SIM & CHANG Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine

Acupuncture

You may think of acupuncture as needle therapy, but thats just one very small part of it. The understanding principle of acupuncture is that vital energy, or qi (pronounced chee) flows along invisible pathways in your body called meridians. When qi is blocked, pain and illness result. Acupunctures unblock qi by inserting hair-thin needles at specific points in the body. Each illness relates to certain specific acupuncture points that tend to be areas of decreased electrical resistance, which may be part of the scientific basis for acupunctures effects. In addition, acupuncture is believed to release certain brain chemicals such as endogenous endorphins (think runners high) that reduce pain and discomfort.


Sa-Am Acupuncture

Conventional acupuncture observes the particularities of a given symptom, and then treats the ailment by affecting the meridian related to the symptom. Sa-Am Acupuncture differs from the conventional approach. Sa-Am Acupuncture treats and observes the patients as a holistic subject, and thus the ailment at the point of its real origin. Sa-Am Acupuncture has proven that the meridians serve as the path by which the mind manifests its various dispositions. I usually call Sa-Am Acupuncture as essentially Mind Acupuncture. In each of the meridians there are sixty meridian conduits in which the particular characteristics of each of the five elements (Metal, Water, Earth, Wood, and Fire) are concentrated.

Sa-Am Acupuncture is very effective because it treats only those sixty conduits. Sa-Am Acupuncture is safe because it treats primarily those conduits which are found at the ends of the limbs, and at the elbows and below the knees. Sa-Am Acupuncture is an acupunctural art unique to Korea. Sa-Am Acupuncture has gone beyond the limitations of conventional acupuncture and has opened a new horizon of possibilities. (Source from An Invitation to Eastern Medicine by Kim Hong-Kyung, OMD)


Principle of Sa-Am Acupuncture

• For deficiency, tonify the mother; for excess, reduce the son
• For deficiency, reduce the control; for excess, tonify the control
• Utilize five elemental properties of the channels
• Utilize five elemental properties of five shu points

Sam Bu Acupuncture

• Restore Balance of the yin-yang and five elements
• Use sam bu points
• Identify two excessive phases of the patients, and tonify the relatively deficient three phases
• Constitution examined from five elemental point of view

(Source from Sa-Am Acupuncture & Sam-Bu Acupuncture presented by Dr. Hong Kyung Kim (17 March 2010, Sa-Am Nonprofit Acupuncture Service))

How much does an acupuncture cost?

Initial Consultation with Treatment: $60
Subsequent Treatment: $50