Hi, fellow "pits" folks!
I had a two hour session with an acupuncturist on Saturday. Wish I could report my headache is gone. It isn't. But I did notice one change after the first treatment -- I'm not nearly as noise sensitive as I have been. As a result, I can once again listen to my beloved blues and rock music, instead of only quiet jazz and classical, which had been the only thing I could tolerate.
Besides acupuncture, I also agreed to have something I'd never heard of done after the needle poking: light beam therapy. Have any of you heard of this?
I belatedly did a lot of research online yesterday about light beam treatment. Nothing like agreeing to the treatment, then researching, huh? Dumb. But that's what happens when you've had a headache for six solid weeks. You'll try almost anything.
It turns out NIH has funded two ongoing studies on light beam therapy to see if it's effective in treating lymphoma cancer, and cystic acne. The underlying theory behind it, in a nutshell, is that congestion in the lymph system, which includes vessels interconnecting the lymph nodes, leads to many diseases, particularly inflammatory illnesses and tumor growth. Low level light pulses (blue and purple spectrum) supposedly break up the congestion in the vessels and allow toxins to be expelled from the body.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND. I AM NOT PROMOTING OR ENDORSING THIS THERAPY TO ANYONE ON THIS SITE!!!!!!
I'm simply telling you all I'm going to give it a try. My acupuncturist, who had to go through separate training and licensing in Maryland to use the light beam machine, hoped it would provide me with immediate relief from the headaches. It didn't. She also believes it can inhibit tumor growth. I will run this by my neurosurgeon at Hopkins, who undoubtedly will howl in protest. But I've long thought most traditional doctors have closed minds when it comes to alternative medicine.
I'm still debating whether I'll get the light treatment at my next acupuncture appointment. If I grow a third arm from this treatment, you can all tell me I told you so!
Meanwhile, I got an order in the mail from the Hopkins endocrinologist I'll see in mid-November. He wants me to have all the blood work re-done, but as a fasting test. My previous blood work was non-fasting.
Have any of you had both done, and had different results? Very curious about this.
Cheers, Moxymusic/Lin
