The Story:

Tony Bailes of Austin was in the Army in 2003 when he injured his back in Iraq and tried everything his doctor recommended. Nothing helped. Then, the pain specialist prescribed acupuncture, and two weeks later, “my back pain was gone,” he said.

A combat medic, Bailes returned to Iraq for a second tour in 2005 and came home in 2006 with a different kind of pain: emotional anguish, nightmares and insomnia. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, but antidepressants made him feel worse, he said. Again, he turned to acupuncture — and recovered, he said. Now he’s studying the more than 2,000-year-old Chinese practice of using hair-thin needles for healing and planning to make it his life’s work.

Acupuncture is endorsed by many Western medicine practitioners as a treatment for physical pain, and now the therapy — along with other Eastern practices, including yoga, meditation and tai chi — is slowly making inroads in Western medicine as a treatment for mental pain. The military is leading the pack.

“The military, in many respects, is kind of a front-runner” in using alternative treatments, said Alexandra York, a research associate in military medical research at the Samueli Institute in Alexandria, Va., which studies alternative therapies. “I think it’s because of the complexity of the conditions they see. It almost demands that other options be examined.”

About 30 to 45 percent of soldiers come home with some mental health problems, said Dr. Marcia Valenstein, an associate professor in the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry and a staff psychiatrist at the Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence in Ann Arbor. PTSD is one of the most common. A study in this month’s Archives of General Psychiatry estimated that as many as 17 percent of U.S. veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD, which can cause symptoms such as depression and anger.

So far, about 16 programs across the various branches of the military for active-duty troops with PTSD exist or are in the works, offering acupuncture and other alternative treatments along with counseling, said Jerry Wesch, a clinical psychologist at one of the nation’s biggest programs, at Fort Hood in Killeen. Since the Fort Hood program started in August 2008, 250 soldiers have gone through it, Wesch said. It was modeled after a program that began at Fort Bliss in El Paso in July 2007, becoming what is believed to be the first comprehensive effort of its kind in the military combining alternative and traditional therapies for troops with PTSD.

After visiting the Fort Bliss program in July 2008, Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, called it “the most innovative program that I’ve seen,” according to published reports.

“We are working on a comprehensive mental health care program for the Army, and I think this \u2026 clearly could be a part of that,” he added.

On the VA website, a section on PTSD treatments calls cognitive behavioral therapy and medication the most successful treatments. But they don’t work for everyone, experts said, and the VA says it is studying Chinese medicine treatments that enable soldiers to stay in the service and return to duty.

The military also saw suicides spiking and knew it needed to do more to help soldiers recover, said Dr. Brian Earthman of Cedar Park, a psychiatrist who also is an Army Reserve major.

“The military acknowledged we were not adequately meeting the needs of the soldiers in terms of PTSD treatment, and we started exploring different treatment options that weren’t our previous first-line treatments,” Earthman said. “They have ramped up their efforts to better treat PTSD.”

In his private practice, Earthman refers some of his PTSD patients to acupuncture but says he knows that he is not the typical among civilian psychiatrists.

“One thing about the military is they are very practical and very pragmatic,” Wesch said. “If something looks like it’s going to work, if you can demonstrate something works, it’s going to be approved.”

Even so, the civilian creator of the program at Fort Bliss, John Fortunato, said the approach has plenty of skeptics within the ranks, including military psychiatrists.

“I would have to put up with comments like ‘How’s the spa?’ and ‘They do aromatherapy and crystals at Fort Bliss,’\u2009″ said Fortunato, a Vietnam veteran, psychologist and Benedictine monk. “We don’t use aromatherapy or crystals at Fort Bliss.”

Ongoing research

In the civilian world, there is less openness to using acupuncture for PTSD and other mental health disorders, experts said, because the trend is so new. In traditional medicine, just like in the military, mental health patients are generally given talk therapy and medication, but not all respond.

“Joe Six-Pack psychiatrist is not writing prescriptions for acupuncture,” said Valenstein, who researches mental health problems and veterans.

A key reason for that: There is no definitive research that says acupuncture is an effective treatment for PTSD. A preliminary study of 61 adults in 2007 by the University of Louisville School of Medicine showed that acupuncture’s effect on PTSD was similar to behavioral therapy, suggesting it could be an effective treatment. At the same time, a growing body of research is supporting the positive effects of acupuncture on depression. But many civilian and military doctors want to see more studies before they support acupuncture, experts said.

