Tag: China

A First Visit to an Acupuncture Clinic

You might be thinking about making an appointment at an acupuncture clinic. Many people consider this for various symptoms; some common ones being persistent pain, stress-related symptoms, or other problems such as weight loss. In China, many people use their acupuncture visits as a periodic tune up in order to stay healthy. Chinese acupuncturists sometimes get paid as long as their client is healthy, rather than when their clients have symptoms. So, let us take a tour of a modern American acupuncture clinic to see what it is like.

A typical clinic looks like any professional office, and you will be shown into a room where you are comfortably seated in a chair. The acupuncture practitioner comes in and begins the diagnosis. There are two major parts to the diagnosis, physical observation and a discussion of your symptoms and environment. A basic physical observation will include taking your pulse and observing your tongue. Unlike a traditional doctor’s office, your pulse is taken on both wrists, and at several points on each wrist. Your pulse is taken both near the surface of your wrist and also more deeply below the surface. These observations will be written down and used together with the discussion with the practitioner.

You should think about a number of things to discuss at your first acupuncture visit. If you are coming in for a particular symptom or set of symptoms, this should be a major part of the discussion. Think about several different aspects of your symptoms. Let’s say that you have persistent pain in your ankle, to use one example. The pain may not be constant during the entire day; it may ebb and wane depending on the hours of the day. The pain may increase or decrease due to certain activities, and you should observe these as much as possible. You might think that walking would certainly increase the pain, but sometimes walking is not as much of a problem as persistent standing, for example, as a cashier in a grocery store. Also, the pain might change depending on the times of the month, and that should also be mentioned to the acupuncture practitioner. Cause and effect, if any, is also important to report. Some things to consider if stress is a component, for possibly the pain started or increased when you got a new supervisor at work. Notice that a diagnosis for an acupuncture visit includes physical, emotional, social, and mental components to the diagnosis. So come to the acupuncture office armed with as much information as you can gather about the reason you are coming.

Once you and the acupuncture practitioner get through the initial diagnosis, some time is taken to construct a plan of treatments. Depending on the particular symptom that you have, and the other personal information that was taken in the initial diagnosis, your first treatment might be this same day, or you may be asked to return on a different day to start your treatments. The time of day and the particular days for acupuncture treatments are carefully selected in order to achieve the best result possible.

If you do have an initial treatment, it will be painless, and generally takes less than an hour, sometimes much less than that. The acupuncture practitioner will insert very slim needles at specific locations, which will remain for the number of minutes needed for your particular symptoms. When the needles are still you are not even aware of them. Inserting and removing needles is also pain free, rarely there may be a slight twinge, but not more than that. During your treatment you may feel more relaxed, a buzz of energy, slightly warmer at the needle insertion points, or exactly the same as when you came in. However, the needles are doing their work to regulate and rebalance the circulation in your body. So enjoy your first visit, and know that each visit brings you closer to your optimal health.

Air Ambulance of the Year Award Goes to AirMed

AirMed is an air ambulance service that stands out above the rest. This company is based out of Birmingham, Alabama. The AirMed air ambulance company was the only finalist from the United States to be considered for this honor.

The prestigious award was presented to AirMed by Voyageur Group’s International Travel Insurance Journal. This company is based out of London. The air ambulance of the year award was presented at the annual conference in Venice in 2007.

This honor represents the finest in the air-medical field. International Traveler Insurance Journal honors assistance companies, insurance underwriters, and cost-containment providers. AirMed air ambulance service has had excellent competition for the award. Several other air-medical companies from Canada and Europe were finalists for the award.

The annual awards speak volumes about the quality of service from the recipients. An impartial panel of judges are used to determine the appropriate winner. The judges are a panel of experts in the global travel insurance and medical transport industries.

AirMed’s devotion to quality air ambulance service shows in their high standards and patient-oriented business. This honor of Air Ambulance of the Year indicates AirMed’s dedication to service and standards in the industry.

According to company announcements, early next year, AirMed plans to open and operate an international base in Hong Kong. Based on this information, AirMed will be the first U.S. based air ambulance company to operate a base in China. With the addition of the new base in China, AirMed will be even more qualified and better equipped to serve the needs of the world.

Specialty patient care and seamless travel is a goal of AirMed air ambulance service. By the end of 2008, AirMed should have 11 dedicated aircraft in the fleet. This fact makes AirMed better prepared than most to serve the air ambulance travel needs with safety and convenience in mind.

AirMed is the preferred carrier for the United States Department of Defense and is the air medical transport for the Mayo Clinic. The AirMed air ambulance service has bases in Hawaii, Minnesota, and its headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. Annually, over 2,500 medical missions are flown with this excellent organization.

The patient care and customer service is unparalleled. AirMed offers bedside to bedside medical care worldwide. For anyone in need of air ambulance service, AirMed’s staff and fleet will undoubtedly provide the special care and customer service to meet the need.

The Air Ambulance of the Year Award is an honor that deserves recognition. The dedication and quality service received by AirMed’s clients have allowed the company to stand out above the competition. A well-maintained, high-quality fleet helps to make AirMed the top air ambulance of the year. The experienced and professional staff cares about the patients and providing excellent medical standards.

