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16 | Acupuncture with Dr. Kailee
33 Plays1 month ago
In this episode, Kailee dives into the most common questions she gets about acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. Kailee explains how acupuncture works and how it has helped her, what it can do, and why it’s more than just needles. From boosting energy and easing pain to supporting mental clarity and stress relief, she covers all the benefits, common uses, and answers to the questions she hears most about acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Whether you’re new to this world or looking for ways to enhance your wellness, join us to explore how these practices can help you feel and perform at your best.
Covered in this episode:
⁃ What acupuncture can help with
⁃ The benefits of the medicine
⁃ If acupuncture hurts and what you can do if you don’t like needles
⁃ The differences between acupuncture and dry needling
⁃ How many sessions people should anticipate
⁃ What a typical session looks like
⁃ If acupuncture is covered by insurance
Follow us on Instagram @weget2dothispod
Email us questions/comments at weget2dothis@gmail.com
Check out the video portion of our show at https://www.youtube.com/@weget2dothis
For business information hit up the links below:
Dr. Kailee Acupuncture Website
Oak Endurance Website
LASTLY -> If you enjoyed the show, please like, comment, subscribe and consider giving us a 5-star review wherever you listen or watch :-)
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Transcript
00:00:03
Jacob Oak
you can
00:00:24
Jacob Oak
Thank you.
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:36
Jacob Oak
Hello everyone. Welcome to episode 16 of the We Get To Do This podcast. This week, you just get me. This was a little unexpected change. Turns out there's another round of sickness going around, it seems like. And Jacob is currently out of commission. He was going to try to pull it together, but he is still not doing well. And I just had him take an Epsom salt bath and we will talk, we want to talk about more sickness things probably next week, which is kind of ironic being that he's now sick. But anyways, Epsom salt baths are one of my favorite things for recovery and when I'm sick. So hoping he feels better soon. But tonight, like I said, for this episode, you just get me because we need to get this episode out.
00:01:31
Jacob Oak
But I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to talk more about acupuncture and Chinese medicine because I continue to get countless questions every week, every day about kind of everything having to do with
The Host's Journey to Holistic Medicine
00:01:47
Jacob Oak
acupuncture. But, you know, can acupuncture help X condition that I have? Or can it help with this? Or will it hurt? Or what if I have a fear of needles?
00:01:57
Jacob Oak
And I love getting all those questions. And I was just talking to somebody yesterday actually about, so I grew up, both of my parents are teachers and my grandparents were professors. Like I grew up in the education side of things and I kind of went a different route with healthcare. But at the same time, I feel like I am constantly educating people on different holistic remedies and what holistic health is, what acupuncture is, what Chinese medicine is, even when I was a nurse, it was, it's basically been all education, just kind of in a different setting.
What is Acupuncture and Its History?
00:02:38
Jacob Oak
And instead of being in a classroom, I get to do it, um, you know, in person with my patients in the clinic, I get to do it now in podcast form with all of you. Um,
00:02:51
Jacob Oak
And I guess I am teaching at school, so that is more of a traditional setting. But anyways, I love sharing all of the benefits of holistic medicine, acupuncture and Chinese medicine. And so please keep asking me all these questions, but I'm hoping today that I can kind of answer more of your questions if this is something you haven't had experience with or even if you had have have had experience with acupuncture, I hope you can come away with something that you didn't know before. So my goal today is just to address the most common questions that I get to kind of give you all a better idea of what it is that I do and what we do as acupuncturists. So with that, just a little lowdown of what acupuncture even is, because I feel like there's still a lot of people that don't know what acupuncture is.
00:03:47
Jacob Oak
what it does, how it helps, et ceterat cetera, et cetera. Which makes sense because acupuncture really just came over to the US. I'm very bad at history, so bear with me here. But um kind of in like the 80s is when it started to come over here. And so that's why, you you know, in the United States, it's only, you know, 40 some years that it's been here. And it's been practiced for thousands of years, which is one of the reasons why I was drawn to it.
