In March of 2000, David, a thirty-nine male began acupuncture treatments with me. David had been diagnosed in November, 1999, as having ankylosing spondylitis, a degenerative disease which is considered to have a direct connection to rheumatoid arthritis. He had been suffering for ten years with progressively worse pain and stiffness in both hips, knees, shoulders and his sacroiliac joints. The pain pattern typically is worse in the morning and ameliorates with movement. This disease has a hereditary predisposition and primarily strikes young men in their twenties and thirties. If left untreated, the inflammation of ligaments, tendons, and joint capsules caused by ankylosing spondylitis may lead to permanent fusion of the affected joints, kyphosis of the spine (dowager's hump), and complications of the heart, lungs, and kidneys.

In the Chinese medical paradigm, all the major organs in the human body have corresponding energetic pathways along the surface of the body which are called channels or meridians, and these meridians have points which have certain energetic functions. In Chinese medicine this disease is considered to be a disturbance of prenatal qi (energy), what we in the West would call our genetic makeup. Prenatal qi governs a person's organization, creation, and continuing re-creation. This qi originates in the kidneys, therefore the kidney channel or meridian must be considered in treatment. There is also the factor of stagnation of dampness and coldness in the body, which Chinese medicine considers to be an excessive yin or deficient yang condition. Put in simpler terms, the qi is too cold and not moving well, therefore the qi must be warmed to help it move. A technique called moxibustion is used to alleviate the dampness and cold, and bring warmth (yang energy) into the body. Moxibustion is the burning of a wool-like herb called mugwort near the skin's surface on preselected points along meridians.

I began weekly treatments with David by using a combination of acupuncture, moxibustion, and massage. The meridians we worked with were primarily the kidney, the bladder meridian which runs beside the spine, and the Conception and Governing vessel meridians which go up the center of the body in the front and the back. I also gave David the opportunity to become actively involved in his own healing with stretching exercises, self-massage, and application of herbal linaments. After two months, we were able to lengthen the time between treatments to two weeks, and then in two more months to every three weeks. David has more mobility, more energy, his pain is greatly diminished, and most importantly, his outlook on life is once again positive.