Abdominal Acupuncture with Daniel Yoo

Hi, my name is Daniel Yoo. I'm the acupuncturist in the Bayville Office of Thompson Healthcare and Sports Medicine. I'm here with patient Bob and I've been working with him for over a year now on various issues. Today I'm working on treating for his lower back pain. Also, more recently found out that he had a torn hamstring. In addition, I'm also helping him with any wrist pain he has associated with lifeguard duties. Starting off, I'm going to work off of his center line. The system I'm working on is abdominal acupuncture. It's a microsystem whereby needling sections of the abdomen could actually treat systemically the entire body. First off, when working with the center line, it helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to help the but also clear out the spine so that the spine is very straight, just as if you were getting an alignment and adjustment with chiropractic care. I'm going to start off with the first few points in the center line here. The first series is going to help with the cervical and thoracic area. As I get below the belly button, I'm targeting lumbar regions, specifically L1, L4, and L5. As I move out toward the side, what it's going to do is help stabilize the spine and also help with any possible weather-related aggravations and pain or joint ache. You commonly see that associated with patients with arthritis. What I'm doing right now is adding additional points just to assist the main ones in the center line and then specifically targeting regions of the hip and the hamstring area. The attachments with the hamstring. Transition over to helping his wrist. Any pain, Bo? No. After these are done, what I'm going to do is adjust the needles a little bit. What I'm looking for when I'm adjusting the needles is I'm looking for a very particular depth. The more superficial the needle, it will treat more of the skin. As I go maybe a little bit halfway, half an inch with the needles, more of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Deeper will be more of the bone and the organs themselves. If there's any resistance, I try to manipulate the needles very slowly up and down until I actually feel it give out and it softens. Usually that's an indication that whatever nodule or stiffness that was there is finally released and circulation has improved to that particular region. Rotation of the wrist. Let me know how it feels. Pretty good. Much better. Move to the hip flexion. Bring the knee to the chest. I want to palpate underneath where the hamstrings are. Let me know if you still feel any pain. No. All right, good. With this particular system, it can be working that quick and I need change to happen in real time. It goes to show how quickly acupuncture can work on the body, especially with reducing inflammation, helping with overall pain and improving circulation. As long as he's feeling better, that's all I care about. Thank you for your time.