Health Newsletter

Acupuncture Center of Cary in the News!

The following are excerpts from the Cary News Article By Wendy Lemus, Cary News Staff:

 

      Eastern medicine, Western patients
                                  Local acupuncture clinics serve those seeking relief

 

Yvonne Cropp receives acupuncture treatments from Bonnie Shwery, MA, LAc of the Acupuncture Center of Cary.                 Staff photo by Michael McLoone

Dr. Richard Shwery was sickly as a child, suffering chronic upper-respiratory ailments such as allergies, bronchitis and sinusitis. He took a lot of medicine as a kid, too. “The medicine helped, but I kept getting sick again,” he said. As he reached his teens, he decided he wanted to try another road to improved health: Chinese herbal medicines and acupuncture.
“For me, it made a significant difference,” Shwery said. So much so that acupuncture became his life’s work. He received his doctorate in Oriental medicine in 1983.
Now the doctor and his wife Bonnie, from their offices across from Cary High School, treat others for some of the same conditions that plagued Shwery as a boy, and many more. “We have all kinds of patients coming into us,” said Bonnie Shwery, who also is trained in both acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
Still far from mainstream in America, acupuncture is one of many Eastern-born practices making their way from the big cities to suburban areas such as Cary.
Along with other Chinese traditions and practices, acupuncture was highlighted during the notoriously reclusive country’s “coming out” party as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The ancient practice of using needles to treat ailments originated thousands of years ago in China.
If not yet mainstream, Richard Shwery said the practice has become much more widespread than when he sought treatment as a teen, or even since he started studying it in Los Angeles. While Westerners might envision relaxation and ultra-thin needles from the few images we’ve seen, just what is acupuncture, and what do those needles do?

A different approach
Acupuncture is a system of medicine, quite different from the Western approach, that focuses on “treating the whole person,” Shwery said. When the peripheral nerves are stimulated with needles, that in turn activates changes in the brain, which then signals positive changes in functions of organs throughout the body.
Richard Shwery said he sees patients who have a personal commitment not to take medicine if they can avoid it, and others who are referrals from clients who have had success with treatment. “It spreads by word of mouth. We also get physician referrals,” he said.

Treating ailments from A to Z
Frozen shoulder, menstrual cramps, headaches, back and neck pain, insomnia and depression are among a short list of treatable ailments, acupuncturists say. Although Richard Shwery adds, “acupuncture helps a lot of people, it doesn’t work for everybody.”
It has worked for Yvonne Cropp of Raleigh. A patient of Bonnie Shwery, Cropp has had such noticeable improvements in her health that she has told several friends about it. “As far as I know they’re all still going” for treatment, Cropp said.
Acupuncture treatments supplemented by Chinese herbal medicine have helped Cropp, a personal trainer and yoga teacher, with irritable bowel syndrome, a fairly common ailment. She says she is doing so well she is in “maintenance mode,” with acupuncture monthly and the herbs in between.
Cropp, 39, said she also suffered from a very rare but painful female disorder known as vulvodynia since her teens. Cropp said the disorder is often misdiagnosed. She has been pain free for about a year. Cropp said she thinks people don’t really need to understand acupuncture to reap the benefits. “There’s a lot of mystery [among nonpractitioners] around what do the needles do,” she said.
Practitioners say acupuncture does not promise a cure for chronic illnesses, but management — reduction of pain and inflammation, for example. Noticeable results could take a few or several visits. …………..
 “The needles are hair thin. People don’t feel much. They’re resting; many people fall asleep,” she said. On their Web site, the Shwerys link to several studies that have been done that show benefits from acupuncture, such as increased levels of endorphins — the “feel good” hormone.
“The prestigious National Institutes of Health held a Consensus Conference in 1997 and, after examining over 2,300 published studies, concluded that acupuncture was clearly effective for many conditions,” their Web site, acupuncturecenterofcary.com, states.