Acupuncture: Alternative No Longer? A Q&A on This Growing Healthcare Option

Cramps. Night-sweats. Migraines.

These problems have one thing in common for Americans: they are increasingly treated with acupuncture.

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine is one of the largest Chinese medicine programs in the country. The 23-year old school has campuses in New York, Chicago, and San Diego. Campus’ clinics were recognized with the “Traditional Chinese Medicine World” Best in the West award for three years. The college also has off-site clinics in hospitals and treatment centers throughout the New York area. Pacific’s staff and students use acupuncture, herb, and massage to treat patient issues ranging from cancer and AIDS to drug addiction.

In the main office at 915 Broadway, graduate and students clinicians usually see more than 600 patients per week. There are 450 students learning the principles and practice of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and massage. Only 50 of these students study massage alone. With enrollment growing, the college is currently expanding and building more classrooms.

After Sept. 11, 2001, students furthered their outreach by performing acupuncture and massage on both rescue workers and rescue dogs. “We gave the dogs acupressure massage,” explains Cynthia Neipris, the Director of Outreach and Community Education. “That kind of environment was incredibly hard on all the rescue workers, but the dogs can’t deal with the stress in many of the ways we can.” We sat down to discuss the college, oriental medicine, and her own involvement with the disciplines taught here.

Have you noticed any changes in your practice during the recession or the current uncertainty with debate over the healthcare reform bill?

In the recession, our patients have actually increased, which is kind of remarkable. We can’t be sure, but we’re guessing people can’t afford other healthcare now. With no insurance, for example, people don’t want to pay hundreds of dollars out of pocket. We think people also are looking for more natural methods in everything, from cooking to medicine, that are more self-sufficient. In acupuncture, you can learn techniques to use yourself, and the body heals itself with the help of the practitioner.

You mentioned that this can be a lifestyle change—are more people then willing to undertake a dramatic change like that?

I think people are more willing to make those lifestyle changes because these days they’re being forced to in other areas of their lives. Also, the spread of information about alternative medicine helps. Developments in Western medicine too—it’s a time when a lot of things we had before no longer seem to work the way we thought. In medicine, that can mean side effects, or becoming bacterially resistant from taking antibiotics. As information spreads, people are looking for natural alternatives.

I know many use the treatments as supplements, but do treatments here present outright alternatives?

If I have a knee problem, I’d want to try acupuncture before I try expensive surgery or medicine that costs $86 dollars a bottle and that I have to keep taking for the indefinite future. The goal here is to help you not, for example, have migraines anymore. Rather than spend money on Imitrex all the time forever or until your migraines spontaneously go away.

The clinic also offers treatments to help people quite smoking—how does that work?

The acupuncture can help reduce cravings, releases endorphins when you’re going through the pains of withdrawal so you’re less likely to go back to smoking, and it can relax your sympathetic nervous system response. That’s the fight or flight reflex. The body tenses when you take away the smoking, the heart can beat faster or feel strained, too. The treatments help the body relax the body and mind. Plus, the acupuncture helps to detox the body of remaining traces of nicotine, which makes it easier to move on faster.

You used to have your own practice in Santa Monica—how do you feel working at the clinic and college here instead of your former practice in Southern California?

New York has a lot of stressed out people. And that’s what we do here. I think it’s even more rewarding to treat people here and bring them that sense of being calm and centered.

Do you take the herbs yourself?

Oh, yeah! I love them. They work.

For what?

That’s like asking what prescriptions are for: everything. Chinese herbal treatments tend to be known for the problems that Western medicine can’t or doesn’t effectively work on. Like pain, for example, or syndromes for which Western doctors have no names. You can treat it anyway. We look at patterns in the body and name that instead, treating the patient holistically, not just for the symptoms. But we can treat lots of things that Western medicine treats all the time, too. PMS and cramps, for example. People love those treatments. And menopause! I think I only had night sweats for one night.

You mentioned that your clinicians often try to teach skills that patients can use at home, like looking at your tongue. What does my tongue say?

Overall, it’s rather red. That’s good. Do you run warm a lot? There’s a darker red tip too. You have trouble sleeping, right? With the warmth, you should try to cool yourself to help you sleep better. We don’t sleep when hot. Not the reason for yours, but it can be a factor. So, as you do cooling activities, you could look in the mirror and see if it’s getting less red overall. Also, there’s scalloping around the edges, from your teeth. As we worry, the body closes up. You stress and worry too much. You’ll see it get better as you relax—say, on vacation.

