Left: Linda D’Agostino demonstrates a Qigong pose.
skin and eye disorders, respiratory allergies, tension headaches, and the early stages of upper-respiratory infection. Since women tend to seek out medical help for chronic and acute conditions more than men, they are often also the ones to suggest complementary medicine to traditional physicians. “In Central Pennsylvania, going to complementary-medicine practitioners tends to be consumer driven,” says D’Agostino. “Usually it’s the patient who asks the doctor, ‘What do you think of this?’”
Below: A patient uses acupuncture, which places needles in specific points, to treat certain conditions.
“The ancient Chinese discovered that patients’ Qi, or energy, flowed along 12 pathways called meridians,” says D’Agostino. “They learned a way to manipulate the flow of Qi.” Acupuncture involves the insertion of special hair-thin needles into specific points on a given meridian. Their purpose is to redirect
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Qi so it flows properly. “With good Qi flow, blood circulation is improved, essence is nourished, and healing begins,” D’Agostino says. “The patient may experience warmth, pressure, or tingling during acupuncture but will not ordinarily feel any appreciable discomfort.”
Traditional Chinese medicine also offers insights about nutrition. A practitioner can make dietary recommendations: Different times of year are considered the optimal times to eat certain fruits and vegetables. Some plants, such as chrysanthemum, can help with various health conditions, including
Note: In Pennsylvania, naturopathic doctors and TCM practitioners are not licensed, though acupuncturists are. Only 15 states at present license naturopathic doctors as primary care physicians. Therefore, most insurance companies won’t cover the visits, although people with health-savings accounts or flexible-spending accounts can get reimbursement, Hawk states. There are currently four schools in the United States and two in Canada that offer the four-year program leading to a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine.
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