Acupuncture to be used on bases, battlefield

[unhappycamper]

Staff Sgt. Samuel Burns is treated for foot pain by Col. Stephen Burns, head of the acupuncture clinic at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. The clinic is the only one of its kind in the Defense Department.


Acupuncture to be used on bases, battlefield
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 23, 2008 18:17:19 EST

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. — Sitting in the Defense Department’s only acupuncture clinic with needles sticking in his ears and wires wrapped around his feet, Staff Sgt. Samuel Darwin admitted the acupuncture was his big idea.

He suggested it to his doctor after sharp foot pain he’s suffered since February just wouldn’t disappear.

Darwin goes twice a week for treatments and sometimes draws stares from airmen in his squadron when he returns with the acupuncture needles still in his ears.

His doctor first prescribed traditional pain medications, but Darwin wanted to try acupuncture since he’d grown up with it — his mother was a fan — and found it worked.

“The guys in my squadron want to know if it works, which I tell them it does,” said Darwin, assigned to the 316th Comptroller Squadron. “Some guys, though, joke that I just want to have earrings in the military.”


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/12/airforce_acupuncture_1222308w/%2e