• As the expression goes, “there’s no such thing as minor surgery.” Surgeries are serious business and often have lifelong consequences (both positive and negative).
• Surgeries are incredibly expensive. In a best-case scenario, you’ll be buried in insurance company paperwork. In a worst-case scenario, you’ll be on the hook for thousands of dollars in many cases.
• Surgeries put you out of commission. The recovery process following surgery totally changes daily life, for a period of time that depends on the complexity of the procedure.

Needless to say, I have many people come to Eastern Medical Center following incidents who have been told they need surgery and are looking for “another way” to heal. I’m always excited to see these patients because in many instances, acupuncture, acupressure and Chinese herbs can help the body sufficient heal and avoid surgery entirely. There are cases where I recommend the patient should have the Western surgery done and then come for acupuncture as part of the recovery process, but at least the person has the peace of mind knowing he or she left no superior options on the table.

Two areas where people should think “acupuncture!” before going through with surgery are torn ligaments and broken bones. Under the right circumstances, acupuncture can be a totally non-invasive alternative to surgery and save the patient time, suffering and thousands of dollars.

Two Patients, Two Surgeries Avoided

I have recently been treating a patient who simply fell wrong on her knee. It wasn’t a dramatic accident, but it did have a dramatic effect: She damaged an interior knee ligament so badly that doctors recommended surgery to insert a cadaver’s ligament into the knee. She came in on crutches and could barely walk or put pressure on the leg … but most of all, she was creeped out with the idea that part of a dead person was going to be inserted into her knee.

We began a protocol where she came in every day for treatment – and every day the coloring around the knee improved. The healing stimulated by the multiple acupuncture treatments was so effective that when she went to meet with the surgeon, she was told she didn’t need surgery anymore. She was so happy!

Another patient just fell on her elbow wrong and managed to break it. Her healing process is a similar story, but she was primarily motivated to choose acupuncture because she didn’t have health insurance, couldn’t afford the surgery and didn’t know what to do. After a number of acupuncture treatments, she returned to her doctor. The doctor said surgery was no longer necessary to repair her arm because it had healed very well-and fast! Ultimately, she went back to work as a waitress far sooner than I would have liked!

It’s totally common these days for someone to get a “second opinion” before undergoing a costly surgery. Let’s spread the word so more of those second opinions are with acupuncturists!

Surgery is high stakes. (The common expression being, “There’s no such thing as minor surgery.”) Drugs are highly toxic, sometime addictive and rife with undesirable side effects. Drugs (and often surgery) also fail to address the underlying problem, instead suppressing or temporarily alleviating symptoms that are likely to return because the core issue hasn’t been adequately dealt with.

In a lot of cases, these two options are all patients ever know. Unless someone close to you has experienced the benefits of Traditional Chinese Medicine, you may never get another perspective on your situation.

Our goal at Eastern Medical Center is to raise awareness about acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine as a “second opinion” before undergoing costly and traumatic surgery or starting an oftentimes lifelong regimen of taking toxic drugs. There is a totally natural option in many cases that saves money and health.

This could be a chronic illness or a bad knee or a shoulder problem. Whatever the diagnosis, people need to know that their body is intelligent and understands how to heal itself. There’s likely just some sort of block preventing energy and blood flow from reaching the affected area.

Healing happens naturally … and we’re here to give the body the help it needs to heal without radical medical intervention. Because when the body is brought back into balance—when the root of the problem is reached—all those symptoms go away.

Sometimes surgery is necessary. Even then, in the case of surgical procedures to correct degenerated, bulging or ruptured discs of the neck and lower back, acupuncture helps the management of post-operative pain.

In terms of postoperative pain control, acupuncture treatment can:

• Completely relieve pain, or provide as much relief as possible
• Reduce pain levels
• Improve the ability to deal with pain
• Control the local tissue swelling
• Shorten the resolution of hematoma
• Assist the emotions
• Regulate the appetite
• Strengthen energy
• Increase participation in usual functions
• Enhance the quality of life
• Minimize the side effects of the anesthesia
• Lower the dosage of painkillers after the operation or reduce reliance on painkillers
• Minimize the use of other medications associated with the pain and their attendant side effects
• Stimulate the rapid recovery of functional activities after the operation, etc.
• Accelerate recovery!

So, the next time you hear someone say they need surgery or have been prescribed drugs by their doctor, mention they might want a “second opinion” from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which, by the way, has been in practice 4,000+ more years than Allopathic medicine.

For more information, please see Dr. Sun Pei-Lin’s book, The Management of Post-Operative Pain With Acupuncture.