Community Caring Day Pictures

Thank you for those who came out for our Community Caring Day!  Your donations for acupuncture helped support out favorite environmental organizations: FLOW (Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed), Sierra Club, and the National Park Foundation.  It was so wonderful to have our community gather in a healing space to help support the environment!

Meet Our New Acupuncturist – Keri Ondrus

I had trouble finding work I could be passionate about. I grew up in the country in Defiance, Ohio. My parents were social studies teachers/coaches, and we had acres of trails and creeks right in our backyard. My interest in history and nature, along with my love of reading, helped me learn about the interconnectedness of humans and the natural world, and how important that was, but I didn’t know how to incorporate it into a career.

After studying English literature and Spanish language and culture here in Ohio, I went to teach English in Costa Rica, with the duel intentions of sharpening my Spanish-speaking skills and finding out what I truly wanted for my life’s work. There I learned to meditate, began a yoga practice, and ultimately met local healers who inspired me to go to school to become an acupuncturist and herbalist.

After graduating from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, I practiced for three years at Source Healing in Chicago under founding director Christie Hwang Jordan. In Chicago I also spent time working in a variety of community acupuncture settings, from a women’s clinic, to a mainly Spanish-speaking clinic, to setting up healing events to support and educate those involved in community organizing.

I’m so happy to be here at Urban Acupuncture. Community acupuncture and holistic ideology in general give me hope and comfort in the present and for the future.

ACP Recommends Acupuncture for Back Pain

Let’s Talk About Back Pain

February 14th of 2017 was a big day for acupuncture. The American College of Physicians (ACP) issued new clinical guideline recommending acupuncture among other noninvasive and non-drug therapies for acute, subacute and chronic low back pain. With this clinical guideline, acupuncture takes another step toward the mainstream of medical care. We consider this a big win for our profession and for patients. For starters, we know that there is so much we can do with acupuncture for helping back pain.

We can help our patients avoid surgery and narcotic pain killers, improve their quality of life, and offer a solution with no negative side effects. Physicians are the trusted professionals whom most people seek out to get advise on health care decisions. Now that acupuncture has become recognized by the ACP as a first resort treatment to help back pain, we hope to be seeing even more patients referred from their doctors for this widespread problem.

The ACP guideline reports that “low back pain is one of the most common reasons for physician visits in the United States.” In 2006, “the total costs attributable to low back pain in the United States were estimated at $100 billion.”

See the Recommendations given below:

Recommendation 1: “Given that most patients with acute or subacute low back pain improve over time regardless of treatment, clinicians and patients should select nonpharmacologic treatment with superficial heat. . . , massage, acupuncture, or spinal manipulation. . . . If pharmacologic treatment is desired, clinicians and patients should select nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or skeletal muscle relaxants. . . . (Grade: strong recommendation)”

Recommendation 2: “For patients with chronic low back pain, clinicians and patients should initially select nonpharmacologic treatment with exercise, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, acupuncture, mindfulness-based stress reduction. . . , tai chi, yoga, motor control exercise, progressive relaxation, electromyography, biofeedback, low-level laser therapy, operant therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, or spinal manipulation. . . . (Grade: strong recommendation)

Recommendation 3: “In patients with chronic low back pain who have had an inadequate response to nonpharmacologic therapy, clinicians and patients should consider pharmacologic treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as a first-line therapy. Clinicians should only consider opioids as an option in patients who have failed the aforementioned treatments and only if the potential benefits outweigh the risks for individual patients and after a discussion of known risks and realistic benefits with patients. (Grade: weak recommendation, moderate-quality evidence)”!

At Urban Acupuncture Center we treat patients for back pain in several ways. We can use distal needling by utilizing points on arms and legs, which are extremely effective for back pain. Sometimes people respond better to local needling, and we can treat in Westerville in the private room on a table. With local points used, we will be working directly with points on your back. We may decide to add in some cupping as well to help relax the muscles and increase blood flow. If you have questions about how acupuncture can help you or someone you know, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Mood Disorder Treatment with Acupuncture

Mood Disorder Treatment

Living with someone who is prone to mood swings can be challenging. The reason why the person behaves a certain way could be genetic. There may also be physiological reasons like hormonal imbalances, a chemical disorder, premenstrual syndrome, economic instability, limited exercise, lack of proper nutrients, medication and so on and so forth.

