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A Funny Story

In my years of practicing medicine I have heard many amazing and humorous stories about healing encounters. This one had me in stitches of laughter. A man had chronic, excessive body heat and sweating. He had been seen by many traditional physicians, but no cause was found. A friend recommended that he see an acupuncturist in Chinatown who had a reputation for clearing such strange symptoms. Even so, he was nervous about his first acupuncture experience.

He arrived at the Chinese acupuncturist’s office and was met with strange aromas of moxibustion, a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves the burning of mugwort, a small, spongy herb, to facilitate healing. Moxibustion has been used throughout Asia for thousands of years; in fact, the Chinese character for acupuncture, translated literally, means "acupuncture-moxibustion." The purpose of moxibustion, as with most forms of traditional Chinese medicine, is to strengthen the blood, stimulate the flow of qi, and maintain general health. It is a strong aroma and can smell like something is burning.

This Is How They Do It in China

The patient realized that he was seeing a truly traditional and authentic man, as he did not speak any English. The doctor motioned him to the table, and then motioned to him to take off all of his clothes. He did as he was instructed, and the doctor began treatment. He had 20 needles at different points on his face, arms, legs, back, and feet. Just after the last needle was inserted, the doctor was distracted by smoke that was coming under the doorway of his office.

FIRE, FIRE, FIRE

He didn’t seem too alarmed at first, because moxibustion creates a good amount of smoke at times, so it could have been the practitioner next door. At this point the patient was wondering if he should have ever listened to his friend regarding this treatment. When the Chinese doctor opened the door, he began to scream in Chinese and English, "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!" The patient, with no clothes on and all these needles, jumped up, looked through the door, and saw that the entire office was going up in flames. He and the doctor fled and managed to get out of the building safely. From that time this patient has never had another bout with excessive body heat and sweating again—he was cured!

To be continued.

Mars Hill Global

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