She was told she needed back surgery. Now, she sees Chi twice a month and has been free of pain and free of the chair. I'm in better shape with less pain than I ever was, Weiss said. Delia Grigsby of Fallsburg had an intense digestion problem that didnt react to orthodox medical treatment. I had what they call acid reflux disease, she said. After three treatments of acupuncture and tissue reprocessing from Tom, it completely cleared up. This happens every day to my patients, Chi said. A number of years ago, Chi treated Oprah Winfrey, who said after one treatment, Fabulous! Fabulous! Tom says the key to his success is the combination of acupuncture and Soft Tissue Reprocessing. But you have to be careful about who does the acupuncture, he said. A licensed acupuncturist has to have 4,000 training hours to get Natl board certification, while an MD can become a certified acupuncturist after only 300 hours of training. A licensed acupuncturist is a real acupuncturist, while a certified acupuncturist is a hobbyist, he said. Chis Mountain Medical Acupuncture Clinic maintains locations in Fallsburg and Middletown. To schedule an appointment call 845-436-9000. www.FixPainNow.com
TOM CHI, ACUPUNCTURIST AND RELIEVER OF PAIN By TOM KANE FALLSBURG, NY As I get older, Im starting to hear people say to me, when I complain about pains and aches, Oh, thats arthritis. At your age, you cant do anything about it. Take painkillers. Even doctors have said the same. I rejected the opinion even though it came from MDs because early in my pain career I ran into an acupuncturist named Tom Chi, who does something he calls Soft Tissue Reprocessing, which he performs with exceedingly strong fingers. Chi is the pain killer man. I had a chronic pain in my neck for about four years. I tried several chiropractors, but beyond affording me some short relief, they didnt help. Nothing lasted. I tried two massage therapists and had the same experience. The doctors suggested neck surgery, but I was not about to go under the knife. It was a real pain in the neck until Chi came into my life. I met him at a presentation on complementary medicine at the Catskill Regional Medical Center. In just three treatments, the pain was gone rapidly, permanently and completely. I havent had a pain in the neck ever since, except a metaphorical one. Once in a while, I get a twinge in my neck, but it soon disappears with a little exercise and stretching. I can hear the voice of the skeptical reader saying, Just because relief came after Chi doesnt mean that it happened because of Chi. Not in this instance. There couldnt have been any other factor in my sudden and complete relief than Chis treatments. Chis way of analyzing medical diagnoses is certainly not orthodox. Arthritis is a ridiculous diagnosis, he says over and over. You take a picture of the spine of an arthritic patient and see degeneration of the bones. The picture does not focus on the soft tissue and tendons, which is where the pain is. Its the glued condition of muscles and tendons that cause the pain, not the bone degeneration. That fact, Chi said, came as the result of a renowned study that showed
a group of people who had CAT scans and who were in pain; 50 percent had bone degeneration and had arthritis. When CAT scans were done with another group of people who were not in pain, 50 percent of those people had arthritic bone degeneration with no pain, he said. The conclusion of the study was that pain is not caused by arthritis in most cases. There are types of arthritis that can cause pain, but theyre mechanical problems. Theyre muscle and tendon problems, he said. Its these problems that Chi relieves with his unique type of massage. He claims that many doctors who do arthroscopic surgery on a patients knee do it needlessly. Many of these patients have to have knee replacements a few years later. Chi cited a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine which stated, Knee surgery to remove cartilage is worse than doing nothing. Chi is convinced that much of this surgery is unnecessary and that his kind of treatment, which combines acupuncture and Soft Tissue Reprocessing, can help patients to avoid knee replacements. They tell you that your knee is weak so you have to do exercise so your muscles can get stronger, he said. They dont recognize that injury in the muscle has to be corrected first. The cells in the tissue are glued together by a fluid that forms an adhesion, and thats why the knee feels weak, he said. What I do with the soft tissue is dissolve those adhesions, he said. Pain is mechanical, Chi says. You have to go right in there and fix it. Chis unique success comes from the fact that for many years he intensely practiced Wing Chun, an unusual form of Kung Fu that left him with super-sensitive strong fingers. What it did for me was give me an ability to feel adhesions in the soft tissue, like in muscles and ligaments, he said. My fingers act like high awareness sensors. In some amazing cases, Chis treatment has worked wonders. Gloria Weiss of Fallsburg had acute pain in her back from a car accident and went to Chi confined to a wheel chair.