Success Stories and Nervous System Benefits
00:04:17
Jacob Oak
because i a lot of people will ask me, like you know does it actually work? And my response is usually, you know if something has been around for thousands of years, I would really hope that there would be some amount of efficacy to it and that it would work through the process of evolution and things like that. Typically, things that don't work or aren't beneficial ideally drop off.
00:04:45
Jacob Oak
um so Anyways, the long answer to that is yes, it's extremely beneficial. It's something that I've personally been using since high school for different like menstrual hormonal issues. And now that I get to see the benefits of every day with my patients and that started in the hospital setting when I was working with the acupuncturists and would see, you know, my page my patients as a nurse go from headaches that were 10 out of 10 pain or migraines to having either no headache or a slight headache or my patients who, i you know, I had a patient who had just gotten an elbow surgery because I was working on an orthopedic floor at the time.
00:05:33
Jacob Oak
And my patient still wasn't you know moving his hand, he wasn't moving his arm, didn't have sensation back, and it was over 24 hours after his surgery. And the block was still still hadn't worn off, so still no sensation. And so I asked the acupuncturist to come in and help him. And 10 minutes after his acupuncture session, he started to move his hand again, and he had sensation back.
00:06:03
Jacob Oak
and then I was able to discharge him. um I've seen you know babies that were in breach position, so they were you know upside down, and I've been able to help flip the baby, um help people with you know concussions and brain fog, going to actually be able to think again.
00:06:29
Jacob Oak
so It's pretty incredible the wide range of things that acupuncture can treat. And that's something I'll go into. um But basically what acupuncture is doing is it's taking you out of your sympathetic nervous system, which is that fight or flight state that so many of us are in yeah because of our culture and because we are our go, go, go society.
00:06:56
Jacob Oak
We're constantly working. We're constantly moving. We constantly have things to do. We are constantly connected via social media, technology, and acupuncture is helping take you from that into your rest, your digest state, or your parasympathetic state.
How Does Acupuncture Enhance Self-Healing?
00:07:14
Jacob Oak
And typically, as I'm needling people, I'll start to hear like their intestines rumble.
00:07:22
Jacob Oak
And that's a good indicator for me that they're going into that rest or digest state. And for people who are coming in with things like pain or injuries, it's very difficult to recover from those things. If you are in that fight or flight mode, it's very hard for your brain to accept different modalities or treatments. You know, if you're doing PT for an injury, for example, if you are in that fight or flight mode,
00:07:51
Jacob Oak
it is very hard for your body to accept the different exercises you are doing or the different, you know, tired treatments, whatever it may be. And acupuncture helps to get you into that state so that you can that your body so that your body can heal on its own. So basically what I'm doing is I'm helping to give your body the tools in order to help it heal itself, which is something that I've always been fascinated by.
00:08:20
Jacob Oak
because, you know, we do a lot of things like give medications or do bandaid effects. And I'm very, I believe that the body has the power to heal itself and that sometimes it just needs the right tools and the right environment, whether that be food, exercise, sunlight. There's so many different tools that we can give to the body. Acupuncture is just,
00:08:48
Jacob Oak
one of my favorites and happens to be extremely powerful. And when the needles that are about the size of a strand of hair, so they're very small, the needles are very flexible, they're completely different than what I used to use in the hospital, which was thick needles that are injecting things into people, whether that's vaccines, medications, IVs, things like that. These are solid needles that are all one-time use and go into different spots of the body,
00:09:18
Jacob Oak
And typically the needles go over areas that are rich in nerves. So they're not actually touching the nerves, but they're activating those big nerve bundles that are in the body, which then triggers this nervous system response, which then sends signals to your brain and spinal cord. So your nervous system. This then stimulates the release of endorphins.
00:09:45
Jacob Oak
and encephalins, which are natural pain-relieving chemicals, and also releases hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and those are all things that can help with a better mood, helping in reducing anxiety. And that's why acupuncture can be so effective for pain relief and mental health purposes. And another one of my favorite things is that it improves blood flow and circulation to areas.
