With each treatment,
effects will last longer
and longer as the body
begins to heal itself.
The amount of time
that you have had a
condition is in direct
proportion to the time
it will take to treat it.
Acupuncture works
best as a continuous,
cumulative process. You will likely notice
some positive changes after your fi rst
treatment, but if you keep at it, you will really
start to see the benefi ts of your commitment.
For instance, one asset for some people is a
heightened awareness of your senses; you
may taste food more intensely, hear minor
environmental noises that you never used to
pick up on before or feel the fabric of your
clothing on your skin more intensely.
Dr. Cheech Hill, D.O.M., of Sandhill
Healing Center in Port Charlotte has patients
throughout the area, including Gasparilla
Island. She knows that acupuncture
treatments enable vital energy to freely
fl ow through the body and promote natural
healing, improve your immune system and
your physical and emotional well-being.
“Imagine having a river and a dam,” she
said. “The goal is to open the dam and get
everything moving.”
Hill explained, saying that stress is an
energy. If you hold onto it, you might wind
up with muscle tension, headaches or
other bothersome symptoms. One of the
most popular uses for acupuncture
is to help treat chronic pain.
Acupuncture can also help
relieve stress and anxiety.
Science backs this up: The
practice has been shown
to help relieve pain,
especially in the back
and neck.
Sandhill Healing
Center is a private clinic
that combines Western
conventional medicine with
Eastern therapies. A typical
There are more than 400 acupuncture points, not including the ear
points and scalp acupuncture points.
visit with Dr. Hill will take 50-90 minutes.
While you can experience positive results
from a single visit, it is usually advised to
undergo three to fi ve sessions of treatment.
Acupuncture can be used in tandem with
other forms of recommended traditional
Chinese medicine, and is most frequently
combined with herbal supplementation.
An acupuncture session always begins with
a consultation. You will likely talk through
any issues that you are having, such as
sleep patterns, how you’re feeling, your
bowel movements, dietary intake and more.
Traditional Chinese medicine treats the
body as a whole unit and sees every part as
interconnected.
If you are receiving acupuncture from a
TCM practitioner, he or she will also likely
look at your tongue and check your pulse
(both can show what has been going on in
your life for the past few days or weeks). After
that, you will lie either face up or face down
and have anywhere from 12 to 25 needles
inserted into different points throughout
your body. Keep in mind that acupuncture is
very safe and virtually painless.
In 1997 the National Institutes
of Health, after mounting
evidence from clinical trials,
formally acknowledged
acupuncture for its value
in relieving pain and
nausea after surgery
or chemotherapy, for
morning sickness,
and its effectiveness in
treating conditions such
as headaches, asthma,
stroke rehabilitation and
fi bromyalgia.
36 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • September/October • 2021