One Percent BS

January 27th, 2012

Some members of the acupuncture profession seem more interested in obediently repeating the mantras of the 1 percent elites in America, rather than questioning the structure of power and yawning chasm of class inequality that prevent vast numbers of people from being able to afford acupuncture services. In a recent article in an acupuncture trade magazine I read that:

High fees attract only the most committed patients and consequently have the highest chance of success, and thus referrals. This is especially true where patient involvement is necessary. For example, a patient who is willing to pay $300 for a “stop smoking” treatment is likely more committed to stopping than one who pays $10 for the same treatment.

Acupuncture Today February, 2012, Vol. 13, Issue 02; “Many Offices, Many Lessons”.

This is the totally recycled BS that I have been hearing from one corner of the acupuncture profession since I began school in the early 1990s – insinuating that wealthy people value their health more than working class citizens of more modest financial means. Only an ignorant fool would pay $300 for one acupuncture treatment, believing that somehow a) quick fixes for our health imbalances are available at a price, and b) people who don’t have that cash to throw around somehow value their health less. This is privileged nonsense.

Community acupuncture clinics like CommuniChi offer acupuncture on a sliding scale of $15 to $35 per treatment, with a one time evaluation fee of $10 on the first visit. We assume that you care about your health deeply regardless of how much you choose to pay on our scale.

Our clinic receives no federal subsidies, no grants, and we do not participate in any insurance networks. We are totally dependent upon the community we serve, and our satisfied patients who tell their friends and family about this low cost, self-empowering, ancient medicine.

On Wednesday, February 1st, we are celebrating our 5 Year Anniversary and offering free acupuncture to new patients. Make an Appointment.

Thanks for your support.

 

Take a Cheap Deep Sleep Today!

November 28th, 2011

Dear Friend of CommuniChi,

I am deeply grateful to everyone who has supported CommuniChi as we approach our 5 year anniversary. Our social business mission of providing accessible acupuncture through almost ridiculously low fees (we have never raised our sliding scale minimum of $15 since our opening and have no plans to) would not be possible without your commitment to health by receiving regular acupuncture.

We are getting ready to release a video celebrating and documenting what we’ve created together in these past 5 years. As soon is it is finished, we’ll let you know and send you a link. Please watch the video and share it with your friends. Join our Facebook page if you haven’t already. Community acupuncture could benefit so many more people if they knew about it.  Most people still think it costs $100 a treatment or have may not understand that the needles don’t have to hurt, etc.

I’m pleased that we’ve been able to stay open nearly 60 hours of every week. That’s more than any other acupuncture clinic in Seattle as far as I am aware. That means we are here when you and the rest of the community need us. Besides your support, this wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of my acupuncture team mates – Sam Weng, Cynthia Soto and Lisa Maynard, and our POCA volunteers – Sarah Zurat and Justin Crawford. But it hasn’t been without financial challenges as Uncle Sam’s payroll taxes and rising rent costs truly test our ability to maintain our low fees and pay ourselves a liveable wage.

As you enter the holiday season, please consider what a gift it is to have this healing resource in your community. Consider purchasing gift certificate(s) (available at the front desk) for your friends and/or family.  And take care of yourself by getting regular acupuncture.

Call us at 206.860.5009. Visit our website to schedule an appointment, or drop by. We look forward to serving you soon,

Jordan, Sam, Cynthia, Lisa, Sarah, and Justin

Healthy Foods for Fall

October 25th, 2011

Healthy Foods for Fall by Cynthia Soto, L.Ac

Fall is my favorite time of the year – the way the leaves change color, the smell of the trees as the rains return, and all the delicious foods that fill the farmers’ markets and grocery stores. Fall is also a time when I see a lot of people with sore throats, runny noses and coughs come into the clinic. In addition to getting acupuncture to boost immunity and fight cold and flu symptoms, the foods we eat can also help support our immune systems during this time of transition from the hot, long days of summer to the shorter, windy days of Fall.

Chinese Medical Theory and the Immune System
In Chinese medical theory, there are 5 elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each element corresponds to an organ (or a pair of organs) in the body.  Fall is the time of the Metal element, which corresponds to the lungs.  Traditionally, humans used metals to fashion tools. These tools could be used for many things: for defense, or to harvest the crops that ripened in the fall. In Chinese Medical theory, the lungs also do these two functions. They are an important part of our immune system, defending us against infectious diseases.  They are also the organs of respiration; they harvest oxygen from fresh clean air (which is essential to our survival) as well as let go of carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism.  This reminds me of the way trees let go of their leaves when the growing season of summer gives way to the harvest time of Fall.

How can what I eat effect my lungs?

Certain foods are particularly beneficial to the health of the lungs. Here are two of my favorites.

