acupuncture

[Aces McGee]

My mother has been trying to get me to do this for years for my ulcerative colitis. As a gift this Hanukah/Christmas, my uncle bought me a treatment with his acupuncturist, a highly-regarded Chinese woman who has her M.D. from Johns Hopkins.

The first thing she did was measure something she called my "meridian." It's kind of hard to explain. She had me hold a light, hollow metal cylinder in one hand. To my other hand, she pressed a device very similar to a ballpoint pen with a retractable tip -- ten times on each hand: twice on each finger, on either side of the base of nail. Then, I swiitched hands. She did the same thing to my feet (I held the cylinder in my hand while she pressed the device -- which was hooked up to some sort of computer -- to my toes).

The she had my lay on back, stuck needs in my arms, feet, and stomach, and had me picture yellow and green items while listening to some very relaxing music. After probably half an hour, she pulled the needles out, measured my meridian again, and showed me on the computer screen how I now had fewer toxins in my body than when I came in.

I'm not sure about the toxins, but I can say that I could definitely feel *something* happening. I don't really believe in chi and all that stuff, but I can't deny that the acupuncture had some effect on me.

I'm not I'll go back -- she wants to see me 10 times in the next three years to cure me -- for a variety of reasons. Because my ulcerative colitis is not always active (I have gone as long as two years without medication and not had any problems), it'll be very hard to tell if the treatment is working.

The homeopathic stuff made me very skeptical. I watched her prescripe some supplement to my uncle, and to determine the dosage, she had him sit in a chair with the pills in his hand, and repeat the suggested dosage while she dangled a stone attached to a ribbon just above the pills.

-McGee