Maggie McKay (Host): Welcome to Together We Rise, a podcast from International Community Health Services.

ICHS, advocates for Health as a human right and welcomes all in need of care, regardless of health, immigration status, or ability to pay. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Acupuncturist Phuc Nguyen joins us today to discuss acupuncture, what it does, who can benefit from it, and so much more. Thank you so much for being here today. I can't wait to hear what you do.

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.

Host: Let's just start with what is acupuncture exactly and how does it work?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Acupuncture is using very small needles as tools to most often to alleviate pain. But there are a variety of other conditions that it can be used to treat, such as anxiety, depression just to name a few, some digestive issues, psychosis. Yeah. So it can cover a wide range of issues.

Host: So you just touched on this, but are there any other conditions that could be improved or cured with acupuncture?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Yes, a lot of the time pain is what it's primarily used for. So, like minor injuries and pains that can be alleviated with acupuncture. And also it can help with treating chronic conditions. Sometimes when it comes to chronic conditions, acupuncture may not necessarily be curative, but it can help with that process for sure.

Host: When should a person consider acupuncture? How do you know when you need it?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Right. Say for something simple or even chronic, like I say, an issue of pain or if somebody had a brief injury, say like they sprained an ankle or something like that, or they bump or fell, they can come in for acupuncture. What I would say is that something to consider is when acupuncture's not the best method is for more very clinically acute kind of situations.

Say like emergency kind of situation, say like a heart attack or a stroke or something. That's definitely something where acupuncture's not best suited. In those cases, you want to address it in a more emergency setting kind of manner.

Host: So maybe if, say, after a car accident your pain is not going away, that might be a good time to explore acupuncture?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Correct. Yes. If you say like, you've seen physical therapy, some massage therapy or any other modality and things seem to be progressing kind of slowly. Acupuncture can be another tool, another modality that you can look into to help assist in that process.

Host: Well, one universal fear in life, and at the same time, a primary tool of acupuncture is the use of sharp needles. How would you alleviate a patient's concerns about needles, pain, et cetera?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: So often, most of the time people when they think or hear about needles, it's more the phlebotomy types of needles that are used to withdraw blood in a lapse kind of setting. Acupuncture needles are very small, very thin. Most of the time they're, and they're such a wide array of them. So usually they're about as thin as maybe a strand of hair or maybe a bit thicker. But to talk about reality of acupuncture most of the time I would say patients are nervous. They come in and they kind of worry because they have a preconceived mental image of what acupuncture is or what needles typically are.

 And I want to make it clear that most of the time patients do not feel anything even with the insertion of the needles themselves or once the needles are in. A lot of patients have conveyed to me they often ask like, oh, did you put the needle in yet?

I was like, oh yeah, they're already, it's already, and I'm moving on to the next point. So they're not even aware. But there is the reality of working with needles and stainless steel. It's metal, right? With skin, you are never going to know how each unique individual is going to react. So sometimes yes, when the needles go in, for some patients they may feel a little bit pinchiness with insertion. That's normal. It's nothing of concern. It just feels like, yeah, maybe somebody flicked like at you it's just a tiny pinch. But there are times when the sensation can be a bit stronger or more uncomfortable. And that's when I tell my patients always before, especially for our first session, I tell them, I describe what the sensation's like, but for them, what to expect and then for them to convey to me if anything feels uncomfortable at any point during the session.

So that can kind of help relieve their worries a little bit when it comes to the whole process. And the other thing is most patients tell me afterwards that for the ones that have fear of the needles beforehand, afterwards, they tell me like, that wasn't anything at all.

Host: Is relief kind of instant or do you have to wait a few hours or days?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: It really depends on the individual. So depending on the condition as well, right? Say for an individual who has a condition that's been ongoing for many years, that sometimes may take a couple of treatments for them to notice significant effects. But for somebody whose issue is a bit more recent or current or temporary, they might get relief a lot more quicker.

So it really does depend on the individual and what their condition is and what they're going through. But I would say, in general, for most conditions, patients do notice feeling better, feeling relief within the same day of the sessions, and anywhere within one or two days after sometimes more.

Host: Well, Phuc we are living in an era of rising healthcare costs, as you know, and there's an old saying about an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. How does acupuncture treatment fit in with this paradigm?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Yeah, so acupuncture going back to what we talked about a bit earlier about it sometimes not being best suited for really acute situation, it is better suited sometimes for more preventative kind of situation. One example we can use is, acupuncture relieving stress and anxiety. That can be a more preventative and long-term kind of treatment.

Especially when I would say the plague of our time today is chronic stress and how it affects the adrenals and the kidneys, and then all the endocrine system in our system and how it debilitates us and wears us down. For somebody with such a condition, for example, getting treatment to manage their anxiety, gives them not only relief with their anxiety, but also helps them to manage daily life activities, mental aspects and overall, eventually trickling out into their relationship with others and then their overall health and life. So that's how acupuncture becomes more preventative and more useful for kind of like a preventive long-term issues.

Host: How can a potential patient find more information about your acupuncture service? And is it available to everyone?

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Yes, it is available to everyone and the information will be available on our website. There's a lot of information there, but they can search for the acupuncture on the website. They can call into the clinic or if they are already at the clinic, they can ask the front desk for more information.

 If they have an appointment with their doctor, they can also ask for information to be directed towards the acupuncture site. And the information that can be given there too. In terms of availability if they have any questions in regards of there's a sliding scale fee if the insurance don't cover or they have questions in regards to the insurance and whether that covers it.

We do have an eligibility specialist department which they can also ask the front desk or call in and talk to them and ask to have kind of consultation with that. And then the ES department, the eligibility department can work with them and guide them to see what's available.

But yeah, in the end the clinic tries it best to make it available and work with everybody in terms of their needs and their financial situation.

Host: Well, this has been so informative. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.

Phuc Nguyen, LAc/EAMP: Thank you for having me. Yeah.

Host: Again, that's Phuc Nguyen. And if you'd like to find out more, please visit ichs.com. That's ichs.com. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening to Together We Rise from International Community Health Services.