Pears ripen in the fall, teaching us a lesson of nature: when something is in season, it is the right time to eat it! The juiciness of a ripe pear is medicinal: this moisture helps lubricate the lungs and protects them from dryness (dryness can lead to a dry cough, dry skin and a tendency to catch colds).  In addition, pears help clear heat and mucus, and energize the digestive system.  Since pears are a good source of fiber (specifically pectin), they also help move the bowels and support the body’s natural detoxification system. Pectin also reduces serum cholesterol and cleanses the body of environmental and radioactive toxins. Lastly, pears are also a source of potassium, boron, phosphorus and vitamin A.

Almonds help the lungs with their tireless cycle of bringing fresh air into our bodies and releasing carbon dioxide by helping to transform phlegm and move the energy in the lungs. Thus they can help relieve a tight, stuffy chest and ease a dry cough (but not a productive one).  Just like pears, almonds have a sweet flavor that supports the digestive system, as well as natural oils that lubricate the intestines and ease constipation, thus supporting our body’s natural detoxification system. Almonds also support the nervous system, lower cholesterol, ease kidney stones and gall stones, and according to Ayurvedic medicine can strengthen the bones, nerves & the reproductive system. No wonder they are considered to be one of the most medicinal of all nuts!   Almonds contain 72% fat and are a source of vitamin E, manganese, magnesium and riboflavin.

Another way the foods we eat can benefit our lungs (and thus our immune systems) goes back to the Five Element Theory. In this theory, each element gives birth to another in a never ending cycle. Earth is the mother of Metal in this generating cycle, much in the way that soil provides different minerals and metals in all the different lands of our world. The Earth element corresponds to the Spleen, the organ in Chinese medical theory that most correlates to our digestive system.  By supporting the Spleen by eating fresh, whole, easily digested foods, we can give the Earth element enough nutrients to support the Metal element, the lungs and our immune system.

One of my favorite breakfast recipes brings together all these ideas: foods that directly support the lungs and foods that are nutritious and easy to digest. This one comes from Three Bowl Cookbook by David Scott & Tom Pappas.

Quinoa with Pears and Feta Cheese

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped

¼ cup sliced almonds

4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon fresh, snipped chives

 

1)      Rinse the quinoa thoroughly in a strainer and drain

2)      Heat the quinoa in a heavy-based skillet, stirring constantly until the grains begin to separate and begin to brown. This helps remove the bitter taste quinoa can have, and gives it a nice nuttiness instead.

3)      Add the water and salt and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.

4)      Transfer to a bowl and toss with the pears, almonds and feta cheese.

5)      Drizzle with the olive oil and top with the fresh chives to serve, or do as a friend of mine prefers and drizzle with honey.

6)      Enjoy!

Bibliography

Pitchford, Paul. Healing with Whole Foods.  North Atlantic Books, 2003.

Leggert, Daverick. Healing Ourselves.  Merdian Press, 1994.

Wood, Rebecca and Markel, Peggy.  The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia.  Penguin, 2010.

Scott, David and Pappas, Tom. Three Bowl Cookbook. Tuttle Publishing, 2000.

Community Acupuncture and the 99 Percent

October 25th, 2011

Community Acupuncture and the 99 Percent

Community acupuncture has much in common with the Occupy movement. There is urgent need to reform laws and cultural mores which legitimize obscene financial wealth and extravagant indulgence for the one percent. With seven billion people trying to live together on the planet, it is time for the age of kings, tyrants and tycoons to end. It’s not simply a matter of principal, but of human survival.  If we can’t work together to solve issues like climate change, energy consumption, poverty, refugee mass migrations, and health care (all increasingly interrelated phenomena) – then conflict and consequent human suffering are poised for dramatic escalation in our life time, and many think, even in the next few years.

I support the Occupy movement, though I agree with anti-racist activist Tim Wise and others who have suggested that progressive whites looking to build a multi-racial coalition need to continue to educate themselves on appropriate use of terminology and tactics in light of their often unexamined white privilege. Let’s not simply “occupy”, but “decolonize”, and not simply public spaces but, our own minds.

One of my first experiences in deprogramming my American capitalist[i] conditioning came in the form of a college psychology class experiment. I was grouped with three other students and instructed in the rules of a game with poker chips of different values and a goal of maximizing our team score.  Immersed as I was in the winner-takes-all mentality of American capitalism and competitive sports, the “collective good” purpose of the game was totally lost on me and I quickly plotted how to beat the other players, succeeding in attaining the highest score and winning the game – except that in the next moment, I suddenly realized to my dismay that I had in fact lost. I had ignored my three team mates who had played for a collective win which I had blocked due to my self-centeredness.

Come to think of it, this winner-take-all mentality underlies a lot of acupuncture practice management thinking – although such brutish thinking is glossed over in various ways – charity acupuncture (highly noble and worthy of praise by itself, but not a universal solution to access), duplicitous advertising schemes, and plain old self-denial (i.e. ignorance) of which I would be the first to admit not to have banished completely from my mind.

This self-centered me-first narrative is deeply ingrained in our human consciousness but hope springs eternal, as evidenced by the current movement’s success in grabbing the attention of the world and shining the light of truth on the destructive illogicality of this delusional thinking. We aren’t just the ninety nine percent though. To borrow the music of the 1980s, “we are the world”. Our happiness and wellbeing is utterly and completely interconnected, though it is also true and urgently required right now that we focus on the disparities between the ninety nine percent and the one percent.

