Brodie Burris is the President of the Michigan Association of Oriental Medicine, the Founder of The Lotus Center of Ann Arbor, and a standing member of the American Association of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine. He is a seasoned acupuncturist, herbalist, and is renowned for his work in the field of Eastern Medicine.
Here are my 5 questions with Brodie and his answers:
1a)In your point of view, what is acupuncture’s place in the sphere of sport medicine?
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I believe acupuncture has a significant role in sport medicine, yet unfortunately it is currently being under utilized as a therapy. More often than not, athletes respond especially well to acupunctural treatments. Athletes tend to be full of vigor and in tune with their body, which helps with the response to treatment and makes acupuncture a very effective way to treat sports injuries. Regarding acute sport injury, acupuncturists have specific techniques and methods to decrease recovery time and reduce pain.
1b) What are the benefits of acupuncture beyond the treatment of sport injury?
There are quite a few actually:
- Increases blood flow
- Relaxes muscle tissue
- Reduces cramping due to fatigue
- Alleviates distorted energy and increases Qi
- Accelerates the removal of metabolic waste and improves metabolism
- Increases stamina
- Helps with stress management
- Lowers the body’s pain response
- Increases one’s ability to concentrate, which can also assist dexterity
…and this is a short list of potential benefits. Through acupuncture we can stimulate the muscles, accelerate healing by assisting the body to remove noxious elements, and increase stamina and recovery by increasing one’s natural ability to provide nutrients to tissue. These benefits of acupuncture make it ideal for athletes in a number of different situations and applications.
2) What is the most common misconception you hear about acupuncture treatment that you would like to dispel?
One misconception is that acupuncturists use tons of needles per treatment. Photographers who want to capture interesting photographs of acupuncture in practice will tend to publish photos that are interesting to look at. However, these photos usually do not represent an accurate picture of a normal treatment. Rather, the average person can expect to have somewhere between 10 to 20 needles placed throughout their body in any given treatment.
Acupuncture is not without sensation, but for the most part it should be enjoyable, relaxing, and comfortable. It is known with Traditional Chinese Medicine that your Qi cycles about every 20 minutes. Therapies therefore will generally last between 20 to 60 minutes to give enough time for full cycles of Qi to take place.
3) If seeing an acupuncturist makes sense, what questions should one ask to help ensure they are choosing the right acupuncturist?
- Confirm they have a degree from a reputable school
- Confirm they have passed their National Boards
- Ask how many years of practical experience they’ve had, and then ask yourself if you are comfortable with their level of experience
Acupuncture is a very interactive therapy, and outcomes can be tied to the working relationship you have with your acupuncturist. If you don’t feel that your situation has improved after 4 to 6 sessions seek out another acupuncturist. Results benefit from a good working relationship. If this relationship isn’t established, it behooves one to try another acupuncturist to try to improve upon the results.
4) Discuss an example of success where you believe Eastern Medicine served an athlete better than Western Medicine would have.
As a practitioner this is a fairly easy question to answer because by and large, in Western Society, people do not come to an acupuncturist first. A good portion of clients will come in when Western Medicine has already failed them, so I have numerous examples. Left to its own devices, our bodies will eventually heal from most ailments on their own. The object of medicinal intervention then is to assist this process and speed it along. The first responder to an athletic injury more times than not will be a trainer or physical therapist who will run down the checklist of what they believe to be appropriate treatments: rest, ice, compression, elevate, etc.
These are very useful treatments, but are not augmenting the body’s natural processes. I usually get patients after all these interventions have failed to produce an acceptable result. In 50 to 70 percent of the cases I see I can significantly improve the patient’s current condition. However, because acupuncture is still a bit misunderstood in Western society these successes can occasionally lead to complications for me and the patient as well. For example, I had a young female softball player come in with a rotary cuff injury so severe she could barely move her shoulder. Her range of motion was extremely limited when she came in and after three treatments she was practically mobile again (it should be noted that this was not necessarily a common result). It is important to remember however that like most Western treatments for sport injury, acupuncture simply assists the body to heal… albeit sometimes in miraculous ways. When extremely positive results are achieved quickly with acupuncture patients sometimes forget that acupuncture, like many other treatments, is a process and not an overnight miracle cure. In the case of the softball player, against my advisement, she went out and immediately played on her injured shoulder because of this positive result and to no one’s surprise reinjured herself.
5) If an athlete comes to an acupuncturist for treatment of an ailment, what can they expect?
I can only talk about my practice specifically. When you come in to see me for the first time you can expect a careful evaluation and assessment of your condition and if it is specific to an injury I will palpate the area to ensure I know exactly where things are disrupted.
If the ailment is acute you can expect to see me at least three times a week. If it is a semi-acute injury maybe two times will be enough, and pre-existing injuries perhaps as little as once a week. Another often overlooked aspect of acupuncture is that each treatment should be considered a dose. Treating with the correct dosage is important for creating successful treatments. There seldom will be the time that just one or two treatments of acupuncture are going to facilitate complete recovery.
As I previously mentioned, each treatment session will last between 20 minutes to an hour and usually consist of 10 to 20 strategically placed needles around the body.
Again, healing is a natural process. Acupuncture is a very useful tool in actively accelerating this natural process and because of this it is an ideal medium for treating sport related injuries.