Michele C. Dobbelaere
About Me
I am an acupuncturist located in upper Manhattan. I hold active licenses in both New York and New Jersey. I graduated with an M.S. in Acupuncture from New York Chiropractic College in 2007. I also have a B.A. in Psychology from Syracuse University and a varied work experience in many fields. I regularly treat chronic pain conditions and sleep disturbance as well as other conditions.
I became interested in acupuncture after being an acupuncture patient myself. I am a traditional Western thinker, and very logical, so it was a big step for me to even set foot in an acupuncturist's office. I was unsure how acupuncture worked, whether or not it would help me, and had concerns about traditional Chinese medicine as a legitimate science. After much convincing by family and friends, I decided to try acupuncture. After a course of treatment I felt so much better that I decided to investigate further. Eventually, things started to all point to a new career path for me: at that time I had been transferred to an office where I had little interaction with people and my job had become unrewarding, I started learning about Chinese culture and traditional medicine, and a new acupuncture program opened up at a nearby school. My second education was fascinating and I couldn't wait to start putting theory into practice. I was incredibly fortunate to be able to work with a well-known fertility specialist and gynecologist at his facility within days of passing my New York State board exams. In six months, I learned even more by working on his patients than I did in school. I briefly headed a weekly group session at a private drug addiction center before heading to New York to work in a pain management clinic. I have been working on patients with chronic pain and other conditions since 2008 at various locations in the New York City metro area. I treat a variety of pain, emotional, digestive disorders and other chronic issues.
To try to explain my particular style of acupuncture and how I practice, I will share with you some personal thoughts about my program and how it changed what I initially thought about alternative medicine. I personally found a lot of what we learned in acupuncture school to be questionable, and the general tone to be somewhat hostile to Western medicine. I disagreed then and still do now, although many of the acupuncture schools have changed in the way they present our role in health care. I think we are a valuable support to MDs, not a substitute. I consider myself part of a team that is dedicated to your health. I never encourage patients to stop seeing their doctor, or to stop taking prescribed medication, although I believe that acupuncture is a valuable alternative to highly addicting pain medications. Since I saw and continue to see success with acupuncture time and time again, I explore ways to make sense of what I learned in school and to explain it in a less poetic and more clinical way. I continue to be fascinated by how acupuncture works on pain, and how acupuncture works in general.
There are two different ways of explaining acupuncture and how it works. From a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) point of view, acupuncture needles access the flow of qi in the body. Picture your qi, or body energy, like water flowing through the earth. First there is a well, where the water is shallow and on the surface, then the water progresses to a spring, stream, river and then the sea, where the water is deepest. Your body energy is shallowest at the well points on the ends of your fingers and toes, deeper on the larger extremities, and the source is at the organs in the torso. To feel this energy, try to briskly rub your hands together, and then slowly move your palms apart and back and forth a few inches until you feel something in the air between your two palms. This is not as implausible as it may seem, since the body has an electric charge just like the earth. Acupuncture needles, depending on where they are placed, can do many things with your body energy, which flows in meridians (or rivers) all over the body. They can warm or cool the energy, supplement the energy, move it, or change its flow or direction. The body is constantly striving to maintain homeostasis or balance. Simply put, in TCM, your symptoms are occurring because the body is not in balance.
People with a science or medical background may be more comfortable thinking in familiar terms, like inflammation cascade and endorphin response. Similar to a splinter breaking your skin, the needle causes the body’s infection protection response to activate: blood flow increases, microscopic changes in the blood and vascular walls occur, and different types of neurochemicals migrate to the site. It is unsure how many chemical mediators respond when this happens, but it is certain that a small scale inflammatory response occurs, with unknown effects on the body and its other immune system chemicals. I think it is like pushing a reset button on inflammation, for lack of a more elegant phrase. We know inflammation is protective in the short term and destructive or at least unhelpful when it becomes chronic. Somehow the local inflammatory effect of the acupuncture needles is causing a reduction in systemic inflammation. This will have an effect not only on pain but on overall health.
The endorphin response is also activated during acupuncture treatment. Endorphins and enkephalins are the body’s natural painkillers. During the course of an injury, however small, these hormone-like chemicals are produced to suppress pain. The release of these natural opiates also effects neurotransmitters like dopamine, one of the body’s pleasure chemical and causes a general feeling of well-being.
It is no coincidence that most acupuncture points are in highly vascularized areas or near nerve bundles. There is a growing collection of acupuncturists such as myself using "neuroacupuncture" or chosing acupuncture points that make sense in terms of nerve distribution.
There is some research looking at adenosine as the chemical mediator for pain relief during acupuncture. Acupuncturists will sometimes tend to look askance at these studies, however clinical trials are necessary since anecdotal evidence (someone telling you it works) is not a valid part of science. I believe this 5,000 year old treatment needs updating, and part of that is using research to explore exactly what is happening in our treatments.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has been refined over thousands and thousands of years of experience with all sorts of conditions and diseases. It works. I believe that with the ongoing opiate addiction crisis, and side effects of using chronic over the counter pain medications, acupuncture is an important complementary treatment for patients with chronic pain. Joint Commission accredited hospitals are now mandated to have a non pharmacologic alternative to pain management, and several area hospitals are fulfilling that requirement by employing acupuncturists. There is also a new focus on patient centered care, i.e, treating the patient as an individual and giving them choices in their health care. Acupuncture is a popular alternative treatment, but it is also one that is licensed and regulated by a board, it is a modality that has some research behind it and it is a treatment with very few side effects. I look forward to the day when acupuncture can be integrated in a general medical practice setting.