Burn Treatment

A few years ago, while rushing around the kitchen, I accidently grabbed a metal spatula that had just come out of the oven. The utensil left a perfect outline burned into my palm. I quickly abandoned my dinner prep and rushed to grab my acupuncture kit. I’ve read and studied all about Dr. Manaka’s burn treatment in school, but this was going to be the first time I would get to use it. Since this incident, it’s still one of my favorite treatments because the results are unbelievable and undeniable.

Dr. Yoshio Manaka was a Japanese poet, artist, scholar and physician. During his medical tour of duty in World War II, he discovered that applying tin foil to burns reduced pain and helped to speed up the healing of the area. Upon further studies, he developed a device called an ion-pumping cord which serves as a way to use the body’s own electrical potential to reduce the severe pain that comes with second degree burns. Within 10 minutes of starting the procedure, patients in severe pain noticed a reduction in pain. After 20 minutes, all patients reported markedly less or no pain at all.

Since I’ve always been a huge skeptic, I didn't count on much relief but I thought I would at least get a chance to “test” Dr. Manaka's treatment on myself. Within a few minutes of treatment, my hand stopped hurting. My first thought was that my burn wasn’t that bad! So I removed the cords and foil and, within minutes, the pain returned and my hand throbbed. I spent the next 10 minutes applying and removing the treatment – just because I could not believe how clear it was that it was helping. By the end of the day, with my hand “healed” enough to submerge in water without screaming, I decided that this was officially my favorite acupuncture treatment – and a much better reminder of that day than a spatula-shaped scar.

Since that day, Dr. Manaka’s treatment has brought smiles to many of my patients who showed up for treatments, sunburned and in pain.