Hop into Health – Needling for healing (Acupuncture)
Today on Hop into Health, I catch up with a friend and my acupuncturist, Nicholas Blewitt. We talk about needling, acupuncture and wow did I learn a lot!!
This is a blog about some of the things we chatted about but not word verbatim of the interview, listen to the podcast for the entire interview…
Q: What lead you to acupuncture?
A: I started massaging the family then realised I really liked concepts of healing/helping. Then I got into the marshall art form of Tai Chi. The traditional Tai chi uses the same philosophies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which ultimately lead me to studying acupuncture on the Gold Coast.
Q: What do you like about acupuncture?
A: it gives me the opportunity to really help people heal themselves as apposed to masking their symptoms. True healing is giving the body what it needs to mend itself.
Q: What are some of the principles of acupuncture?
A: Around 4000 years ago the Chinese started to document the process of healing using nature and the principles of what is now known as TCM. The Yellow Emperor Huangdi Neijing was one of the first Daoist to document TCM and integrate the concepts of our environment dictates our physical and spiritual journey and vice versa. He is similar in influence to Hippocrates (Greek)
He discussed hot/cold, damp/dry and opposing states. To read more about his teachings read here.
He (and TCM) discuss the body in 12 organs (with 2 additional ones, microcosmic orbit being an additional one)!! and they are connected by 8 meridians (like cabling). It is by stimulating these meridians that you can generate or free up energy in different body parts.
Q: What is the process of acupuncture?
A: we spend a lot of time diagnosing (using pulses around the body, tongue, eyes, skin tone etc) then we determine which organ needs heat/damp removal or whatever we think it needs. (As with most natural medicines, one looks for the cause behind the symptoms and tries to address that, not just manage the symptoms).
Q: What do treatments involve?
A: treatments traditionally involved the use of needles. These needles are fine needles, don’t hurt (generally) and are designed to stimulate the body to draw attention the meridan it is in. We can also use moxibustion (heated herbal) to draw heat to an area, and cups, scrapping and acupressure points. Treatments often go for an hour and require 5-10 sessions.
Q: What sort of things can you treat?
A: It would be easier to answer what we can’t treat… The most common things treated are musculo skeletal (neck, back pains), headaches, auto immune diseases, fertility etc.. Mood disorders (eg bipolar) take a long term commitment but can be managed with acupuncture.
Q: How can people find you?
Nicholas Blewitt, GoldCoast-Acupuncture (on Face Book) or M: 61 433 775 488
