As a venerable medical practice that is an excellent form of treatment of a number of ailments including chronic pain, acupuncture remains a bit of a paradox. The healing artform is more than 4,000 years old, yet it is something
As a venerable medical practice that is an excellent form of treatment of a number of ailments including chronic pain, acupuncture remains a bit of a paradox.
The healing artform is more than 4,000 years old, yet it is something of a mystery in the realm of western medicine.
But thanks to Dr. Richard Scheffer, that might be changing.
Scheffer, among a handful of resident acupuncturists on Kaua’i, has been practicing acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, including the applications of herbs, for more than 12 years in Hawai’i.
He recently joined the staff of Hart-Felt Massage & Day Spa at Waimea Plantation Cottages, providing acupuncture treatments four days a week.
“I think a lot of people are unaware of what it is, and don’t know much about it. It’s not mainstream, so people may be leery of it at first,” he said of acupuncture.
“In the last 10 years, it tripled its credibility,” he said.
“Eastern medicine has been around for a long time. Western medicine is about 200 years old,” he said. “Traditional Chinese medicine is tried and true. If it wasn’t, people would have stopped using it.”
Acupuncture originated in China, and due to its proven effectiveness it has been embraced throughout the world, he said. Only in the last three decades has it become popular in the United States, Scheffer added.
In 1993, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokes-person estimated that Americans made up to 12 million visits per year to acupuncture practitioners.
Scheffer is not only in his second career — he was an aeronautic structural engineer at Hickam Air Force Base on O’ahu — but also into his true calling, he feels.
The roots of his acupuncture career were very much family-oriented.
“My sister and brother-in-law had started an acupuncture clinic on O’ahu,” he recalled.
“My mother got sick in 1979. Their clinic was already a full-blown practice, had been for a few years. I lived closest to my mom, so they (my sister and brother-in-law) taught me how to give treatments to her.
“I saw her fevers go down before my eyes, in seconds. I signed up for classes shortly after that.”
Scheffer, who eventually earned his doctorate in acupuncture, clearly enjoys what he does.
“I just love working with people, and trying to help people. It feels like something I was meant to do. I get a rush when people say, ‘I can’t feel this pain anymore.'”
His motto is that people can live pain-free with the help of acupuncture. He has treated patients as young as 4 and as elderly as 86.
Acupuncture can used to treat or alleviate a number of conditions, including asthma, anxiety, depression, stress, constipation, arthritis and more. It is used to aid those wishing to quit smoking, and for many other conditions and ailments.
Scheffer said that, in many cases, insurance covers treatment, though some situations might call for a doctor’s referral. Spa owner Carol Hart said she feels “blessed” to have Scheffer aboard. She said it was too early to say if Scheffer’s presence had impacted business yet, but feels his positive contributions already.
She said he was not only a nice man, but was also an extremely proficient practitioner.
Hart, who described her business as a community spa, said “40 to 50 percent of my clients are local people. You can’t rely on tourism alone. You need a good local following,” she said.
As a harbinger of how holistic Scheffer’s life is as a parallel to the service he provides, Scheffer’s “first career” prepared him for his second, he said.
“As a structural engineer, I worked on a lot of old airplanes. They’d bring me a broken part of an airplane, and I had to figure out what made it work. I never had a part that failed,” he said. “My thought process is still the same: find out what is the root of the problem.”
Scheffer’s various acupuncture treatments can include balance regulating, pain relief and preventative medicine in a very effective holistic style.
He uses different modalities to treat his patients.
He also uses many non-needle treatments. Some of these painless techniques include electronic laser and Acutron-point stimulation and balancing. Using the Acutron machine, he also gives non-surgical “face lift” facials.
He also had a very personal experience that led him to believe acupuncture was a valid way to go in terms of proving pain relief.
“In 1984, I got injured in a water-skiing accident. I was looking at surgery. They told me I’d never water ski again.
“In two acupuncture treatments I could dance again. I was 85 percent better. And, I just might mention, that in 1994, 10 years later, I won the state championship in water skiing.”
Several theories have been presented as to exactly how acupuncture works.
One theory suggests that pain impulses are blocked from reaching the spinal cord or brain at various “gates” to these areas. Since a majority of acupuncture points are either connected to (or are located near) neural structures, this suggests that acupuncture stimulates the nervous system.
Unlike hypodermic needles, acupuncture needles are solid and hair-thin, and they are not designed to cut the skin. They are also inserted to much more shallow levels than hypodermic needles, generally no more than a half-inch to an inch, depending on the type of treatment being delivered.
Scheffer’s experience includes teaching acupuncture point location and acupuncture law at the Oriental Medical Institute, on O’ahu, for four years. He was attending doctor at the College School Clinic as well.
He received his doctorate in acupuncture, and in all did studies for nine years. He enjoys his work immensely, he said.
His treatments are very safe, he continued. There is little or no pain when needles are inserted. Some people say they feel an immediate sense of calm, while others can feel mild tingling or stimulation.
After the needles are inserted, you can have electrical stimulation, or Moxa, applied, if deemed useful.
Traditional Chinese medicine holds that there are as many as 2,000 acupuncture points on the human body, which are connected by 20 pathways (12 main, eight secondary) called “meridians.”
These meridians conduct energy, or qi (pronounced “chi”), between the surface of the body and its internal organs. Each point has a different effect on the qi that passes through it.
Natalie Joyce, a massage therapist and marketing agent for Hart-Felt Massage & Day Spa, contributed research and background information for this article.
Andy Gross, business editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or agross@pulitzer.net
