Out of curiousity, does anyone here use acupuncture as a means to help control side effects from meds or other symptoms?
(forgive me if this has been discussed before! I did a quick search and didn't find any discussions about this)
I was never one for acupuncture, or anything else considered holistic for that matter, until my diagnosis, but now I love it. I by chance found an acupuncturist whose daughter also suffers from UC, and she has been of great help to me. Especially right now while I am tapering off of pred, my sessions with her really help calm me down. I have had terrible anxiety and mood swings, as well as the insomnia and a million other things. But she has really been able to help me with my sleeping and my anxiety. I can definitely notice a difference when I don't see her for a while.
Interestingly enough, the last time i saw her, we were discussing her daughter and how she is doing. She had really been struggling with her UC when she went to the beach with her sister (I live in MD, by the way) and got sick. After running a fever of over 103 for several days, they took her to Johns Hopkins, ran a host of tests, only to find nothing really "wrong." She had some major swelling in her legs, headaches, etc, but they couldn't pinpoint a problem. The fever broke on its own, and she has been in complete remission ever since!
Also, my acupuncturist was telling me about another friend of hers, also an acupuncturist, who had two clients, one with UC and one with Crohns, who both experienced complete remission after getting severe cases of poison ivy. I found that facinating! (and secretly wondered if I should go find myself a big patch of poison ivy to roll around in)
Anyway, I just curious if anyone else has found any relief of any kind using acupuncture?