,
or tendencies for external climatological energy to have the ability
to invade, are two of the causes of illness, pain or bodily dysfunction.
External stimuli like wind, cold, dampness, humidity, heat and
dryness can influence health and the functioning of organs, consistent
with the idea that all energy systems are interconnected.
Those systems are also in a constant seeking of balance, as Elliott
explained there is the basic core of energy, yin and yang—yin
is form, yang is the functional qualities of that form and the
way those qualities affect form—and the two are completely
integrated until death. The shift toward balance or imbalance
is constant, and the “cure” is often simply a restoration
of balance.
“Western medicine calls it homeostasis,” Elliott said.
“We compensate where one thing is weak, the other is strong,
and we seek to compensate before there’s a drain on the entire
organism. Acupuncture treats the whole person, intellectual, emotional
and physical, as one inseparable energy versus a multitude of
different specialties.”
Elliott’s patients have seen positive results for a wide
variety of illnesses, including some that sometimes frustrate
health practitioners and their patients because they are often
difficult to diagnose and treat. While some simple conditions
require only one or two treatments, the more chronic issues may
require a longer period of treatment. Elliott’s patients
have reported improvements for fibromyalgia, chronic headaches
and migraines, fertility issues, emotional disturbances, addiction
recovery, lower back pain, sexual dysfunction, gastrointestinal
disorders and allergies, besides regular maintenance and preventive
care.
Since the Jung Dao School has turned out other acupuncturists,
some who have established practices in the region, more people
are exposed to the treatment or hear about it through word of
mouth. Increasingly, general practitioners seem more willing to
share referrals with complementary healers and Elliott said demand
is increasing even though there are now more healers in the area.
Elliott is certified by the National Acupuncture Detoxification
Association, and he uses techniques that are used successfully
to assist nicotine, alcohol and narcotics recovery. Such treatments
are often related to health issues directly caused by or connected
to the substance.
“There’s definitely physical involvement besides neurochemistry,
and it may be important to get further treatment with acupuncture
to treat those issues,” Elliott said.
He operates an office on Grand Boulevard in Boone on Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday and treats patients on Friday at the Crossroads
Healing Center in Jefferson. Office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
by appointment only. Appointments can be made by calling Hiddenknoll
at (828) 278-0639 or Crossroads Healing Center at (336) 846-7492
ext 7. More information on Hiddenknoll and Chinese medicine is
available at www.hiddenknoll.com.
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