Dr. Na Zhai Clinic Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

Mary's Energy Is Reawakened

“I know that I don’t have that many years left, and I don’t want to sleep them all away!” Eighty-year-old Mary pleaded with her physician to cure the mysterious exhaustion that held her in its intractable grip.

Just a few years earlier, Mary had been the epitome of a whirlwind—leading an extraordinarily energetic and dynamic life. With true joie de vivre, she kept a full social calendar and relished adventurous excursions, all while managing numerous caregiving responsibilities.

“My husband had heart problems and was sick for a long time, and I had to take care of him. After his death, I turned right around and took care of my mother, who was ninety-one years old, until she passed away,” Mary recalled.

Mary’s high-paced existence began to fade when she was seventy-five. She started noticing feelings of tiredness that gradually worsened until her health was completely overtaken. Formerly a veritable dynamo, Mary was now barely able to get out of bed each day. She told her physician that she couldn’t get up until one or two in the afternoon and felt completely exhausted after being awake for only an hour or two.

“If I tried to force myself not to go to bed again, I would actually get nauseated, and then I would get really crabby, so I just had to lie down [again],” she explained.

Mary also told her doctor about the sinus problems that accompanied her daily lethargy. A plethora of lab tests and screenings, including an extensive sleep study, revealed no clues about her condition. Her doctor concluded that she most likely had chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), an ailment considered incurable by the mainstream medical community.

Despite this daunting news, Mary pressed on with her usual activities, literally dragging herself to social events and excursions. She recounted:

“When I took bus trips, I found myself asleep on the bus and on the benches at the entrances of shopping malls. I couldn’t catch up with the group. Finally, I decided to go on cruises instead, because on cruises, I could sleep in my cabin a lot and still be with the other travelers.”

It was during a cruise that Mary gained a new insight into her condition. While she was resting in her cabin, the cruise director approached her, having noticed her obvious listlessness. Concerned, he said, “You need more energy. We have acupuncture treatments that can help you.”

Mary recalled considering his suggestion: “I thought, if I have acupuncture here, how could I continue the treatment? Besides, I didn’t know who was doing this—what did they know?”

Although she declined the treatments while on the cruise, Mary became seriously interested in acupuncture as a form of therapy for her condition. When she brought up the idea with her family doctor, he responded favorably and referred her to a local practitioner of Chinese medicine, Dr. Na Zhai.

Mary’s doctor thought acupuncture was worth trying, given that the practice has been used by Chinese physicians for thousands of years. However, Mary remembered that he wasn’t entirely confident in its effectiveness for treating chronic fatigue syndrome.

“My doctor said, ‘There is a particular virus that could cause CFS. If the acupuncture isn’t working, I can look for the virus. But I have to tell you, if your symptoms are caused by the virus, there would be no cure.’”

Mary turned away from her doctor’s dubious offer and toward a more hopeful alternative with Dr. Na on September 13, 2006.

After thoroughly examining and interviewing Mary, Dr. Na, as usual, began her treatment—a unique acupuncture protocol paired with a special herbal formula called Body Clean. In fact, these two approaches had become routine for every patient in her clinic, especially new ones.

Acupuncture is used to invigorate and awaken the entire body system, while Body Clean—created by Dr. Na—was designed to cleanse the colon, in other words, to unload the “garbage” accumulated there over the years. After decades of clinical experience, Dr. Na recognized that the body has an intelligent self-healing system, and that accumulated waste in the colon can often hinder the body’s natural functions.

After her first acupuncture treatment, Mary felt somewhat better immediately. She started taking Body Clean that same day.

Mary visited Dr. Na twice a week for a month, then once a week, and later once a month for maintenance. While her acupuncture treatment remained consistent, she began taking different herbal formulas to support her kidneys, adrenals, and sinuses. According to Dr. Na, in Chinese herbology, a number of herbs—including licorice, ginseng, and rehmannia—are used therapeutically to support the endocrine system. These tonic herbs contain substances believed to act as precursors for adrenal hormone production.

After one month under Dr. Na’s care, Mary exclaimed, “I feel good! I get up in the morning and I don’t have to go [back] to bed—just like normal people!”

By the end of the second month, Mary excitedly reported that she felt ninety to one hundred percent improved. She believes Dr. Na has truly worked a miracle on her health. She is now back to savoring life to the fullest.

In early 2007, she took a chartered bus trip and was able to keep pace with her fellow “shopaholic” passengers all afternoon. Later, she and her travel companions stayed up until midnight, singing and playing cards.

“I was one of those Energizer bunnies, whistling and singing,” Mary happily reminisced.

After returning from a trip to Europe, Mary boasted to Dr. Na, “I had a wonderful trip. I got up at five a.m. and went to bed at ten p.m., and I did not miss a beat!”

Dr. Na found Mary’s story inspiring and particularly revealing about the nature of chronic fatigue syndrome. She compared Mary’s case with that of another CFS patient, Pam, who is nearly forty years younger than Mary.

While both patients’ CFS originated from kidney issues, Mary’s kidney imbalance was caused by the long-term stress of caring for elderly parents—a period that lasted five years—while Pam’s resulted primarily from pharmaceutical toxicity over thirteen years. Mary, nearly twice as old as Pam, recovered in one-third of the time Pam did.

Dr. Na concluded:
“Age is not the main determinant in healing from chronic fatigue syndrome; rather, it is the length of exposure and extent of damage from the illness. When individuals with this condition receive treatment as soon as possible, the symptoms are less crystallized and easier to reverse.”