BUSINESSES MAKE JERSEY CITY WORK
HOW WE WORK PHOTOS BY ALYSSA BREDIN QUIROS INTERVIEWS BY KATE ROUNDS
NJ ACUPUNCTURE CENTER 550 Newark Ave., Ste. 201 (201) 668-0343 info@njacupuncturecenter.com ni Baran, who is just 30, owns and operates two successful businesses, one in Bayonne and one in Jersey City. Both opened in June 2016. NJ Acupuncture Center offers a full range of services to help our stressed-out society get healthy and stay healthy. Treatments are customized to each patient, with emphasis on a well-balanced body and mind. Services include treatment for pain management, infertility, and stress, anxiety, autoimmune, and weight issues. Visit njacupuncture.com for a complete list. Acupuncture once seemed strange and exotic to many Americans. “In the 1970s, acupuncture was still underground,” Baran says. “But in the past decade it’s been booming.” And why not? It’s a 3,000-year-old medical system that diagnoses and treats illness, prevents disease, and improves wellbeing. Now that fitness and sports are part of most people’s lives, weekend athletes often turn to acupuncture for relief from nagging sports injuries. While acupuncture treats physical, psychological, and emotional problems, it also helps thousands to find harmony, a word that evokes peace, tranquility, and balance. The acupuncture needle is familiar to most, but now there are additional forms of stimulation, including herbs, electricity, magnets, and lasers. “Five or six years ago, medicine solely concentrated on prescriptions to treat fertility and pain management,” Baran says. “Neck pain is epidemic, with body mechanics and job stress contributing to pain. Now more people are realizing that you can treat it naturally with acupuncture and massage and not rely on pain medications alone.” Western medicine, she says, doesn’t have all the answers. And our stressed-out culture is taking advantage of what many no longer consider alternative medicine. “Some patients know they’re stressed and ask to be treated for it,” Baran says. “They have to reflect on what they’re going through and their feelings. If they’re Type A personalities, they can’t relax, but they need to relax. They’re treated for anxiety and depression and seem to respond well to it.”
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ANI BARAN The Jersey City center offers acupuncture and therapeutic massage. Located in the same building are chiropractic and physical therapy services as well. “Some people have excruciating pain, and you wouldn’t do massage,” Baran says. “When you bring down the inflammation, then it’s safe to relax muscles with massage.” Acupuncture and massage have also been successful for fertility. “Patients are very happy when they get a positive result,” Baran says. Cosmetic acupuncture is another service. It’s hard to imagine anyone not interested in this treatment. It sounds like
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those ads on TV, but Baran says it really can help with “fine lines, wrinkles, and sagging skin. Acupuncture needles stimulate collagen blood flow,” she says, “and people are happy with the all-natural results.” Some patients become hooked on acupuncture. “They may be reluctant to start,” Baran says, “but once they do, they’d come every day if they could.” In the future Baran hopes to open more locations. “I was brought up in a natural way,” she says. “I always had a vision to help people with dietary advice and lifestyle changes.”