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More docs learning acupuncture techniques

For 42-year-old Chief Electronics Technician (SW/AW/IUSS) Dawn Muraca, drugs and physical therapy didn’t help with the back and wrist pain she’d suffered for several years.

“We got to the end of the line and the occupational therapist was like, ‘We really don’t know anything else we can do for you,’ ” Muraca said. “I was open to trying anything.”

That’s when her primary care doctor suggested she go visit one of the Navy’s new acupuncture specialists — Navy doctors trained in the ancient Chinese practice of using small pins at the body’s key pressure points.

Since February, Muraca has had about a dozen 45-minute treatments at Naval Medical Center San Diego.

“I’m virtually pain-free. Sometimes it’s immediate — as soon as you get done with a treatment, you can feel the difference,” Muraca said.

The Navy for the first time is training doctors across the fleet in the 2,000-year-old Chinese medical techniques. About 25 doctors underwent the 300-hour training program earlier this year, and the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery has a second training course underway for 35 more.

The Navy is not hiring traditional acupuncture specialists, who typically do not have medical degrees and study acupuncture alone for up to four years.

Researchers don’t fully understand how acupuncture works, but it has proven effective for treating many ailments, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Typically, acupuncture treats aches and pains, but some techniques also aim to manage mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We are also looking at using it for people who have psychiatric health issues such as PTSD,” said Capt. Neal Naito, BuMed’s director of clinical care and public health in Washington.

PTSD treatments usually involve placing pins in and around the ear and earlobes, Naito said.