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When Naples resident Earl Skibowski says “Dr. Liu is the only reason I’m alive today,” he isn’t talking about a cardiac surgeon or trauma physician. He is talking about his acupuncturist.
Some 52 years ago, Skibowski ruptured a disk, and his doctors injected dye into his spine for some preliminary tests before surgery. It didn’t dissolve. And Skibowski subsequently embarked on a hellish journey that would span the better part of his life.
“It formed scar tissue in my spine,” he said. “Once the dye settles in, it closes off all the nerves in your spine, and the father of one of my friends died of the same condition, so I knew it was very serious.”
Bent over sideways and on medication that prevented him from getting any sleep save a few hours every other night, Skibowski even went to the Mayo Clinic seeking relief. However, after attending a lecture
That was 16 years ago.
“I’ll be 75 in a couple of months and up until a month ago I was putting up a fence and working full-time, plus in the last couple of years I can claim to be nearly pain-free,” he said.
In an age of high-tech medicine, acupuncture ” a series needles inserted at extremely precise points in the body ” is garnering a new buzz in modern medicine. Part of it comes from pop culture: Charlotte, a character from the TV hit “Sex and the City,” finally achieved conception with the help of acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
Liu is a medical doctor, degreed in Western medicine, who practiced in China before founding Liu’s American Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Naples. His is one of nearly 20 medical businesses offering acupuncture here.
Liu begins every exam the same way, taking the patient’s vital signs and examining the tongue, which can offer information about various ailments. A patient’s pulse, appearance of the tongue and chief complaints figure heavily in how Liu prescribes treatment.
“The same disease might require different treatments, but the same treatment can also be applied to multiple diseases,” says Liu, who uses acupuncture and Chinese herbs to treat ailments such as pain, fatigue, neurological issues, cancer, fibromyalgia and stroke. Aside from these issues, acupuncture to address a myriad of others including incontinence, prostate, addiction, stress, gynecological, cardiovascular and digestive problems.
According to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA), acupuncture encourages the body to healing itself naturally and improves functioning. Needling acupuncture points rouses the nervous system to liberate chemicals in muscles, the spinal cord and brain. The process changes pain or triggers the discharge of additional chemicals and hormones. They in turn influence the body’s internal regulating system there
Liu’s partner, Hu Pan, O.M.D., A.P., practices with Liu in his Fort Myers and Naples offices. While he treats a variety of acupuncture patients, Pan says he has worked successfully with many women who suffer from infertility. In a study of 160 women published in reproductive journal Fertility and Sterility, German researchers found that adding acupuncture to traditional in-vitro fertility treatment protocols increased pregnancy success substantially. Women in both groups got pregnant, but for the acupuncture group the rate of pregnancy was higher ” 34 pregnancies compared with 21 in an equal number of women who did not receive acupuncture.
“Two things ” if you want plants to grow, you must have good soil and you have to prepare yourself in the same way for reproduction,” said Pan. “That includes the uterus and hormones, and the hormones are like fertilizer. For this acupuncture is very helpful.”
He also works with stroke patients as well and has done research in that field.
Just a few miles down the road in the Bonita Community Health Center, Robert O’Leary, D.O. is a board-certified physician specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation and pain medicine ” and an acupuncture practitioner. He is also the medical director of the department of rehabilitation at the NCH/Lee Memorial Hospital Bonita Community Health Center.
While Liu’s and Pan’s offices are more relaxed, thanks to traditional Chinese music and the fragrant scent of peppermint and exotic spices from traditional Chinese oils, O’Leary practices medical acupuncture in a purely clinical setting.
O’Leary sees people for low back pain, arthritis in their hands, hips or knees, spinal stenosis or carpal tunnel syndrome among other issues. He gets a lot of calls from patients who want medical acupuncture, but O’Leary is an advocate for further medical testing and treatment.
“Neither I nor the patients limit treatment to medical acupuncture when more than one treatment is most appropriate,” he said. “Sometimes it’s necessary to co-treat with oral medication, topical prescriptions, injections, modalities, orthotics like a wrist splint for carpal tunnel, and, of course, education such as posture, stretching, exercise and sleep hygiene handouts.”
Dr. Walter Sepura, D.D.S., a retired dentist who lives in Naples, is one of O’Leary’s biggest fans. Sepura’s pain was literally developed on the back of a 30-year career spent hunched over his dental patients.
“I’ve had this back problem for years, and though I became a Florida resident a few years ago, I was still traveling back and forth to Michigan to get acupuncture treatments,” said Sepura. “I thought I would try his office to cut down on the amount of travel back to Michigan, and Dr. O’Leary also does this procedure called prolotherapy, which not too many doctors do.” In prolotherapy, the doctor injects a dextrose (sugar water) solution into a ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone to stimulate it to heal.
Medical acupuncture is not for everyone and it won’t cure every ailment, O’Leary says. He uses the standard medical tools: a comprehensive history, a physical examination and reviews of medical tests.
“I truly look at medical acupuncture as one of several tools in my medical tool box, but an important one indeed,” said O’Leary.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s only natural that anyone interested in acupuncture would ask this question: Does it hurt?
Sepura says he sometimes finds acupuncture uncomfortable. He says he’s heard others don’t feel anything.
“It’s not pleasant, but I know it is going to be helpful when it’s over, and when O’ Leary does it, I find it less painful than the treatments I’ve had before,” said Sepura.
“But if he gets right into a sensitive area on top of a nerve, you’ll feel it.”
Like Sepura, Skibowski says he couldn’t care less about the minor twinges of acupuncture. He has to mow the lawn this particular day, and because he can do it without pain now, the price of a little discomfort just fine with him.
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