In February, University of Texas researcher Rosa Schnyer, an acupuncturist and clinical assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, published a study with Stanford University involving 150 pregnant women diagnosed with major depression. The study found that those who received acupuncture had their symptoms reduced by half based on a scale the researchers used to score the women’s depression.

Schnyer is now working with Massachusetts General Hospital on a study to see how depressed patients respond to acupuncture and antidepressants together. “Antidepressants work on a certain percentage of people, but 20 percent of them don’t respond and 80 percent relapse, so there’s a huge need for better treatment,” she said.

Other research on acupuncture and depression has been inconclusive or inconsistent.

How acupuncture works is not well understood. Practitioners place needles along what they say are energy pathways in the body that are linked to the organs, muscular system and nervous system. Practitioners say that ill health or injury causes a break in the energy flow. They say acupuncture needles unblock the flow, restoring balance or health to the person.

In the case of mental or emotional stress, the needles are believed to stimulate neurotransmitters along nerve pathways and cause responses in the central nervous system, said William Morris, president and CEO of the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin.

He said acupuncture is widely used as a treatment for addictions, which sometimes accompany PTSD when soldiers try to self-medicate.

The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine estimated in 2003 that 20 million Americans had tried acupuncture, mostly for muscle, joint and nervous system conditions but also for treating pain from cancer and infertility. More Americans are seeking it, with 3.1 million people visiting acupuncturists in 2006, a 47 percent increase from 2002, according to national survey data cited by Morris.

“I’ve heard testimonials about (acupuncture) helping with anxiety and depression,” said Dr. James Kreisle Jr., an Austin psychiatrist who has been practicing since 1979. But “mainstream doctors are not advocating that because we don’t have controlled (scientific) data to support that kind of therapy.”

Kreisle said he is open to his patients trying acupuncture but would not want to see it be used as a substitute for traditional treatment.

Integrating treatment

Elizabeth Peterson, a former combat medic and owner of Acupuncture for Soldiers, agrees that acupuncture works best for PTSD patients when used in conjunction with traditional therapy.

“I’d be very cautious about treating patients who aren’t seeing a psychiatrist or a therapist,” she said.

She moved her business, which was based in Austin until recently, to Salado to be closer to Fort Hood. Even so, she said, most of the veterans she treats are not from the Afghan or Iraq wars; they served in Vietnam, Korea and even World War II. Some patients are spouses.

“There are Vietnam veterans who are still suffering so much,” she said.

Most acupuncturists don’t just stick needles in people, she said.

“I think patients gravitate towards it (because) when you sit down and ask them questions, we’ll discuss other things, and they’ll talk about stress,” Peterson said.

“Acupuncture can’t fix everything, but it can definitely add to Western medicine.”

The military programs at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss meld traditional Western therapies with Eastern approaches.

At Fort Bliss, Fortunato said he founded the Restoration and Resilience Center because he could not bear to see returning soldiers with PTSD beg for help and be discharged as unfit for duty.

“It ticked me off,” he said. “The soldiers would say, ‘I gave my life for this country. The Army’s my life. Don’t kick me out. Help me.’\u2009″

Fortunato said the program was hard to sell to base officials at first.

Last year, 900 soldiers were diagnosed with PTSD at Fort Bliss’ William Beaumont Army Medical Center, where Fortunato is chief of behavioral health. Of those, 700 received regular treatment and were “doing fine,” he said, but 200 with severe symptoms were to be medically discharged. About half of those chose the Restoration and Resilience program, Fortunato said.

It offers psychological therapy along with spiritual guidance from a chaplain and alternative treatments, such as acupuncture, meditation and yoga. It lasts six months, and two-thirds of the soldiers return to duty. Most of the other third don’t because of physical reasons, such as chronic back pain, Fortunato said.

Casey was quoted during his visit two years ago as saying, “Unfortunately you can’t package John Fortunato and move him around and it really takes someone with that passion to drive these kinds of operations, but there are some of the elements of this that are clearly exportable, and we will do that.”

At Fort Hood, soldiers who enter the Warrior Combat Stress Reset Program for combat stress and PTSD participate every day for three weeks in alternative therapies aimed at calming the mind, body and spirit, including group therapy, biofeedback, education in coping skills, movement exercises and alternative therapies, including acupuncture, massage and yoga. That’s followed by weekly group therapy for eight weeks.

Bailes, 39, is in his third year at the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin, pursuing a degree that will lead to a license to practice acupuncture.

