My Journey with Chinese Chiropractic (Part 2) | AsianLiving.me
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Chinese Chiropractic (Part 1) started here…
When I came back he was already seeing another patient. As most do in China, I cut in and made my request to try the medical massage. With a flick of his pen, and 64RMB ($9.50) later, I found myself standing in front of a peculiar contraption. It was a mix of metal, chains and leather straps. I was told to straddle it and fix my head in between the front and back leather straps. A crank was turned by one of the doctors, which pulled my head toward the ceiling! At this point, I got a bit nervous; shouldn’t a fuzzy TV screen turn on featuring a scary clown doll with a spooky voice? (Like in the “Saw”series)
15 minutes before completing a full cycle on this thing, I broke free and asked if I could use heat instead. In fact, both methods were being used by patients who were preparing for the massage therapy. When I finally got on the little wooden stool in front of another doctor, he began asking what my discomfort was. After explaining a second time, I started to get a violently strong neck massage. Tears were gathering in the first few minutes and I had no idea what would happen to me! Then he moved to my right shoulder and the muscles around my collar bone. That is when I felt true pain. He found two pressure/acupuncture points “Xue Wei” like some kind of ninja; and seconds later I was subjugated; forced to twitch and move around like a puppet!
Within 20 minutes my right arm was curved over my head and moderate pressure was applied to a chunk of back muscles. I heard light snaps. And the last 5 minutes would help smooth out the nearby knots in my neck and surrounding shoulder blade area. It seemed that my desired “back breaking” had happened.
Then I asked, “are knots OK sometimes?” He said “knots only exist when something is wrong.” It was then that I realized that our skeletons are not always in control of our bodies. Sometimes our muscles, when agitated over months and years, can take control and leave us in naturally-occurring pain. Some bones move out of place and cause any number of problems. In my case the agitation led to sleep deprivation, which caused other health problems.
I didn’t need coffee to simply “wake me up,” or medication to help me sleep through the pain. I needed to resolve the core problem, which in this case, required rather simple physical therapy… or in other words, a massage. Massage actually does more than provide superficial pleasure, or a joke for those chatting about their last trip to Asia. In fact, it truly does help. I’m sleeping better at night now and I don’t feel so groggy in the morning. My energy level is higher and I don’t feel the urge for morning coffee.
Medical massage, chiropractics, and physical therapy are not just for athletes or people recovering from car accidents. When done by a professional, they can help avoid thousands of dollars in surgeries and costly medicines. I confirmed this for myself by not dismissing this medical massage at that first doctor visit. Sometimes, traditions that are steeped in centuries of practice can really deliver a beat-down on modern medicine. We just need to move around our cultural skepticism before we can uncover the truth.
china,
chinese chiropractic,
massage ninja,
medical massage,
people's hospital of zhuhai,
saw movie