Patient spotlight: Food poisoning and acupuncture

With something so intense and severe, can acupuncture actually help?  ABSOLUTELY!

Patient came in last week after eating something questionable at a favorite, local Chinese restaurant.  They woke in the middle of the night with stomach discomfort.  Soon after waking vomiting and diarrhea occurred every 30 minutes for about 5 hours.  They made an appointment with me immediately upon waking and got in the same day.  When they came in vomiting had subsided, but the diarrhea continued 1-2 times an hour.  Their stomach also hurt and was sore, there was also lots of gurgling.

My special acupuncture treatment plan for anything gastrointestinal is to needle around the elbows and knees.  At this stage of the game, who wants a needle in their already vulnerable belly?  We use an imaging system, meaning visualize the hand/foot as the head of the body, the forearm lower leg as the chest area, the elbow crease or behind the knees as the naval and the upper arm/thigh as the lower abdomen.  By utilizing the points around the knee we can access the abdomen directly, hereby strengthening it, speeding up the healing time and sending out the ‘pathogenic substance’ (the poison) immediately.

The patient emailed me later that day and said, “When I left the office, I felt 50% better and I could feel my strength starting to come back, within 2 hours, I felt 80% better!  I’ve had food poisoning before and in the past it has takes DAYS to get back on track.”

Christina “Mei Wen” Martin, L.Ac., Dipl.AC, MTOM, FABORM.

christina@berkeley-acupuncture.com

Christina Martin is the founder of Tao to Wellness. She is an Acupuncturist, Chinese Herbalist and Teacher and has been in practice for fifteen years.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine and is California state licensed and a nationally certified Diplomat of Acupuncture. Christina entered Acupuncture school without ever having an Acupuncture treatment. She simply felt it was her calling.