00:10:14
Jacob Oak
So I treat a lot of people with neuropathy, for example, and that's because it helps get that blood flow to certain areas that may not have great circulation. So especially for people that are diabetic, for example, or if an injury is not healing, say in your ankle or your wrist, acupuncture is sending signals to your brain like, hey, there's this foreign object in me and you need to send all these pro anti-inflammatory signals to that area to help it to heal.
Addressing Needle Fears and Alternatives
00:10:51
Jacob Oak
And we have all these, we have 12 different meridians, main meridians in our bodies that acupuncture is helping to open up. And if anything is blocked in your body, so if you picture your body, say like a river, and if there's a dam in your river, things are going to get blocked. They're going to get backed up.
00:11:12
Jacob Oak
And that's when stagnation can occur. And if we're having stagnation, then we're going to get things like pain. And that could be related to, you know, pain in your back, or it could be related to your headache, your head. And that can maybe cause things like headaches. And the goal of acupuncture and all the modalities that we do is to help smooth all of that out. It's to get the water. And if you picture the water is kind of like the the water of a river as like the blood in your body. We want that flowing again. And that's why I also talk to people about heat a lot. And heat is one of the most important things in this medicine. If things are cold in your body, and especially as things are getting colder as we approach winter more, things will again start to block up. If you think of a waterfall, picture a waterfall in the winter.
00:12:13
Jacob Oak
The water is stuck, it's not moving, it's flowing, everything is constricted versus in the summer when the water is warm, it's flowing more, um the water is moving. And I like to think of that as our bodies and the blood and energy in our bodies. So if we're putting in cold foods, cold water, not wearing warm things like socks, sweaters,
00:12:42
Jacob Oak
things will start to dam up. And that can cause issues with digestion, for example, which can cause bloating, abdominal pain, um things like that. And so the goal is for all of these meridians to be open and to be flowing. And ah another thing that I get asked a lot is, does acupuncture hurt? I'm scared of needles.
00:13:10
Jacob Oak
like that's a very common thing that people ask. And I completely understand, you know, we've grown up with needles that do hurt. Cause again, we've, you know, gotten various shots over our lives and I mean, no one likes to be poked, right? Um, so my answer to that is it's so dependent on the person and the body part in the day. There are times when, yes, the needles can hurt more. Like I'm not,
00:13:43
Jacob Oak
going to sugar coat that because at the end of the day it is sticking a needle into your body. Again though, the needles are very small and on areas that have more adipose tissue, such as like the abdomen or even the back potentially, typically don't hurt as much as an area of like the feet or your hands, for example, that have less tissue there, which can be more sensitive.
00:14:12
Jacob Oak
um Some people say it feels like a mosquito bite going in. um Some people say it's worse than that. Some people feel nothing. And the cool thing is that I have a range of different needle sizes to use. So it's not just a one size fits all. There are needles that are longer. There are needles that are shorter. There are Japanese style needles, which are very thin.
00:14:37
Jacob Oak
um There are needles that are thicker like in diameter of like the actual needle that goes inside of you. There are smaller needles. So I like to think that there's something for everybody and the amount of needles also ranges a lot.
