Features

Sticking with what works

Silver Spring acupuncturists use ancient methods for modern ailments

STORY BY CASSIE M. CHEW
PHOTOS BY JULIE WIATT

Suffering from an aching back? Concerned about high blood pressure?
Yun T. Brown may be able to provide a remedy, but first you'll have to
stick out your tongue.

In addition to analyzing other conditions and even x-rays that her patients may bring with them, Brown's practice in acupuncture and herbs to treat pain includes examining a patient's tongue and pulse to determine the type and source of pain.

The characteristics of a patient's tongue, which include its color and texture, and the frequency of the patient's pulse always confirm each other, Brown says She has practiced ancient Asian medicine and acupuncture for pain relief and management of women's health in her Silver Spring home office for more than four years.

From feeling a patient's pulse, Brown learns the patient's energy level and condition of Qi flow, while a tongue exam helps her to determine whether there is extra dampness in the body's yin-yang balance, Brown says.

After determining the source and the type of the pain, Brown prepares the remedy—a half-dozen or more medicinal herbs. She selects from the rows of shelves that cover one wall in her office, where she stores nearly 200 varieties of Chinese herbs, from slender leafy varieties to rubbery bark-like plants.

For disk-related back problems, which includes a dull lower back pain that keeps a person from walking or standing, a red tongue, and a fine, rapid pulse, Brown may use an herb called Du Zhong (Cotex encommiae, the main ingredient in Chinese remedies for back pain) combined with several others. This particular remedy has traditionally been used as therapy for the liver and kidneys, and it enriches the yin, clears heat, and harmonizes the network vessels. Du Zhong has also been recommended to lower blood pressure by reinforcing muscle and lung strength.

Remedies are ingested in the form of a tea. "According to the dosage, we put [the herbs] together for you to boil and drink," Brown says.

Brown may advise the patient to drink several cups of the tea each day. Treatment for back pain also may include acupuncture, which Brown performs in another room in her office. Acupuncture, in which tiny needles are put in specific points on the body, is performed to stimulate the body's natural healing potential by treating root causes, rather than just symptoms, she explains.

Methods of diagnosis and treatment in Chinese medicine are effective, says Brown, because its techniques do not treat just symptoms and diseases— its philosophy is that the person is an integrated mind-body organism.

Chinese medicine involves treating the whole body, agrees Sheryl Hongsermeier, another local Chinese medicine expert.

"We have 12 energy channels, and all the channels are interconnected," Hongsermeier said. The 12 energy channels go up and around a person's body and each of them affects one organ, she says.

"There is a place on the foot that affects the neck," she states as an example.

Hongsermeier, who has nearly 30 years of experience as a registered nurse, also says that Chinese medicine can complement Western treatments. Eighteen months ago, she began offering nutritional counseling based on principles of Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment at Acumedicine Associates in downtown Silver Spring.

"We are not competing with Western doctors," she says. "We all are very important for all kinds of healing."

Like Brown, Hongsermeier places acupuncture needles to tap into the person's energy, focused in 450 acupressure points on the body.

"It helps get blood supply to the area, so it heals better and reduces pain," she says.

And as in Brown's practice, Hongsermeier uses a patient's appearance to make a diagnosis. Eastern methods of determining illness don't involve looking at a person's blood, as in Western practice, but a lot can be determined by carefully observing a person, Hongsermeier says.

"We can se a lot by their coloring. Their tongue tells a lot about how the body is functioning, and we listen to how they talk—how their breath sounds. That makes a difference in what goes on in the organ," Hongsermeier says.

But while Brown uses concentrated herbal remedies and acupuncture for pain and other disorders, including infertility, Hongsermeier's practice uses principles of Chinese medicine to detect nutritional imbalances that can lead to pain.

"We need to relate to the culture we are in and how we can work around a person's life," says Hongsermeier. "We look at the whole person and see where they are in all aspects of their health, and nutrition is one big aspect of it."

She gives the example of one patient who came to her with carpal tunnel syndrome. Instead of sending the patient off with a pain reliever, Hongsermeier determined that the source of his pain was a nutritional deficiency.

"He lacked certain things that, according to Chinese medicine dietary practices, he needed to eat," Hongsermeier said.

In this case, Hongsermeier advised the patient to eat green, leafy vegetables—sources of iron and B-vitamins—to build his blood. A deficiency of iron is typical of pain with tendons and muscles, she said.

Hongsermeier works with patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and has found that acupuncture works well with these conventional treatments by augmenting the healing process. She is beginning to see a change in the attitudes of western doctors.

"I think more and more doctors are starting to come around, because people are asking for more than just medicine and there are so many side effects to medicine," she says.

Acupuncture, for example, can lessen the amount of anesthesia needed to treat a patient who has had knee surgery as well as reduce the stiffness in the area. And for patients recovering from mastectomy, acupuncture treatment can result in less scarring, help the patient relax and improve healing, Hongsermeier says.

Both Brown and Hongsermeier said that many of their patients have come to them for relief after trying other methods and then researching the principles of Chinese medicine.

"They come to us out of desperation, and they have gone through all kinds of pain medicine," Hongsermeier says.

"I believe a lot of [my patients] read lots of books and they have a general knowledge," says Brown. "Some know how to read their tongue."