While lunching on the usual, President Caroline stood to announce that she had two Happy Dollars to give: Sarah White’s return and Joe Preddy’s attendance at today’s meeting. When asked why the absence, Sarah said she was having babies; Joe responded that he wasn’t having babies. President Caroline called on Sue for a Secretary’s Report; she stood and reported there wasn’t one. When asked for a Treasurer’s Report, Elizabeth had none, but she said that she had received the bookmarks for the dictionary/atlas distributions from Jeff and Keith Blow of Jet Service Envelopes. Many thanks to them; great supporters of Barre Rotary.  She also plans to provide information on RYLA and the Speech Contest to Orange and Washington schools when she and Joe distribute dictionaries and atlases this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Caroline announced our speaker, Kirk White, who made his own introduction.

 

Kirk is a Rotarian, having served as president of the Bethel Area Rotary Club in 2008-2009, and his daughter having gone to India as a Rotary Exchange Student. He is a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, having opened his office in Barre in 1995.  He is a charter member and a

past director of the Vermont Acupuncture Association and for several years taught at an Oriental Medical School. In his spare time, he is a very active Freemason and is president and founder of the Bethel Revitalization Initiative and its annual “Bethel University.” He lives in Bethel on the old family farmstead with his wife of twenty-five years, along with four cats, one dog, and two miniature donkeys.

 

He began his presentation with two questions: “Who has had acupuncture and has it worked?” As expected, he received mixed results. He admitted that it doesn’t work for everyone. Acupuncture is a Chinese healing process that is four thousand years old. It is a licensed profession requiring academic work. It is a larger part of Oriental or Asian medicine. In a Vermont legislative study, acupuncture was listed as a non-opiate form of pain management, but it is not covered by insurance. In one research project on chronic pain it was found that acupuncture reduced pain for 59% of those in the treatment group and that doctors indicated they would refer patients to an acupuncturist.  Recently Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Vermont said it is in favor of covering acupuncture as a treatment for pain, but presently neither it nor Medicare and Medicaid do.

Kirk opened his business twenty three years ago and began treating dairy farmers in and around Bethel for COPD and bad knees. He said that the farmers never cared why or how it worked; they just accepted that it did work. Over the years, he has treated workers from the granite industry in Barre and lawyers, doctors, and professors in Burlington. He sees Western medicine as the “hardware” whereas Eastern medicine is the “software.” He said that there are fourteen channels in the body that make up one’s Chi and there are three hundred and sixty-five places closest to the skin where needles can be stuck to relieve pain and treat unhealthy conditions. He told us that sticking a needle in a breach baby’s toe can result in the baby turning to ensure a safe delivery. In answering a question on the “mind over matter” effect, he responded that it works with dogs and horses and they’re not thinking about it. He went on to point out that the placebo effect is powerful in both Eastern and Western medicine. For the treatment of chronic pain, he viewed the process as a bio-, socio-, and psycho-modality. He then demonstrated the procedure by sticking a needle in his hand. In answers to other questions, he said that the most treated aches, pains, and conditions are arthritis, joint, stress, anxiety and infertility. Usually four treatments are recommended, but it does vary with the type and severity of the aliment. Acupuncture can also be used for athletic performance enhancement.

 

Rotarians showed a great interest and if time had permitted, many more questions would have been asked. We showed our appreciation for his stimulating talk with a warm round of applause.