Exploring Herbal Therapy and Personal Experiences
00:14:56
Jacob Oak
So you don't need to be using tons of needles to get a good effect. And again, this is so dependent for each person But if you really don't like needles, even a few will do a good job. And there are so many other things that don't even involve needles. For example, there's fire cupping, which I think feels very good. If you watched the Timberwolves or any of the basketball this last fall or even last winter or the Olympics,
00:15:31
Jacob Oak
There were tons of athletes walking around with cupping marks, which were like those circle things that looks like you got attacked by an octopus. And so it's becoming very common now, but cupping is kind of like a plunger for your body and just helps to get more circulation, more blood flow and things moving. I like using cupping a lot on people's backs and you can do it where you move the cups around or you can keep them and in place. And again, it just helps to release that muscle tension. It can also help with releasing heat. I also really like using cupping if you have phlegm that's not going away. Like after you've been sick, for example, there's different techniques that can help break up that phlegm. And it's a little different. So there's different styles of cupping. And my preference is just to use fire cupping. I think it's a little less um like
00:16:27
Jacob Oak
sticky and um pinchy I guess then like if you've had suction or pump cupping before but they all are it's all the same idea for what they're all doing so that's a great treatment that doesn't require the use of needles um there's also something called moxibustin which is where we burn an herb called ayah in chinese medicine or mugwort in english and moxa is just Again, helping to send warmth and nourishment to a certain area. Something I love to use for injuries. I love using it over people's abdomens for digestive issues. I love using it for her hormonal things. I love using it if people, like people with like rain odds, for example, with like coldness and hands or feet. It's very good for bringing warmth to those areas. And it's something that never even needs to touch you.
00:17:26
Jacob Oak
and just feels warm and actually has a lot of significant effects. um There's also ear seeds. And those are just little beads that go into different spots in your ear. And it's pretty cool because the ear is kind of like a map of your body. And we can basically treat the entire body and what's going on from just the ear. And you may have heard of something called the Nada protocol.
00:17:55
Jacob Oak
That's something that's been used for people with addictions or people are detoxing and and those are just five spots in the ear that we can use to help with symptoms if you are detoxing or if people are very stressed or if their sleep is bad and this is something that when I was in school we had internships at the hospitals and And we would go around and do the not a protocol on nurses, on staff. We called it a code purple because we were taking care of staff. So it was a good code. Um, but again, it's not something that needs to penetrate any part of the body. that It's just little stickers, basically with beads that go on to the ears and are actually extremely effective. And people really like ear beads.
00:18:44
Jacob Oak
um We also use gua sha, which is, if you've heard of brass tin before, but gua sha directly translates to scraping technique. And it's where we use a tool. It can be a stainless steel tool, jade tool. And it helps to, again, move the blood flow, but helps with the connective tissue, the fascia, and is used, like I like using it for people with shin splints, for example.
00:19:11
Jacob Oak
and is just another way of getting the blood moving in the body and helping open up the channels. There are so many more tools that we can use, but those are just a few of my favorites. And oh, and I also forgot there's herbal therapy. So I was also trained in herbs and it's kind of interesting because when I first, you know, back when I was a nurse,
00:19:36
Jacob Oak
um I feel like there's a big stigma around herbs and, you know, do they actually work or is this just like another placebo thing? And that was also me. Like I knew there was some benefit in plants, herbs, things like that, but I never truly understood like how beneficial they were until I started using my own herbal formulas. And I remember I was a T once as in my first trimester of school at Northwestern
00:20:08
Jacob Oak
And my professor Mei Wang, um, prescribed me a formula that's very common for stress and anxiety called shyosan. And I remember I started taking it and I've been dealing with bloating and, um, like ringing in my ears and stress, headaches, irritability, all these things that we call liver cheese stagnation in Chinese medicine.
00:20:35
Jacob Oak
And I remember starting to take these herbs and my bloating started to get better and my digestion started to get get better. I started to be less gassy. My menstrual cycle started to become more regular and there was nothing else I had changed. Like my exercise routine was still the same. My eating habits still stayed the same, but I just started to experience all these benefits from the herbs and I was like,
00:21:06
Jacob Oak
Okay, like there actually is some benefits to this. It actually does work. And I think for a lot of people, myself included, we need to try something to believe it and or to trust it. And I get that, we're all human. um But this is just me telling you or saying that herbs are very powerful.
Acupuncture's Benefits and Integrative Approach
00:21:29
Jacob Oak
And now, even with Jacob being sick now these last few days,
00:21:35
Jacob Oak
um I give him a lot of herbs. And when I get sick, I take a lot of herbs because there's different things that we can take for even each stage of sickness. So at the first sign of a sore throat, there is an herbal formula called yin chow san that I start to take immediately. And that typically helps with my sore throat. There are herbs that if I do get more sick and things are like stuck in my lungs and I have a lot of phlegm, there are certain herbs that can help with that. Or if you have a runny nose, they can help to clear up your sinuses.
00:22:07
Jacob Oak
herbs for allergies, digestion, there's some really good sleep formulas. And the thing that I love about herbal medicine is that it's not just a one size fits all, um which is, you know, I feel like some medications can be like that. And we just start taking something and then we're on them for forever. And with Chinese medicine, it's not like that. And, you know, as your sickness changes, you know, you might start out with a sore throat and a fever, for example.
00:22:36
Jacob Oak
and then maybe it changes into a cough. And then maybe your runny nose started out with yellow drainage and now it's a clear white drainage. Well, there's different herbs that we give based on different stages of what you're feeling. And that was just another thing that really fascinated me is that I could be what you know sick, just like the person sitting next to me, but we would have completely different herbal formulas.
00:23:03
Jacob Oak
And it's, I just like that I can prescribe different things to people that don't have the same side effects that some other things can have. And which the side effects thing brings me into, you know, are other side effects to acupuncture. And what I like to tell people is that the most common side effects are that your sleep might improve or your allergies might start to improve.
00:23:33
Jacob Oak
or people will come back after a few treatments and tell me that their mood is better and that they're less anxious. Or I just had someone tell me that their spouse told them that they aren't sleeping as hot anymore, which is a win-win for everyone.
00:23:50
Jacob Oak
um Obviously there's side effects. Like, yes, you can't, there is a potential of getting an infection because you're sticking needles into the body, for example. um But again, like it's so much less than a lot of other modalities that are out there, which is one of the things that I love about it because it's treating the entire body and getting more to the roots of what's going on versus just treating symptoms that are happening in your body. Um, so kind of touch. So another one of the main things is just what
00:24:28
Jacob Oak
what conditions can acupuncture help with? Like I said at the beginning, I get a lot of can acupuncture help with this? Can acupuncture help with that? And they're all great questions. Because again, people just don't feel like people don't understand the benefits and what it can help with, which has always been me. And I will spend the rest of my life educating people. But I get a lot of those questions. And so before I started recording this, I was like,
00:24:59
Jacob Oak
And I feel like my friends and I joke a lot about this, my acupuncture friends, that we kind of feel like a broken record when people ask, you know, can acupuncture help with this? And it's kind of like, acupuncture can honestly help with most things. And so I was trying to think like, what can't acupuncture help with? And this isn't me trying to gloat or anything, but it truly can help with most things. um That being said, it cannot We can't say like things like it can cure cancer. like It's not gonna cure cancer, but can it help with the symptoms of chemo, for example, like nausea, decreased appetite, things like that? Absolutely.
00:25:40
Jacob Oak
um I also tell people, you know if you just broke your arm or you broke your ankle, don't immediately go see me or an acupuncturist. Go get it fixed, get your surgery if you that's something that you know you need to do.
00:25:56
Jacob Oak
Um, based on your break, but then come see an acupuncturist to help with your healing after and to help with getting that blood flow and to help with that pain management. Um, or for example, if you have a really bad infection, um, yes, there are herbs that can help, but again, like, please go see your MD. Like my goal is to work with your other providers. Um, there's not in my mind, there's not.
00:26:23
Jacob Oak
one person that can do everything for you and if anybody is telling you that they have all of the answers to what you're experiencing, um I would just talk to other people and get a second opinion on that. Of course I think acupuncture is wonderful and can help with many things but I am always working with other PTs, with other chiropractors. i I refer to Jacob a lot because he has the strengthening side of things, for example, and more of the rehab exercises or get back to running things. And I love being able to work with other professions and even pulling in on my nursing background or working with different MDs, things like that.
00:27:13
Jacob Oak
and I love seeing people's lab results or their scans that they, that you might've had from a certain injury because that helps me develop a better plan for you. um I'm a big believer that both Eastern and Western medicine have a lot of benefits and positives and what one lacks the other might have. And that when we use both of them,
00:27:43
Jacob Oak
that's how we can provide the ultimate outcomes for our patients. um And it's just, I appreciate that I came from the Western side of things, working in hospitals, working as a registered nurse, and now that i can now I can combine that with Eastern medicine. And as you all know, my passion lies in preventative care and doing things that don't come with, ideally, a lot of side effects and being able to truly address like the entire person which is why I went into it because I love talking about all the lifestyle things that we can do. Because even if I give you you know what I think might be the best acupuncture treatment in the world, if you're not exercising, if you're not eating well, if you're not sleeping, if you're not doing the things that maybe I recommend that you do at home, it's very hard to get better.
Acupuncture vs Dry Needling
00:28:40
Jacob Oak
And I'm very passionate about we all need to take ownership of our own care. And i will I love giving recommendations and giving feedback to people, but this truly is a team approach and I want us all to be able to work together.
00:29:01
Jacob Oak
um Another question that I get a lot is, how is acupuncture different from dry needling? And this is something that comes up a lot with my athletes because dry needling is very big right now. And dry needling uses the same tools as acupuncture. So they're both using needles. Dry needling can just use a lot of times bigger needles than what I would use in a normal acupuncture treatment. And dry needling is just very focused on one area of the body.
00:29:39
Jacob Oak
and it's focused on trigger points. So for example, if you have shoulder pain, it's gonna be using needles that are going into your shoulder, going into trigger points and creating a lot of, what's the right word? Kind of like contractions, force, um and just helping with the pain in that area versus acupuncture is more looking at the entire body. And even if you come in with shoulder pain,
00:30:09
Jacob Oak
I'll be using local points to that area, but I'll also be using distal spots, which are points that are further away. Um, and it's a lot of more of like looking at why are you having that shoulder pain and acupuncture that can just further help with things more of like hormonal health with sleep, um, with digestion, whereas dry annealing, that's just not going to be your best option for those things.
00:30:37
Jacob Oak
But as far as pain goes, yes, dry needling can be a great thing. A lot of people love it. um If you have had dry needling and you didn't like it, I recommend trying acupuncture just to see how that goes. Because like I said, it can just be a lot less of that stimulation into one area and might not feel as bad as dry needling does. But I know people get a lot of relief from dry needling. So it's definitely something to try.
00:31:06
Jacob Oak
And joining is typically done by physical therapists and chiropractors um because it's a class that can be taken in about a weekend. It's typically like a 20 to 30 hour course. um And acupuncture is in most states, for sure in Minnesota, you have to be licensed to perform acupuncture. And it's at least a three year degree.
00:31:34
Jacob Oak
with over 2000 hours of didactic like classroom learning and hundreds of hours of clinical training. So just a few differences there.
What to Expect in Treatment Sessions?
00:31:46
Jacob Oak
Um, another question that I get asked a lot is how many sessions will I need and and how quickly will I see results? And this is so dependent on the person and what's going on, how long it's been going on for.
00:32:02
Jacob Oak
You know, if something's been going on for years. I can't guarantee that I'm going to solve everything in one treatment. I would love to have magic needles and for that to happen. But I like to think of the body as kind of like an onion and we have many layers. And especially as we get older, we start building up more and more layers. And my goal is to start peeling off those layers and really getting to the core of what's going on.