The Competitions We Can Actually Win

Convicts. Minors. People like me.

What do these individuals have in common? They are citizens of the United States who do not get full voting rights.

It is a fallacy that everyone in America has an equal vote. Growing up in DC, I was painfully aware of this fact with every election year. I do not get a real vote or real representation as a registered voter in the District of Columbia. I follow politics, relishing in electoral races with the zeal of a sports fan—too many of whom now appear to take more interest in the World Series than the competitions in which they can participate: the battles in our democracy. To me, the loud cheers and expressions of sorrow among baseball fans discussing the Yankees and the Phillies holds no interest. If anything, it really interrupts my ability to do things like my homework in an apartment of people who care. But on an election day like today, this rabid interest and the accompanying abysmal voter activity among those around me is appalling.

In DC, our license plates read “Taxation Without Representation”—plates with which Bill Clinton actually updated presidential vehicles, and which George Bush had removed. In school, I learned how lucky I was to have a vote as both women and Irish Catholics had been disenfranchised in this country. In my house, I was taught that voting was a moral responsibility with the power to voice my opinion of what was right and what would and should happen to my rights and my environment.

In each of my classes at NYU, the majority of students are from the tri-state area. These regions are the battlegrounds of critical elections for matters from gay rights to the authority of term limits to implications of presidential political capital. So, as a reporter and a child of DC, I informally polled my classes. My classmates are smart, engaged, and educated, I thought. It can’t be as bad as the poor showing I have seen walking into my building, which holds a polling station in the basement each election.

Not a single one told me they had voted or planned to do so in this election.

After the second class, I was confused. I was also indignant. But I wasn’t satisfied.

So, in a matter wholly questionable as a social scientist, I decided to consider a different sample. The Flatiron District at lunchtime seemed perfect. Individuals in the area often also work nearby, the polls will be easy to get to, and scoping out the polling booths will be easier as clearly people are getting there to vote. Yet logging on to the Community Board 5 website, the main page only told me about Yankees pep rally details from last week and bus route changes. I could not find information on voting. Once I did, the results were equally disparaging as the lack of publicity. In an hour on the street in front of the polling station, I counted a total of fifteen voters entering the building.

In DC, we do not have notable sports franchises—we have elections. Growing up in a politically active family, I followed elections with an enthusiasm that has yet to fully wear off. Eagerly poring over news and early polling data—back in the day when such figures were allowed—and relishing in the competition while anxiously rooting for my candidate, election days retain a tangible magic for me, a palpable, crackling air of power and possibility.

Sometimes, I am jaded. Sometimes, I am completely unphased by the political games and figured around which I grew up. But I am still susceptible to the excitement and anticipation of elections.

To me, that first Tuesday in November is my thrill in the democratic system.

Not to vote, I was taught, is morally reprehensible. I carry that belief with me still—and on this first Tuesday in November, it seems one of the hardest things about currently living in New York.

Flatiron District Walking Tour

Every Sunday at 11 am, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership offers free guided walking tours of the Flatiron District. On a “90 minute journey through this vibrant neighborhood,” anyone with appropriate footwear and time can set out with to learn about 46 Manhattan landmarks in the Ladies’ Mile and Madison Square North Historic Districts. Yet many like sleeping late on a Sunday, do not enjoy traveling in packs, have difficulty hearing tour guides address dozens on busy streets, or otherwise want to avoid the tour scenario. The Partnership has these people covered: the self-guided version online.

While easily downloaded, the self-guided tour brochure layout is difficult to print and, as it is formatted for a larger page, can be difficult to read when reduced to standard paper size. The PDF itself can be opened on BlackBerry and iPhone devices for the eco-conscious user—though only when emailed as an attachment.

This tour is an excellent resource for visitors seeking a comprehensive rundown of the neighborhood’s many historical points of interest. That being said, several stops are rather minor. In fact, some are both minor and no longer exist. The written material does not do much to bridge the historical and the contemporary in a neighborhood that has drastically changed over the 156 years accounted for in the tour. The result is somewhat dry and requires a bit too much imagination to appreciate the bygone buildings.

For those seeking a historically rich experience and a thorough grasp of the origins of the Flatiron District, there is a wealth of information in this self-guided tour. The tour would also make a great leaping-off point for any Flatiron visitor to learn about some of the iconic buildings it holds, and for the price, you can’t complain.


The guided tour version is held every Sunday at 11 am and meets at the Southwest corner of Madison Square Park at 23rd Street and Broadway.