Earlier this month, he treated Sharla Labadie, 53, of Austin for insomnia. Labadie, who has trouble falling asleep and has restless legs syndrome, said she was addicted to sleeping pills. “I was taking up to five a night, just to get to sleep.”

After twice weekly acupuncture for the past two months, she says she still has trouble falling asleep but is sleeping more deeply, and “I’m not wiggling as much.”

After he graduates next year, Bailes’ dream is to open a clinic. He wants to treat soldiers and veterans with PTSD.

“I’m one of them,” he said.

maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619

• Tuesdays: Pasadena 9am to 7pm
• Wednesdays: Pasadena 9am to 7pm
• Fridays: Pasadena 9am to 7pm
• Saturdays: Venice 12pm to 7pm

Classes

• Thursdays: Pasadena – Medical Qigong Classes – 6:00pm to 9:00pm
• Saturdays: Venice – Medical Qigong Classes – 8:30am to 11:30am

Click here for more information about my classes and to RSVP.

RSVP for this class by following this link: Chinese Medicine for the Winter Season

According to the Chinese Calendar, the winter season is here. It is a time for rest, rejuvenation, deep meditation, and refining the spiritual essence. It is also the time of the water element and the organs of the Kidneys and Bladder.

Characteristics of the Water Element and the Kidneys and Bladder:

• Emotions: Fear and Wisdom
• All bones: especially lower back, knees, and teeth
• Hearing: hearing loss, ear infections and disorders
• Hair: premature graying and hair loss
• Urinary, sexual and reproductive problems
• Longevity: premature aging, poor growth and development of the mind and body

In this 90 minute workshop, you’ll learn how to take advantage of the peaking energies of winter through:

• Food and Nutrition — what foods are appropriate to eat during this time of year.
• Qigong Exercises — you’ll learn a new set of qi gong exercises to balance and strengthen the energies of the kidneys and bladder.
• Lifestyle — learn how to adjust/adapt your life to the winter energy.
• Taoist Philosophy — Learn how the ancient Taoists view Winter and the Water element, and what lessons you can apply to your life.

Location:
The Learning Garden in Venice
Corner of Venice Blvd. and Walgrove. (Next to Venice High School)

Time:
December 4th, 2010 from 12:30pm to 2pm.

Cost:
$20 per person

RSVP

Life as Energy
Life isn’t simply about what we do. It is also about how we do it. All of it is energy. For example, when we practice Qigong, there is a huge difference when our mind is relaxed and clear than when our mind is distracted. We feel more energy. We feel the Qi sensations in the body. We become more aware of ourselves in the present moment — physically, mentally and spiritually. The exercises become more than just simple physical movements. They turn into waves of energy. It becomes a dance and a meditation that opens up your entire being.

The practice of Qigong in essence is about the cultivation and movement of energy. It is based on the premise that flowing water never spoils. When we keep our energy flowing smoothly through our body, we stay healthy. Similarly in other areas of your life, it is important to practice expressing your heart, using your creative energy, following your passions, utilizing your gifts/talents or otherwise working toward your purpose or mission. All of this is “qigong.”

In this Fall season, it is the perfect time to take stock of what types of qigong you are practicing in your life. It can be something simple like mindfully washing dishes to something more involved like working on a project you’ve put off for 5 years.

For me, one of my other qigong practices is photography. This is one way in which I am able to express my heart and share how I see the world. It is how I connect with the natural world, experience its beauty and power, and take in its wisdom. If you haven’t seen my photography work, please check out my photography website: http://photography.evosia.com/

This Wednesday, September 22nd will be the Harvest Moon — the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. For over 3,000 years, the Chinese have celebrated this special day as the Mid Autumn Moon Festival. It is one of the major holidays in the Chinese lunar calendar.

This moon has special significance. For farmers it marks the end of the summer harvesting season. It is a time of abundance, a time to spend with family and friends, and a time to harvest the results of the hard work put into the spring and summer growing seasons. Unlike other full moons, this full moon rises earlier and provides more light after sunset so farmers can continue finishing harvesting their crops.

The significance of the harvest moon doesn’t just apply to farmers. Most of us don’t grow crops but we all grow and nourish other things that are important in our lives: dreams, ideas, relationships, love, family and children, work, passion… This is a time to slow down our frantic outward activities, rest, and reflect inward on our life’s journey so that we can continue to stay on our golden path.

As the sap of trees move into their roots, leaves change color, and animals begin to store food for the winter, this is the time of year for us to start focusing on internal cultivation.

