The subject of fear around getting jabbed provoked some addled rumination for a few days.  Then, voila!  It occurs to me that some doctors of Chinese medicine don't use needles at all.  Some use something called cold laser acupuncture.  This is 100% pain-free.

There are also some Japanese applications that do not use needles.  For example, there is one Japanese doctor of acupuncture who has a book called Heal Pain on 11 Cents.  It turns out that the Japanese ten cent piece is of copper and the one cent piece is of aluminum.  The difference between the metals sets up an electrical gradient transmitted through several of the body's media, e.g., the skin's bioelectric current and the bioelectrically affected interstitium.  Any media that contains water receives a ripple effect.  On a very simple level this is similar to the work developed by the Swedish doctor Nordenstrom.

I personally have tried out the coin method using 90% silver quarters and some aluminum foil.  Some patients were surprised to feel the sensation. Others still like the jabbing, it's like popping the cork off a bottle of champagne.  I have no experience with cold laser acupuncture, so I can't speak to whether it gives that acupuncture sensation, but I can personally say that the sensation of the coins reverberated on a deep level, more strongly than a similar treatment with common needles.  I say common needles because some prefer silver or copper, but that's for another discussion.

In short, there's hope to try acupuncture, even if you aren't so keen on getting needled.  Many practitioners are very pleased with the results they get with the cold laser approach.  I guess that's doubly so for patients.  The coin approach is one you can even try at home.  You can get more sophisticated applications with a practitioner experienced in Japanese styles of acupuncture.

best bliss,

Yang-chu Higgins, Licensed Acupuncturist
Los Angeles, CA
323.936.5152