Magic needles and guiding hands at A.M. Acupuncture

If it weren’t for the fact that the Pike County Chamber of Commerce held an Open House at A.M. Acupuncture, you might have just walked on by.

With an address at 322 Broad St. but neatly tucked away on Catharine Street behind Better World Café with a matching green awning, you might have thought it was part of neighboring Better World. But the aroma of a sumptuous buffet along with the Chamber’s Cynthia de Febo and Chamber president Dr. Jennifer Passenti inviting people in made it hard to miss.

Dr. Anca Marinescu often introduces people to her clinic and, in many cases, to acupuncture for the first time.

With credentials that include a doctorate in acupuncture and Chinese medicine, the National Board-Certified acupuncturist has been practicing acupuncture for 20 years, first in New York City, and since 2016 in Milford. She was accessible and open to the people gathered and they easily connected with her. Patient coordinator, Linda Kelly gave a tour of the private patient rooms and the rest of this well-appointed facility.

Marinescu described how modern acupuncture can help relieve pain and heal.

“Acupuncture helps your body heal by balancing your nervous system, lowering inflammation, and improving circulation. It can reduce pain, increase mobility, and give your body the deep relaxation it needs to repair,” she said.

Acupuncture has the capacity to effectively treat a variety of chronic health conditions that don’t respond well to other forms of intervention, combining the wisdom of ancient Chinese medical practice dating back more than 3,000 years with modern neuroscience. It is used in hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Hospital for Special Surgery, Johns Hopkins, and others as well as in many emergency room settings. This approach provides a non-pharmacological option that can reduce the need for opioids and is supported by growing evidence of its effectiveness.

The World Health Organization, in its guidelines for non-surgical management of chronic pain, primarily low back pain, recommends acupuncture and the FDA recommends it for pain management. Because it is drug-free, has no side effects, and gives fairly rapid improvement, practitioners also use it for shoulder pain, neck pain, headache, knee pain, sciatica, pain from cancer treatments, stroke recovery, diabetes, female infertility, male sexual dysfunction, and even wrinkles.

People unfamiliar with acupuncture may be put off by the idea of needles. Acupuncture needles come in various sizes and shapes from those that are so thin, they need to be in a tube as they are inserted so they don’t bend. The tube is discarded once the needle is in. They often feel like a pin prick or tweezing a single hair. For more stubborn painful areas, practitioners use larger needles, but these feel more like an aching sensation. Once the needle is inserted, it is placed at the appropriate depth and the practitioner may gently move or twirl it to be most effective in attacking the pain. Sometimes heat or mild electrical impulses can be applied to the needles. The needles remain in place for 10 to 15 minutes before they are removed. Often people are so relaxed at this point that some even fall asleep.

One of Dr. Marinescu’s specialties is trigger point acupuncture. Trigger points are hyperirritable knots or tight bands within muscle fibers, often caused by overuse, injury, stress, or poor posture. It can be painful at one particular spot (perhaps the back) and refer pain to other distant areas of the body (perhaps the leg).

Marinescu’s expertise is knowing exactly how and where to attack them and she does so with great precision. She also works with cupping, especially for sports injuries, where glass cups are placed on the skin to create suction which increases the blood flow from the affected area, eases tension, and promotes healing.

Some people hesitate with acupuncture because they think that one-on-one treatment will be prohibitively expensive. Marinescu says the Veteran’s Administration pays for acupuncture and she has a number of special payment plans to help.

A healer who cares about helping people, she offers a free 15-minute initial consultation to answer individual questions and discuss how her therapies may work. Everyone reacts differently to acupuncture, but most people will know whether it works for them within two or three sessions.

“You can’t always cure, but you can always care!” she said.

For more information about A.M. Acupuncture, call (570) 409-7990 or log onto www.amacupuncture.com.