On pins and needles
We've heard acupuncture can help treat all kinds of ailments affecting the nerves, mood and muscles. With a stiff pair of shoulders and a raging case of PMT, we headed over to the Gulf Chinese Medical Centre prepared to let this ancient practice do its work.
A long time fixture in the capital, the clinic on 2nd/Airport Rd and 5th/Hamdan St is older but clean and professional looking. Waiting for the doctor to arrive, we check out the posters explaining everything acupuncture can treat and with what degree of effectiveness.
We’re strangely relieved to find that our Chinese medicine practitioner is actually Chinese. After we explain the reason for our visit, he checks our pulse, looks at our tongue and says he can perform acupuncture to relieve our symptoms and balance our energy.
In a small white room – where we're stripped to the undies and covered in white sheet, the doctor swabs several spots of skin then inserts tiny needles in our feet, calves, wrists, abdomen and the top of our head. Some we don't feel go in at all like the four in the stomach, and some like the calves only hurt if we move, but the one in our scalp hurts a small amount throughout the entire procedure.
After several minutes lying serenely on our back, the assistant returns and removes all the needles but the one in our scalp. We’re lying on our stomach when the practitioner returns. After more swabbing, he inserts needles across our shoulders, down our spine and in our lower back.
At the end of the hour, we’re feeling very tranquil and just a bit woozy. Our shoulders are sore like we’ve just had a deep tissue massage, but despite wretched traffic and bureaucratic hassles, our mood holds steady. Even days later, we’re inclined to believe the acupuncture has straightened out our chi – with nothing more than the pricking of a pin.
Laura Fulton
What? Acupuncture
Where: Gulf Chinese Medical Centre
Cost: Initial consultation AED 100, procedure AED 150
We say: Perhaps we’ve fallen victim to the power of suggestion but we feel great and will certainly try it again
Contact: 02 634 3538
