Health
&
Fitness
Q Q: Wh What i is acupuncture?
?
Rein: Acupuncture is a several thousand year
old practice of medicine – it is looked at as
coming from China because that is where
most of the literature for it is and the tradition
of it going back thousands of years. It is the
insertion of small stainless steel or gold and
silver pins in certain parts of the body to
stimulate QI the circulation of QI (pronounced
“chee”) or (vital) energy (or life force) of the
body, break any staganation, and harmonize
the yin and yang of the body to create the
body’s way of being the most healthy so it can
body.
Q: What did you have to do to be certified to
practice acupuncture?
Rein: In New Jersey you need a Bachelors
degree and a Masters in Acupuncture. For
the school I attended it was about 4 years
of continuous year-round education - 11
semesters of classes - and a large amount of
clinical hours. I spent part of my clinical hours
in Chinatown in New York City working at
the oldest pharmacy there where I had the
opportunity to see a vast array of people and
ailments for study.
Q: Did you also study Traditional Chinese
Medicine?
Rein: Chinese medicine theory is the whole
basis of acupuncture and Chinese herbs – so
in order to learn acupuncture so you really
need to understand the concepts of Chinese
medical theory based on Taoist practices of
thousands of years ago.
Q: Does acupuncture hurt? How long does it take?
time – once they come in they say oh that’s
it? We have a needle phobia – you know the
hypodermic needles you see in hospitals are thick –
20-25 needles in the hole of a hypodermic so in
general they don’t hurt – sometimes there is a little
discomfort.
Q. What is a typical first treatment like?
come in and we will discuss what is going on
with them – we will be looking at the tongue and
feeling the pulse. These are traditional Chinese
medical ways of assessing what’s going on in
imbalance somewhere it will show on markings on
the tongue or weakness of pulse etc. those are our
diagnostic methods. Then they will go on the Bemer
mat for a few minutes. The mat provides Physical
Vascular Therapy that improves microcirculation
vessels.
Then we’ll move on to the acupuncture which
starts off with a little massage to feel things out
and look for tightness in the body. We then do
a few acupuncture points and leave the patient
resting for 10 – 30 minutes before removing the
needles. We then may do a little cupping and a
little more tuina (pronounced twee-na) medical
massage and use some of the herbal salves or
liniments to make it a full body experience. The
treatment is catered to each individual so we
take it each person at a time. For the treatment
itself, depending on what part of the body we’re
working on, if we’re focusing on neck pain or back
pain usually we’ll have them go face down and
other times we’ll have them go face up – also
depends on the
comfort of the
patient.
If you have never
experienced this
form of ancient
healing this might
be the time to
check it out.
To see what an
acupuncture
treatment looks
like and hear more
about this ancient
healing art watch
the video with Rein
Pulz found here.
LivingLBI.com 20
-Pat Trotter
Acupucture
There are many wellness establishments
on LBI that provide
alternative medicine therapies
such as acupuncture. One of these
is the LBI Acupuncture and Healing
Center located in Ship Bottom.
We asked Rein Pulz, MSOM, L.Ac,
owner of this company to talk to us
about acupuncture treatment.
/LivingLBI.com