According to Chinese Taoist philosophy, the Fall season is associated with the metal element. Metal corresponds to the Lungs and Colon and the emotions of grief and compassion. It also represents the characteristics of clarity and organization.

Grief and Compassion:
Seasonally, Fall represents the end of summer — a farewell to warm weather, the beach, sunny skies, outdoor parties, laughter and fun. In nature, signs are beginning to show that the cold and barren landscape of winter is fast approaching. It is a reminder that nothing stays the same and that all things have a beginning and an end. We react to this realization with a sense of sadness and grief. This is why the Fall season is closely associated with these emotions.

When we are sad and grieving, it affects our lungs. Grief causes our Qi to descend. Our lungs feel heavy and deflated. It is hard to take deep breaths. But it is important to remember that grief and sadness are normal human emotions. It is ok to experience it from time to time in our lives when life has hit a rough spot or a loved one has gone away. By not denying these feelings and by accepting them as part of the cycle of life, we can move through the grief to cultivate compassion. Experiencing and dealing with a deep sense of loss allows us to understand and be compassionate about the suffering of others.

Lungs and Colon:
This is the time of year that a lot of people come down with colds, sore throats and respiratory issues. Constipation, skin problems, and allergies are more prevalent now. Make sure to dress appropriately for the weather, eat well and take care of the health of your lungs and colon proactively. You can learn more by taking my upcoming class on Eating Healthy for the Fall Season.

Clarity:
The metal element represents clarity — like the mirror-like finish of a polished piece of metal or the crystal clear reflection off the surface of a lake. After the growth and expansion of the spring and summer months, oftentimes there is a lot of chaos left behind. The mind can get scattered and distracted by the joys of summer. It is important now to find clarity in the aftermath of so much outward activity. Like harvesting crops, this is a time to sort out the seeds, fruits, and other useable parts in our lives from everything else that should be returned back to the earth. What was all that activity for? What did you gain? What lessons did you learn? In what areas did you grow wiser in your life? Are you still on your golden path? These are some of the questions to contemplate at this time.

Organization:
The metal element also represents organization. It’s time now to organize your life and get your house back in order. No more slacking off or getting distracted. Finish gathering all your acorns and start storing them in a safe place. The warm weather is nearing an end and the cold winter is fast approaching. Nature is shifting from expansion to contraction. Get yourself prepared physically, mentally and emotionally for this big shift in activity and energy.

In the Fall season, leaves change color and fall, seeds dry up, and the sap of trees goes into their roots. This is a time of harvest, a time to start organizing the scattered patterns of the previous warmer seasons to gather – food, energy and protection — for storage ahead of the approaching winter.

In Chinese Medicine, the Fall Season represents the energy of the Lungs and the Colon. This is a time when imbalances related to these organs appear or worsen. They include:

• Allergies
• Asthma
• Respiratory conditions
• Colds
• Sadness and Grief
• Skin problems
• Constipation
• Dry skin and wrinkles

Join Holistic Chef Vicky Valencia and Chinese Medicine Physician Henry Jun Wah Lee, L.Ac. to learn how you can make the most of the peaking energies of the Fall season and strengthen your Lungs and Colon. There will be delicious and healthy dishes to sample, practical recipes you can use, exercises you can practice, and enlightening information on how to get well and stay healthy in the coming months.

Time and Place: September 23 from 6:30pm to 8pm. Old Town Pasadena: Cote D’Azur Spa, 74 N Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, CA 91103

RSVP: RSVP is required. Follow this link to RSVP online: http://www.meetup.com/chinese-medicine-los-angeles/calendar/14653023/ You can also call 323-540-4180. Limited to 15 guests.

Admission: $25. Includes food, recipes and handouts.

About Chef Vicky Valencia:
Vicky Valencia is a holistic chef who received her training from the Kushi Institute, a renowned macrobiotic educational and healing center in Western Massachusetts. She privately cooks and teaches in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Mexico City on how to eat and live for the purpose of health, longevity, and well being. Vicky strongly believes that healing cuisine and gentle exercise have the ability to heal the body, mind, and spirit. She strives to share this simple wisdom wherever she goes.

About Henry Jun Wah Lee, MATCM, L.Ac.:
Henry Jun Wah Lee, L.Ac. is a Physician of Chinese Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Medical Qigong instructor and Eastern Nutritionist. He has a private practice in Pasadena and Los Angeles, California. He offers regular public lectures on the benefits of Chinese Medicine to increase public awareness and to empower individuals to become active participants in their own health and wellness.