Sanford Doctor Uses Acupuncture for Pain Management

Sanford doc uses acupuncture for pain management as an alternative to meds

By BLAIR EMERSON Bismarck Tribune

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Gary Elhard has been experiencing lower-back pain for the past few years, mainly in the left side of his back — especially while walking.

Elhard, who works half-days at Bill Barth in Mandan, recently started an alternative medicine regimen offered by a physician at Sanford Health: acupuncture. He’s had three treatments and reports his back pain has subsided.

“I’d always thought I’d like to try it,” he said during his third treatment with Dr. Anthony Tello late last month.

Tello, an internal medicine specialist at Sanford, has been practicing acupuncture for 20 years at the hospital. The vast majority of his cases involve pain management, including chronic pain and migraines. He said the treatment is becoming more popular among patients seeking an alternative to taking medications.

Tello sees patients in an exam room on the hospital’s fourth floor. He said most are referred to him by word-of-mouth or by other doctors, and each week he sees three to five new or returning patients.

During a recent acupuncture session with Elhard, Tello asked him to rank his pain level.

“Right after my first treatment, I felt better,” Elhard said. After his second session, he felt a lot better. At his most recent appointment, he said his pain has gotten 60 percent better with the acupuncture treatments.

Acupuncture involves the insertion of very thin needles into various parts of the body. Some are inserted just a few millimeters below the skin. The needles are flexible and not hollow, making them less painful than those used for injections, according to Tello.

In addition to “dry needling,” Tello performs electroacupuncture. In this variation, a machine emits an electrical charge similar to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation therapy, or TENS.

In preparation for this session, Tello marked several points on Elhard’s back, about 2 inches apart.

“It’s the same spot every time because we’re getting good results,” he said as he inserted medium-size needles about an inch into Elhard’s skin. He then plugged in an electroacupuncture machine and hooked tiny clips like jumper cables onto each needle.

“Let’s start on the left side. Tell me when you start to feel it,” said Tello, turning a knob on the machine until Elhard said he could feel the surge of electricity through the needles into his skin.

Several minutes into the session, the skin around the needle points started turning red.

“I can tell it’s working,” Tello said.

If you were to ask Tello exactly how acupuncture works, he’d give you two explanations. One involves Chinese medicine, which has been around for 3,000 years and is based on the concept of Qi.

“Qi is a belief in traditional Chinese medicine to be an energy that flows through the body,” Tello said. “It flows through meridians, and diseases interrupt that flow of energy. If you believe in traditional Chinese medicine and their theory, there’s a disruption of that flow of energy through those meridians; and what we’re trying to do in acupuncture is restore that energy.”

In contrast, Tello said, Western alternative medicine assumes acupuncture points affect neurotransmitters, which in turn control pain. Under that theory, if the pain receptors are reset, the pain is managed, he said.

Tello said he and other physicians at Sanford ran a discussion on homeopathic medicine and alternative medicine in the early 1990s.

“Many times you get into situations where the traditional Western medicine is not working. So you ask yourself, ‘Well, what else can I offer my patients?’ — especially in the area of pain management,” he said.

Tello signed up for an acupuncture course in California after that conversation and has been practicing it ever since. When he started, he said some physicians at the hospital thought it was quackery.

“Physicians are scientifically trained,” he said. “All these studies, you have to have proof. Traditional Chinese medicine is totally different. You have to have an open mind going into it, because when we talk about energy flowing through meridians in the body it’s like, ‘Is that just hocus pocus?’ You don’t know.”

Tello said acupuncture isn’t a cure-all, and it doesn’t work for all patients. He also warns of sham operations, in which people claim they’re acupuncturists and just stick needles anywhere.

“And then it doesn’t work,” said Tello.

He said he thinks Elhard will need two more treatments before his back pain is completely gone. Treatment times vary for each person, he said.

After Elhard’s most recent treatment, Tello told him: “You’ll be dancing in the streets soon.”