This Sunday marks America's Acupuncture Oriental Medicine Day.

In recognition of the role acupuncture and the "infertility goddesses" have had on my becoming a mother, I write this post as a thank you to them and to all of those involved in my "inconceivable" journey.

Having built the leading portal for the biotech and pharmaceutical industry, I am quite familiar with the western world's approach to healing.

More than ever, I support it. Am grateful for it. And even invest in it.

With two children who have Type 1 Diabetes, we could not live with out companies like Eli Lilly which produces the required insulin for our children to survive.

However, those who embrace both the western world of medicine and our brothers and sisters' approach in the east stand to increase their chances of finding resolve, just as I first did in 1994.

A 3,000 Year Old Approach To Health & Healing

Oriental medicine has been around for 3,000 years.

Thanks to acupuncture and Chinese herbs, I credit my San Francisco-based acupuncturist, Dr. Angela Wu, for having helped prepare my body for in vitro fertilization ten years ago this fall.

Where I was not successful in getting pregnant via the fresh invitro cycle, nine months later I successfully carried one child to term.

And three years later, a second frozen embryo transfer enabled me to give birth again.

Having been told for thirteen years that I would never be a mother, I was determined to do nearly anything and everything I could to prove my doctors in Palo Alto and at Mass General wrong.

When I did not succeed the first time, instead of being pregnant for nine months, I spent those nine months getting in the best physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual shape I possibly could.

As part of this process, I turned to many sources of support, but especially seven.

Thanks, in part, to my in vitro fertilization doctor, Dr. Louis Weckstein from San Ramon, California, together with my OBGYN, Dr. Jordan Horowitz, Dr. Angela Wu of San Francisco's Wu's Healing Center, and the author of Parenting Begins Before Conception, Carista Luminare-Rosen, Ph.D., along with my husband, our egg donor and the grace of God, today, we are parents of two extraordinary children.

The Facts About Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

* Oriental medicine is a comprehensive health care system encompassing a variety of traditional health care therapies that have been used for more than 3,000 years to diagnose and treat illness, prevent disease and improve well-being.

* Acupuncture is one of the essential elements of Oriental medicine. Other elements include Chinese herbology, bodywork (e.g., acupressure, shiatsu), diet and exercise (e.g., tai chi, qi gong) based on traditional medicinal principles.

* All Oriental medicine modalities are intended to improve the flow of qi (pronounced "chee"). Qi regulates the body's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance and is influenced by the opposing forces of yin (negative energy) and yang (positive energy). According to traditional Chinese medicine, when yin and yang are balanced, they work together with the natural flow of qi to help the body achieve and maintain health.

* According to a National Institutes of Health consensus panel of scientists, researchers, and practitioners who convened in November 1997, clinical studies have shown that acupuncture is an effective treatment for nausea caused by surgical anesthesia and cancer-related treatments, as well as for dental pain experienced after surgery. The panel also found that acupuncture is useful by itself or combined with conventional therapies to treat addiction, headaches, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, asthma, and to assist in stroke rehabilitation.

A Western Medicine Resource Today

Men and women looking to get pregnant through in vitro and IVF have many resources available to them, today.

While we live in San Francisco, a city abundant with qualified doctors, we elected to go all the way out to San Ramon. The investment of time and significant dollars was worth it.

For Dr. Weckstein and his partners' most current record of success at the San Francisco Bay Area's Reproductive Science Center, go to:

An Alternative Medicine Resource for The Future

Meanwhile, my Chinese "brother," Dr. Min Cui, who came to Stanford to get his Ph.D. and to help find a cure for cancer, has returned to Beijing.

He has returned to his roots, after investing years building a biotech company, to create an Oriental medicine-based business.

Some day, he plans to bring his herbs to America.

Merging Western Medicine with Oriental Medicine

In July of this year, a Singapore government-backed biotechnology firm announced it is on track to overcome cultural and psychological barriers between the east and the west by developing an acupuncture pill.

The company claims to have put the traditional Asian method of using needles to address various physical ailments into a tiny capsule.

Tests on the pills are ongoing, and the pill is initially designed to cure migraines by "mimicking the effects of acupuncture," Molecular Acupuncture chief executive David Picard said.

Picard also said:

Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in many parts of Asia, where it's believed that pricking a patient with stainless steel needles in strategic places helps nerve and circulatory functions.

Oriental medicine views disease as a physical expression of imbalances in the body.

Acupuncture and other treatments are designed to restore such balances.

By the end of the study in 2006, scientists would have collated blood samples from over 1,600 migraine sufferers in Singapore and China that will help identify genes and proteins responsible for acupuncture healing.

What we aim to do is to use the western clinical approach and biotechnology to understand the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture and to offer it in a western delivery format to patients.

Molecular Acupuncture Pte Ltd. has set up shop at Singapore's biomedical hub, Biopolis, to pioneer the world's first "acupuncture-in-a-pill" technology.

Headquartered in Singapore with a grant from the Economic Development Board, the biotech company -- which has a panel of French directors and international representation on its board -- was set up with initial capital of $1.5 million. Another $20 million worth of investment is to come over the next three years.

The Company hopes to put the pill on the market by 2014.

Acupuncture in America Today

This Sunday in America acupuncturists around the nation will celebrate Acupuncture Oriental Medicine Day.

There are more than 16,000 certified practitioners in the U.S. who have met nationally recognized standards of safety and competence, and who are committed to the responsible and ethical practice of acupuncture, bodywork and Chinese herbal medicine.

Thanks to the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) you have the opportunity to easily and efficiently identify a qualified practitioner.

To find a qualified practitioner near you, go to:

Unfortunately, the NCCAOM's Directory of Diplomates is not entirely comprehensive, as Dr. Wu was not found among their list of practitioners who provide acupuncture, Chinese herbology, Asian bodywork therapy and/or oriental medicine.

Acupuncture Day

This Sunday is an effort designed to increase public awareness of the progress, promise, and benefits of acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

An estimated 36% of U.S. adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), according to a new survey by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a component of the National Institutes of Health. When megavitamin therapy and prayer specifically for health reasons is included in the definition of CAM, the number of U.S. adults using some form of CAM in the past year rises to 62%. Among the common CAM practices identified by the survey were acupuncture, acupressure, herbal medicine, tai chi and qi gong.

A 2002 survey by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine found that approximately one in ten adults had received acupuncture at least one time and 60% said they would readily consider acupuncture as a potential treatment option.

Nearly half (48%) of the individuals surveyed who had received acupuncture reported that they were extremely satisfied or very satisfied with their treatment.

In addition, one in five (21%) of the total NCCAOM survey respondents reported that they had utilized some other form of Oriental medicine besides acupuncture, such as herbs or bodywork (e.g., shiatsu).

I was not one of the NCCAOM's respondents, but if I had been, I would have likely been slotted in the "extremely satisfied" category.

To learn more about America's Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Day, go to:

Thank you Dr. Wu, Dr. Luminare-Rosen, Dr. Weckstein and Dr. Horowitz.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and "conceivable" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King