Treating mood swings with pill popping has been around for years. Many people resort to herbal remedies to help cure weird mood imbalances. Unfortunately, if the cause is not checked, the person will never get past the problem, which can spiral out of control down the line.

Acupuncture as a science or an alternative form of medication has a way to stabilize the mind and mood through a series of sessions. People prone to erratic moods as a behavioral pattern are frequently irritable, have difficulty concentrating, tend to feel either superior or inferior to others, suffer from headaches, cannot sleep properly and a spate of other reactive or inherent causes.

The Acupuncturist at the clinic in Columbus, OH as detailed on the website http://acupunctureofcolumbus.com treats the symptoms and the cause of the moods that the person experiences. The Chinese science finds the faulty energy pattern, which is balanced out, to release endorphins (chemicals in the body that resonate a positive hue). By inserting sterilized needles into the areas that need positive energy, the specialist helps the person suffering from a mood disorder.

A lifestyle bordering on crazed patterns is also one of the reasons why the energy in the body is skewed over time. Balancing it out, so that the subtle and limited dopamine levels increase will result in a positive way eliminating the erratic mood swings. Stress reduction techniques along with a balanced diet and proper exercise will automatically improve the tone of the individual.

An acupuncturist is not a therapist, but he is able to dig deep down to find the reason why the person is prone to this behavior. When a child has temper tantrums parents mollycoddle her or him. When they get older, the cuteness factor becomes a bane for the family and people around the now grown up mood swinger. It is necessary to treat the problem at the earliest before it gets out of control.

There are multiple emotional reasons why people feel a tendency to act out through mood swings. It could be the loss of a loved one, a divorce, job loss, weight gain or excessive weight loss, cancer, depression and many other factors. Unless the cause is treated, the patient may not get past this stage.

The normal course of allopathy does not get into the hidden factors that cause an upset. A person may then get to meet with a shrink, which may go on for years until the individual sorts herself or himself out, through therapy. Talking things over with an expert works, as is hypnosis. Acupuncture removes the negative chinks from the body thereby making the mood swinger a happier soul.

For more information about how acupuncture and other treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488    |    Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or  click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.

Photo By Wildengamuld (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Sleep Disorder Treatment With Acupuncture

Sleep Disorder Treatment 

Lack of sleep for one night can trouble you the next day. Imagine having to live with a sleep deficit disorder where you cannot sleep. It can be terrifying, frustrating and cause a serious imbalance in the mind and the body, not to mention thaMassage Imaget it will cause a ripple effect(s).  The obvious choice is to pop a pill with the hope that you can catch some shut-eye. Unfortunately, a series of pills will invariably cloud the normal brain functioning, cut back on social interaction, cause an upset in work life resulting in limited economic stability and finally bodily imbalances.

Evidence has proven that this ancient Chinese science is slowing being taken on as a mainstream treatment in curing physiological and psychological disorders. The advantage of going through the alternative medication route is that every particular symptom is taken into account by a qualified therapist. For instance, if you are experiencing limited sleep, the cause of the problem may be deeper. A trigger can cause an upset in the way the mind functions leading to a depressed state of mind. On the other hand, a physical problem or even something emotional can result in sleep apnea. An accurate assessment is factored based on the individual so that the practitioner understands the extent of the problem and the time when the incident occurred.

The acupuncturist at the clinic located in Columbus, OH uses sterilized needles that are extremely thin and long. He inserts it in various regions of the body that are known as medians. These are also known as pressure points – where the energy flows. The needles do not cause any pain, but when you do notice them, there is a chance that you can twinge, but in reality, they do not cause pain or bleeding whatsoever. These needles channelize the life energy in various parts of the body that are blocked from responding, which could have multiple reasons. The obstructive power that has been the cause of the problem is erased and ultimately, you will be able to sleep.

Different types of sleep apnea

Chinese medication defines the different types of sleep apnea in a couple of ways. The first where one finds it difficult going to sleep, the next – waking up in the middle of the night unable to get back to the normal course of rest. Some people suffer from waking up at certain parts of the morning without being able to get back to sleep. Others experience limited sleep because of lucid dreams while in general, some may be sleep deprived because of late hours at work or an underlying emotional or physical problem. To get the best effect of the treatment requires that you visit the acupuncturist for a couple of days a week, based on the extent of the problem. Acupuncture, as a science, ensures a certain calm resulting in a peaceful sleep. Of course, as you forget the worries, you will feel rested.

For more information about how acupuncture and other treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488    |    Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or  click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.