My definition of medicine is simple. Medicine is what works. If something is working for you and it is healing you, that is your medicine. If it is not working, it is not medicine for you, no matter what tradition it comes from or how long it has been used. And if something is working but causing real harm and unnecessary side effects, then that is the poison for you, even if it came from the most respected institution in the world.
I believe we can live from a place of wisdom, knowing when each system is appropriate. The fragmentation and polarization of our society is literally killing us and causing suffering in every domain. Medicine is no exception. Medicine does not have to be a battleground. I believe we can have patient-centered systems where we use wisdom and common sense to come up with the best protocol to serve the body, based on what is being presented in that moment.
I am honored to provide medicine that helps the majority of people I see, often in cases that allopathic medicine struggles to fully resolve. There are also areas where allopathic medicine is unmatched, surgery being one of them, when it is called for. If someone is having a stroke, that is not the moment for herbs and needles. Knowing the difference, and having the humility to defer to whichever system is actually appropriate, is the whole practice.
Over the years, I have helped many patients avoid surgery entirely. The alternative is always worth trying first. I tell people that acupuncture is appropriate before you ever need to be hospitalized for anything, and it is appropriate after, to support recovery. I did everything within my own knowledge and skill to prevent surgery for my shoulder. When it became clear that surgery was necessary, I had it, and then I returned to acupuncture to support my own healing.
Last year I injured my shoulder. I did everything I know how to do naturally, and I know how to do a lot. I did acupuncture, physical therapy, and shockwave therapy to break down the scar tissue. I added massage, natural homeopathic injections, topical ointments, and cupping. Every treatment gave me relief, and every time, the relief was temporary. The pain came back.
Eventually imaging revealed a tear. The orthopedic surgeon explained what was happening and why surgery was the path forward. I was scared. This would be my first surgery. I was scared in a deeper way too, because three years earlier I had lived through a medical crisis that led to misdiagnosis and harm at the hands of the wrong medicine. Trusting doctors again was not a small thing for me to do.
I was treated with both natural medicine and allopathic medicine for this injury, and that experience is a reminder that there is room for both, and that they can work together.
But the choice in front of me was clear once I stopped avoiding it. I could live in daily pain while I treated others for pain, or I could get proper treatment. I prayed and I connected to my body, listening to what it was telling me. I could not keep living like that, with pain every night and the search for a position to sleep in that did not hurt. Driving was painful. Lifting a sheet to make the bed was painful. I decided to have the surgery.
The surgery was a profoundly positive and restorative experience. The surgical team was compassionate, competent, and validating, the kind of care I have long promoted as possible within our medical systems. They had the reversal medication on hand in case I developed akathisia. Everything went exactly as it should. This was allopathic medicine being exactly the right medicine for this moment.
The first thing I did when I got home was take a supplement with vitamin C, zinc, vitamin D, vitamin E, and vitamin A to support wound healing. Vitamin C drives collagen synthesis, the protein that gives new tissue its strength and structure. Zinc supports cell proliferation and immune function at the wound site, both essential during the early healing phase. Vitamin D modulates inflammation and supports immune regulation. Vitamin E protects new tissue from oxidative damage as it forms. Vitamin A supports epithelial regeneration, the rebuilding of the skin's surface layer. I also increased my intake of citrus, a direct source of vitamin C and bioflavonoids that further support collagen formation and tissue repair. I wanted to create an environment where the tissue could heal rapidly.
After surgery, I followed something I learned in a continuing education course on chronic pain back in 2009. The presenter explained why it matters to stay ahead of the pain rather than waiting until it becomes severe before taking medication. Waiting is how people end up needing more medication than they otherwise would, and it is one of the pathways into chronic pain and opioid dependency. I followed my pain management schedule exactly as prescribed, and not once did I experience severe pain.
This picture was taken three days after surgery. I had just removed the large surgical dressings, and that morning I treated my own shoulder with acupuncture. I did it again that evening. My right shoulder, my dominant side, was the surgical site, so I needled myself with my left hand, which I have always been skilled with. It was remarkable, watching my left hand step into leadership. I was proud. Treating my own body, three days out from surgery, with the same medicine I have used to treat patients for twenty years, felt like a kind of full circle.
Why Acupuncture Belongs in Post-Surgical Recovery
I have treated patients after surgery to help manage their pain so they are not dependent on opioids for longer than necessary, and what I did for myself this week is the same mechanism at work.
Acupuncture moves stagnant qi and restores proper flow through the channels, which is the language Chinese medicine has used for this process for thousands of years. The same intervention, observed through Western pharmacology, triggers the release of the body's own endogenous opioids, beta-endorphin, enkephalins, and dynorphin, which bind to the same mu, kappa, and delta receptors that morphine and other pharmaceutical opioids target. Needling also activates the descending pain inhibitory pathway from the periaqueductal gray through the spinal cord, which dampens pain signals before they fully register. At the same time, it modulates serotonin and norepinephrine, the same neurotransmitters targeted by certain pharmaceutical pain medications, and it reduces local inflammatory markers at the site of injury.
Western medicine arrived at this mechanism through laboratory isolation. Chinese medicine arrived at the same outcome through centuries of direct clinical observation, identifying the points and the patterns long before anyone could name a receptor. Both are true accounts of the same event in the body, and neither needs the other's permission to be valid.
This is why I believe acupuncture should be a standard part of post-surgical recovery protocols, not an alternative offered after the fact to patients who happen to seek it out. Used alongside a well-managed pharmaceutical pain plan, acupuncture can reduce the total opioid burden a patient needs, accelerate functional recovery, and lower the risk that short-term post-surgical pain management becomes long-term dependency. In my case, surgery repaired the structure and acupuncture treated the tissue, modulating pain signaling, reducing inflammation, stimulating collagen formation, improving circulation, and restoring the neurochemistry that chronic pain and surgical trauma disrupt.
If you are recovering from shoulder surgery, rotator cuff repair, or another orthopedic procedure and want to reduce your dependence on opioids, treat pain effectively, and return to function sooner, acupuncture has been documented to treat post-surgical pain. And if you are navigating other forms of chronic pain, whether low back pain, sciatica, neck pain, joint pain, headaches and migraines, nerve pain, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain, pain related to perimenopause, or nervous system dysregulation that allopathic medicine has struggled to address at the root, I treat those too, with the same integrative approach.
I have experienced pain. I have treated it in others for over twenty years. It would be an honor to help you find your way through it.
If you are in the Fort Lauderdale area, call us at (754) 243-5763 or book your acupuncture appointment online.