Chinese acupuncturist Fang Mu comes to North Carolina

Fang Mu (pronounced Fahng Moo) has set up shop in the piedmont area of North Carolina, where the major employers for a hundred miles around are strongholds of traditional western medicine. She is looking for ways to reach out to the regional medical centers and physicians, to discuss the use of acupuncture in treating  a wide range of ailments. Fang is one of the few authentic Chinese acupuncturists in the state.

Fang Mu moved to the Greensboro area in  August, 2001, and treats patients in an office in her home in the community of Oak Ridge, North Carolina. She can be reached at 336-643-8838.

Behind the soft voice and sometimes demure manner is a seasoned acupuncturist with 20 years’ experience.

Fang was first tutored in the art of acupuncture by her father, a successful acupuncturist in China, who also taught her Chinese Kung Fu, Chi Gong and Chinese swordplay.

She was a girl of 12 when her mother developed a herniated lumbar disk and became paralyzed from the waist down. Fang watched attentively each day as her father quietly treated her mother with daily sessions of acupuncture and Chinese massage. In three months later, she was completely cured.

Soon, Fang began accompanying her father each week to the hospital, where she practiced Chinese medicine by his side. Her interest in healing led her to pursue  formal training, and in 1986, Fang received her medical doctor degree for acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine at Jiangxi Traditional Chinese Medicine College.

In China, a visit to the doctor is a visit to the acupuncturist.

For the next eight years, Fang practiced in a 600-bed hospital in Guang Zhou near Hong Kong, treating, as she says, "everything." Remember that in China, a visit to the doctor or to the hospital is a visit to the acupuncturist. As a result, Fang has healed patients with a wide range of ailments, from arthritis to clinical depression.

The adage, “physician heal thyself, is quite apropos in Fang Mu’s life. When she was born, her body was weak and she often got sick.

“My father taught to play sword to strengthen my body when I was a little girl, ” she said. “After I went to the hospital and became a doctor, I realized how important the sword play is. It helps me understand more about how to use energy through the needle. It is all about balance—and the balance in the energy meridians is an important part of both sword play and acupuncture. Another example of this inner-outer balance is the way that Tai Chi movements look slow, but inside there is a very powerful energy.”

In 1993 she moved to Oklahoma City with her husband Bin, a medical researcher. Before moving to North Carolina, she treated patients in Oklahoma City for six and a half years. She is board-certified in the U.S. and in the state of North Carolina, and is a nationally certified Chinese herbalist. Her treatments typically include a combination of acupuncture, Chinese massage and herbal remedies.

“My goal is to bring the patient's body back into balance so he or she can feel more comfortable and the condition can be resolved,” Fang said. “Chinese medicine works with yin and yang and the balance of energy meridians in the body. For instance, men are more yang, and women are more yin, but these get out of balance, and when they do, organs in the body will begin to have a problem. Up until the age of 40, a woman’s body is generally more cold—yin, than a man’s, but after 40, a woman’s body begins to heat up, and she may experience hot flashes and emotional upsets and nervousness—then, she needs a balance in her yin and yang energies.”

Treatments Fang gave to a Down Syndrome man restored feeling and mobility to his legs, even after traditional medical doctors said nothing could be done to help him. She has provided supportive care for chemotherapy and radiation therapy and has aided rehabilitation and recovery from surgery, pregnancy and accidents.

“An ancient Chinese saying explains that when the body’s good energy is strong, the immune system is stronger and your body can fight illness,” she said.

Her belief in the healing power of acupuncture has led her to co-author several academic papers, including a 1997 abstract on the effectiveness of acupuncture on gastric myoelectrical activity, published in the September 1997 issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology. She has also written about the use of Chinese medicine to treat insomnia, delirium, and hematuria (blood in urine) caused by the use of sulfacetamide on brain tumor patients (Chinese Journal of Nephrology 8(3): 120). She has lectured on the use of Chinese medicine in treating kidney failure, chronic renal failure, and the treatment of liver cancer by opening energy meridians in the surrounding stagnant tissue.

It is said that the transition from speaking Chinese to English is one of the most difficult linguistic maneuvers of all. Fang’s accent is heavy, and her use of English is not as advanced as her skills with Chinese medicine, but that makes no difference to clients.

Jut Meininger, author of “How To Run Your Own Life” and other books on personal growth, was treated by Fang in Oklahoma. “Frankly, I think Fang Mu's top-notch traditional training and high level intuitive skills put her near the top of all Chinese doctors not just in America but throughout the world,” he said.

Fang enjoys taking time to talk with patients. “I want them to understand their body,” she said. “The patient and the doctor are like yin and yang—they are both really one part, like all the parts of the body are really one part. And so, the result is only good if they both work in harmony together.”

Contact Fang Mu at www.muacupuncture.com or go to next article on alternative healing