00:32:31
Jacob Oak
So if you come to me and say you've had back pain for the last 20 years, is your back pain going to go away in one treatment? Probably not. Um, I typically tell people give it at least six treatments. Some people don't respond to the treatments until at least six, if not more. And it's, I also like to think of it as refer to it as like working out and I would say for most people, we don't go to the gym and then we're ready to run a marathon. Typically, we need to go multiple times and build up to that. And that's kind of what acupuncture is like too. We don't just go one time and everything is magically better. And like I said, it also depends on you know what my patients are doing at home. And if they're doing the exercises we talk about or the foods that we're talking about,
00:33:28
Jacob Oak
And my goal is to be able to help people in a way that helps them for life and isn't just a quick fix. I want to truly get to the root of what's going on, which is why I love talking about all of the lifestyle things and helping people find options that will help them sustain them for life. And you know, if it's something that's more acute, say, you know, you just sprained your ankle or you just started developing plantar fasciitis. Those are things that can definitely be taken care of in potentially a few treatments. And typically, at least see your pain diminishing rapidly right at the beginning if it's something more acute that you just started getting. um So long answer, it's very dependent on the person, but I would definitely give it for sure more than one chance.
00:34:24
Jacob Oak
um it's very hard to judge something off of one or two times of getting it to know if it actually works for you or not. And let's see, what are my other common questions? Oh, another way that dry needling is different than acupuncture is with acupuncture. So typically how it works is you come in for an intake. I have you fill out a long intake form that's asking you a bunch of questions about your digestion, about your sleep. about your mental health, about your relationships, about you know if your body runs hot or cold or if you sweat, things like that. And then we talk about them at your appointment. I typically will take your pulse and check your tongue because those are two other things that help give me a better diagnosis and figure out more of what's going on inside your body. And after we talk and after you share everything, then ah people
00:35:24
Jacob Oak
And then, so then I'll um put you on the treatment table and it's nice and warm. And the needles typically stay in for about 20 to 30 minutes or so. And typically with dry needling, it's a faster treatment unless you're using an E-Stim, for example. And during that time when you're on the table, the needles are actually working on moving your blood, circulating,
00:35:50
Jacob Oak
which is one of the reasons why you might come out a little more tired after the treatment because your body's actually been working while you're on the table. So even though you might be sleeping, your body is still working during that time. And another cool thing about acupuncture is that they say that an acupuncture nap, so about the 20 minutes that the needles are in are worth about four hours of sleep. And
00:36:20
Jacob Oak
That's just another one of the ways that it can help you then sleep better at night and to help rejuvenate you and help with energy levels and fatigue, for example. And then after those 20 to 30 minutes, then I take the needles out and then we discuss the treatment plan and you get to get on with your day. And I typically like when people don't, you know, do any kind of like rigorous exercise after treatments um It's very good to kind of soak in the benefits of the treatment and you know if it's going for like a little walk after the treatment or you know some yoga things like that great but I just recommend not going for a run because that can just disrupt what we call the chi in the body and the chi is like the function of the body or people refer to it as the energy of the body and we just want to make sure things keep flowing smoothly
00:37:19
Jacob Oak
So definitely getting in a good rest that night, making sure to stay hydrated, eating good foods. um Those will all help to extend the length of your treatment or listen to whatever your acupuncture has told you for aftercare.
Insurance Coverage and Accessibility Challenges
00:37:36
Jacob Oak
um Another question is, is acupuncture covered by insurance? And the answer is sometimes. There are many acupuncture clinics out there that do cover or that do accept insurance. And with that, I would just say check with your individual insurance company to see if acupuncture is covered and if it is, how many sessions they cover, if you have a cold pay or if you need to meet your deductible before anything's covered. um I personally at my business do not accept insurance at this time for a multitude of reasons. As a one woman owner,
00:38:19
Jacob Oak
Insurance takes a a lot of time to talk to the insurance companies, to see if things are covered. The paperwork is a lot. And I don't have the time or capacity to do that at the moment, even though I would love to be able to accept insurance and have it be a more affordable option. um But that's why I try to keep my prices as low as I can so that
00:38:46
Jacob Oak
because if I was accepting insurance, it would just be taking a lot more of my bandwidth and which would result in less treatments for you all. um And another thing is a lot of insurance companies actually aren't even accepting more acupuncturists at the moment. So um I am part of legislative efforts to get more coverage for insurance for acupuncture. And I hope someday that we will have a lot better coverage because these are things that I believe should be covered and are extremely important for everyone's health, um prevention wise, and when we do have you know sicknesses and injuries. So long answer, yes, there are a lot of insurance companies that will cover acupuncture, just not every acupuncturist will accept insurance. I can provide people with super bills, which is something that then you can
00:39:43
Jacob Oak
send to your own insurance companies. And there are actually a lot of insurance companies that will then reimburse your acupuncture treatments with the super bill. And acupuncture is also, you can use your HSA and FSA funds for acupuncture. So definitely recommend using those funds and not letting those go to waste. You can also use it on herbs and telehealth appointments. And I feel like a lot of people don't know that you can use your HSA funds for that. So definitely, definitely do that.