Top-notch customer service speeds AirMed to the top of the chart. Air ambulance competition is tough, but AirMed has come up on top. The honor of Air Ambulance of the Year will undoubtedly encourage AirMed to continue their strive for excellence in the years to come.

What Is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture was developed in China many centuries ago. The Chinese call acupuncture Zhue Jiao, which means “needle heat”. The needle regulates an inner force called “Qi”, which is responsible for the health of the body. The regulation of Qi using acupuncture can restore physical health, give a release from stress, or improve physical or mental health in other ways. A very healthy person should have Qi energy flowing freely in several distinct pathways, and these pathways are like the roads for maintenance crews. Freely flowing energy distributes everything the cells need, and take away what waste is produced. This produces not only physical, but also mental, health. If Qi is stopped at some point, there will be some symptoms, often a physical illness. The acupuncturist will determine where the needles should be placed in order to return the flow to normal, or as close to normal as is possible. This might happen in one treatment, or a series of treatments. Many Chinese get acupuncture treatments regularly in order to stay healthy, to keep their Qi flowing at a nearly ideal level. In several places in China, a practitioner of acupuncture gets paid only as long as their clients remain healthy, not when they get sick.

Nearly all acupuncture techniques use needles, though there are varieties that also use electric stimulation, burning, and herbs. The needles used are solid needles, not hollow tube needles like Western doctors use. In America, certified practitioners of acupuncture use pre-sterilized disposable needles. There is usually no medicine on the needles, for the needle itself acts on the Qi energy to make the change in the flow. The practitioner may use a particular angle to insert a needle, or may manipulate the needle a little (such as a small rotation) to get the best results for a particular client.

If you think like the Chinese, you may want to visit your acupuncture clinic regularly to maintain an optimal flow of Qi, and to maintain really good health. A particular health or emotional problem may need only one or two visits, or might require a series of up to eight visits or more, depending on the problem. During a visit, the acupuncturist may insert several needles, and not necessarily at the same points from visit to visit. As the condition improves, a different set of locations might be chosen to affect a change in Qi flow to move even more quickly to good health. Sometimes the needles are inserted just underneath the layer of the skin, while at other times some of the needles may be inserted up to a depth of three inches. Insertion of the needles usually does not hurt at all. Some clients remark on an occasional pinching sensation when a needle is inserted. Once the needle is in place it can easily be forgotten. Sometimes there is a pleasant relaxing or warm sensation around the insertion point, which is an indication that the Qi flow is being redirected in the right manner.

Acupuncture is a very good way to correct a number of illnesses, and one of the best ways to maintain health on a regular basis. This introduction gave a brief overview to encourage you to consider acupuncture as a health option. More and more insurance companies are giving coverage for visits to an acupuncture clinic, and this should be explored.

The Development of Acupuncture

Chinese medicine is thousands of years old. The earliest recorded use of acupuncture is from the reign of the Yellow Emperor, and is supposed to be from about 2600 BC. The ancient Chinese noticed that certain areas of the skin became more sensitive when a person had a certain health problem. Over time, the Chinese started recording the location of the sensitive areas for a particular symptom or set of symptoms. These areas were associated with the internal organs whose malfunction caused that particular symptom. When outlines of the human body were drawn, these sensitive points were connected in ways to explain the functioning of the human body. The functioning of the body includes the various major organs of the body, and also the entire functional system, including the energy for the organ.

Looking at a text on acupuncture, there will be a number of spots, which relate to the sensitive areas described above. There will also be lines, or “meridians”, which connect the various organs and indicate how the energy of the organs flow from one to another. The concept of energy (the “Qi”) is fundamental to the application of acupuncture. According to the Chinese, we are given a certain amount of Qi at birth, and this is dissipated by daily living, and restored by ingesting food and air. In the foundation of acupuncture, the imbalance of this energy at various points in the body is the cause of illness. The absence of this energy at some point is death. The Qi circulates through the body in a cycle, moving from meridian to meridian and organ to organ. This energy is constantly moving, dissipating, and being restored.

The use of the needles in acupuncture is to affect the energy level, and so the functioning, of an organ by stimulating or reducing its action. Some organs respond more directly and quickly than others, such as the liver. Acupuncture can be used for pain control, for stress relief, and for a multitude of other physical symptoms and diseases.

China was where the technique of acupuncture and its medical foundations began. Japan also has an extensive history of acupuncture as an accepted and effective treatment for their people. Japanese acupuncture has the same foundations as Chinese acupuncture, but several interesting differences in technique. Acupuncture traveled to Europe in the seventeenth century, being brought back by Jesuit missionaries who had lived in Beijing. Acupuncture did not receive wide acceptance at that point, though there were pockets of practitioners in several places in the West. Acupuncture got significant attention here only when M. Morant from France published many writings on acupuncture in the 1940s. The detail and volume of his writings caught the attention of western physicians, who started considering it for pain control.

Currently, acupuncture is widely accepted by western physicians in several categories, including pain control and stress relief. Indeed, for some operations no anesthesia is needed at all, just the services of an acupuncturist. This is a distinct advantage, in that the normal operation of the patient’s organs is not altered by an artificial anesthetic. This work in the west has caused new interest and study in the land where acupuncture originated, in China. They have discovered many old, previously unknown texts, and are working on extending the applications. It is an exciting time for the field of acupuncture.