Which brings me back to acupuncture. It’s not just for famous celebrities and multi-millionaires fascinated with holistic health. It’s not even just for middle class people who are fortunate to have some form of health insurance as part of their employment benefits. It’s for working class people looking for drugless pain and stress relief. It’s for people out of work struggling to keep the bank from foreclosing on their home. It’s for people of color, the recent immigrant, the military veteran who’s trying to recover from PTSD. It’s for men, women, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, queers, heterosexuals, as well as monks and nuns.

It’s for Christians, Native Americans, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Bahais, Jains, Jews, Taoists, Zoroastrians, pagans, atheists, and many more.  It’s for people of all skin colors, all ability levels, all ages and body sizes. It’s for categories of people not mentioned here but who certainly exist.

That’s why I started a community acupuncture clinic, giving up my financially successful insurance based practice so that I could serve all of the aforementioned people who for various reasons – mainly financial, but also socio-cultural – were excluded from the conventional acupuncture business model with its upper middle class price tag ($75-$250 per treatment) and its sometimes heady air of entitlement.

Instead of being a gate keeper, justifying my professional “boundaries” by clinging to delusional notions of self worth based on expensive fees, I let people pay what they can afford on a sliding scale – $15 to $35 – rejoicing in the number and diversity of the people that my clinic serves 59 hours Monday through Saturday of every week

I rejoice at the thought of a room full of people, all experiencing pain relief, rising above the troubles and anxieties of the world, letting go of the mental virus of self-centeredness, even if just for an hour, merging with the unity of the circle of other sentient beings in the room and throughout infinite space.  Make an Appointment.

 

 


[i] The esteemed Dr. Robert Thurman eloquently spoke at Occupy Wall Street earlier this month in a funny and inspiring impromptu speech in which he discusses the healthy origins of capitalism and how this movement can help us return to those roots. Check out the You Tube video here.

Free Acupuncture for Veterans, and Medical Marijuana Users

August 31st, 2011

Free Days: Now through the end of the year, CommuniChi is offering free acupuncture on the first visit to any veteran and any individual with a valid medical marijuana authorization from a doctor. Why are we focusing on these two groups?

Let’s start with Veterans. We are just up the street from the VA Hospital, and we’ve seen our share of veterans who didn’t find all that they were looking for in healing there. Not that I don’t sincerely  have the deepest respect for the medical professionals (many of whom come to CommuniChi to de-stress) who strive to reduce suffering.

War is an evil business, chewing up lives and poisoning the most noble intentions of democratic nations. Collectively, our society turns away in fear and disgust from the consequences of war, clothing the grim realities in sensationalized moral imperatives – the war on terror, patriotism, national security and other deceptions.

The walking wounded, PTSD affected, brain traumatized, shell shocked soldiers strive to find peace and healing. Medication can numb the pain, but cannot – in my opinion – rekindle the magical spark of inspiration for life that once burned so brightly. I have personally witnessed acupuncture rekindle that spark many times – in people close to death, recovering from disaster trauma, or struggling with physical pain. That an ancient technology exists which can accomplish these miracles without the side effects of medication – is a secret that needs to be told to all those who could benefit.

Medical Marijuana: In a clever campaign of thought control beginning with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the so-called war on drugs targets such benign substances as marijuana when arguably the real killers are the mainstay treatments of western medicine. An article in one of the industry trade publications brags about the “killer” marketing budgets of just the top half dozen companies – totalling nearly ten billion dollars in 2007.  An article on AlterNet, estimates that upwards of 100,000 people die each year as a result of perscription medication overdose.

But our nation’s drug policy is a more intoxicating mix of politics than a simple battle for market share between corporate controlled patentable drugs and Earth based medicines belonging to all life on the planet. The war on drugs has for many decades, also been a war on people of color. Black men disproportionately fill our nation’s prisons, a large percentage of their “crimes” are minor possession charges specifically targeting black communities – when actual  drug usage rates are comparable across races. The private prison industry is one of the hottest new stocks on the stock exchange and guess which political candidates these companies back, all the more frightening now that our electoral process exists in the dark shadow of the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United, allowing unlimited corporate money in political fundraising. Michelle Alexander’s book, CommuniChi has a copy of “The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness” – please borrow it and read!

But wait, there is one more cruel irony. Cancer cells are the other great terrorist evil giving justification to a massive arms race of modern medicine – chemotherapy and radiation, like “shock and awe” campaigns, very powerful, and yet simultaneously very destructive with widespread collateral damage to the human organism.

While the previous references to criminal justice and corporate greed are important to understand and acknowledge, the most compelling reason for an acupuncturist to offer acupuncture to individuals caught in this web of suffering is this: Acupuncture (and cannabis) offers gentle effective relief from the side effects of conventional cancer treatments. Please share this information with anyone who might benefit! Thank you!

Make an Appointment.