00:40:18
Jacob Oak
on What else? I guess just to cap it off, just to like, again, talk about different conditions that it can help with. um The main things that I treat at my office are, let me take this to the water.
00:40:38
Jacob Oak
I do a lot of treatments for athletes with injuries such as I do a lot of plantar fasciitis. I do a lot of strains for like calves, hamstrings. um I do a lot of migraine and headache support. um A lot of basically any kind of pain, back pain, neck pain, head pain, foot pain. on It can help with swelling in ankles and hands and wrists. I do a lot of hormonal support. So especially with runners and specifically female athletes, there are a lot of like different hormonal things that people experience and a lot of runners experience PCOS, endometriosis, um very heavy bleeding, dream menstrual cycles, cramping, and acupuncture is extremely beneficial.
00:41:38
Jacob Oak
for helping with that pain. um Like I mentioned earlier, mental health, I do a lot with, again, athletes, a lot of athletes have very high stress and anxiety levels and potentially some irritability. And it can help with just smoothing out all those emotions and helping, like I always tell people, we're always gonna have stressors in our life, but how we deal with them and handle them that's what acupuncture can help with is kind of making and not everything seem like a huge, terrible thing. Cause again, it's helping with calming down your nervous system and getting back into that rest or digest state and not always being in a state of fight or flight and like you're being chased by a bear. um Also, I do a lot of support with sleep.
00:42:36
Jacob Oak
and that can mean sleep with helping with night sweats or difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep. um If you have a lot of dreams, for example, like I have very vivid dreams and always have that and that's something that I always have my acupuncturist help with and I notice a difference with that too.
00:42:58
Jacob Oak
on and a lot another thing I'm getting asked a lot about lately is dizziness or lightheadedness and yes it can definitely help with that and it depends on why you're having the dizziness like how acupuncture can help or my explanation for that but it can basically help with grounding things and pulling things out of your head or like making it so it's not all just like stuck up in your head or that could be because of a blood deficiency or
00:43:30
Jacob Oak
There's so many different reasons, but my long answer to that is yes, it can help. And this isn't me promising or guaranteeing that this medicine will help with everything that you're experiencing. um But like I said, I have seen it have help with so many different conditions um for myself, for others, for patients. And if you have questions about it, like I said, you can always ask me.
00:44:00
Jacob Oak
if your your condition will be improved by it. But my belief is that basically everyone can benefit from acupuncture. And even if you don't have you know severe pain or something that's you know at the forefront of your mind, on this can help with preventing all those things. And even just strengthening your immune system. As I talked about at the beginning, a lot of people are getting sick right now. And this is one of my favorite ways to boost the immune system so that you don't get sick.
00:44:30
Jacob Oak
or if you are sick, coming in for a treatment immediately, you know maybe wearing a mask if you're really not feeling good, um but it can help just to kick things out right away, and especially if you get on herbs immediately. um So anyways, that's my long-winded talk on acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Thank you all for listening. I feel like I could talk about this for a very long time, and I will continue to talk about it.
00:45:00
Jacob Oak
on other episodes and in person with you all. But thanks for listening and Jacob will be back next week. So thanks for being with me for these 45 minutes today. And thanks for listening to episode 16. We get to do this.