I will start by stating that at the end of this story you will find a finger with all the acupuncture points that were used and an explanation on their location.

 

During the last month, I've been having writer's block. I have been trying to think what kind of article or a case study would be interesting for readers so that it could inform them on the benefits of YNSA (Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture) and teach them something new about YNSA. So, I decided this time to write about a personal experience: how YNSA helped me and made a personal positive impression, and how YNSA can be so useful in many cases.

 

About five years ago, I traveled to Japan to participate in a 5-day seminar that was to be given Dr. Toshikatsu Yamamoto, the developer of YNSA. At the same time, I was also training to run a marathon. When training for a marathon, all workouts are important and missing one workout might affect my participation in the marathon.

 

On the morning of the first day of the seminar, I decided to go for a 15- kilometer run along the shores and beach front of Aoshima, the town where Dr. Yamamoto has his clinic and the location of the seminar. Since the landscape of the area is so breathtaking, I found myself concentrating on the landscape, the beautiful views of the water, the waves smashing on the rocks, the green palm trees, and the sea’s surface while on my run. After about ten kilometers, I was so concentrated on the views that I did not concentrate on the road’s surface and did not see the pot hole in the road. I stumbled into the pothole and severely twisted my left ankle. It was so severely twisted that I fell down when I got up and I could not stand on my left foot. After about three minutes, I tried to stand again but I was unable to do so. After about four minutes, I started to walk slowly limping on one foot and then a thought crossed my mind: if I continue to run the pain will go away and the swelling will subside. I started to walk slowly and the walk turned into a slow run and after about ten minutes, the pain was gone. Thinking back that was a dumb thing to do: I should have just caught a taxi back to the hotel.

 

When I returned to the hotel and finished my stretches and showered, I rested on the bed, waiting to be picked up for the seminar. When the time came to get up, I looked over my ankle. My ankle was very swollen, blue and very painful and I could not put any weight on my foot. I hopped on one foot down to the taxi and from there we were taken to the seminar for the first day of training. When Dr. Yamamoto saw me, he asked me what happened and I told him the story. He offered to treat my ankle. I was very happy and excited that I would have the opportunity to be treated by Yamamoto. According to Dr. Yamamoto’s diagnosis, he needled the D basic point on the left side to affect the lower part of the body from the diaphragm down to the lower limbs. Then, he needled the I somatotope on the left side in the area that reflects the ankle [the I somatotope was developed from the I point during the past 7 years, is located on the scalp over the temporal muscle, and is a reflection of the whole body). By needling different areas on this somatotope you affect that area of the body (see figure 2) [AB1] ]

 

After he needled these points on the scalp, he kept on asking me to slowly move my ankle. I felt that it was moving easier and it was less painful. He then needled the H basic point and asked me to try and walk on my foot. Although it was painful when I walked, the pain was a bit less and there was some slight improvement in the angles that I can turn my ankle. Next, he decided to try to treat the ankle by working on my wrist, but this time he used  ASP needles and needled the area of my wrist that reflects the area of my ankle (very similar to working with the balance method of Dr Tan). After needling this point, my ability to walk improved.

 

After Dr Yamamoto needled my wrist and my scalp (the D and H points, and the region of my ankle on the I somatotope), he decided to needle two more points on the scalp: the first was the I somatotope in the reign that reflects the cervical spine (this area is located between the tragus of the ear and the temporal mandibular joint). The second point he needled was the foot point which is located on the zygoma. After needling this point, I could rotate my ankle with no pain and walk with a slight limp. In days to come, I realized that the cervical region of the I somatotope overlaps a point that is reflected on the gastrocnemius muscle (see figure 2). I frequently needle this point for treating heel spurs, ankle sprains, and plantar fasciitis.

 

About two hours after the treatment with the needles still in my scalp and wrist, the pain in my ankle became more severe and the intensity shot up from a VAS scale of 2 to about 10. I started to feel that blood was pumping in my ankle and I had a throbbing feel in my ankle. Try to imagine a cartoon character whose baby toe was hit with a hammer and the toe is completely swollen and pumping red (boom, boom, boom). The pain was so severe that I decided to pull out all the needles because I could not take the pain anymore. As I took out the needles, I felt the pain slowly subside. About three hours after removing the needles, I suddenly realized that I did not feel any pain in the ankle and it seemed that the swelling was reduced. I remember been so amazed by the results and overwhelmed how fast the swelling went down.

 

At the end of the day when we were leaving to go for dinner, I suddenly noticed that I was walking with a slight limp. When I looked at my ankle, it is seemed that there was less swelling. I was astonished and amazed that this had happened.

 

The next day, when I woke up, I could walk normally with no limp. Although the ankle was still a bit blue and bruised, I felt pain in my left ankle only when it was at certain angles. I also remember the other participants looking at my ankle and being amazed by the outcome of the treatment and the rapid response of my foot and ankle.

 

During the day, I mentioned to the other participants that I might go for a run on the next day. They recommended that I should not go for a run in order to rest my ankle. Since my thought was on the marathon and every day that I don't run would affect the training, I went for a run the next day. When I started the run, I felt a very slight pain which completely disappeared when I continued to run. When I finished the run, I felt no pain at all and I was walking and running normally, and without pain. The pain did not return. THE END

Wait I forgot!!!!!

 

I have related my personal experience on how YNSA affected me because I was so amazed with the result. This personal experience left me with an impression that I can treat any disorder and get fast results using this wonderful method. This experience also inspired me to dig deeper into YNSA, to improve my technique, and to look and understand how YNSA works and on what other disorders it can be used to treat.  YNSA was originally develop for pain management and as the years go by I see it can be used not only to treat pain but also internal disorders, such as cardiovascular system, gastrointestinal system, endocrine system, allergies, skin and the list goes on).

 

Over time, I understand that the simplicity of the method is its greatness. YNSA is a very simple method to use and any one can get fast results in the clinic with their patients. I believe that if more practitioners will use this method then more patients will benefit from it…

 

And for the marathon? No!!!! I did not run it in the end because life is full of surprises…and there is always next time…..

 

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This bilateral somatotope, which is located in the ear region, was recently developed from the I basic point, contains an image of the entire body.

This somatotope, which is needled

to treat problems of the musculoskeletal system, has three areas: