When Marsha Best was growing up, her mother, Gladys Stewart, received acupuncture treatment to ease her multiple sclerosis symptoms.
These early experiences prompted Best to go to Sri Lanka to train in acupuncture treatment herself — at the time, back in the 1980s, there were very few places in North America offering training in the discipline.
In 1988, she opened a business that's now known as the Be Well Acupuncture and Wellness Clinic. Best figures she's served 200,000 patients over the past 30 years.
This past April, she retired, passing the reins of the business to her daughter, Crystal Best Labranche, also an acupuncturist.
The business is holding a retirement party for Best this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Be Well Acupuncture and Wellness Clinic, located at 30 Notre Dame St. in Azilda.
The party, a fundraiser for YWCA Canada, features a charity barbecue, other refreshments such as popcorn, sno cones and cotton candy, live music, face painting and a bouncy castle for the kids.
Best, who's 59 years old, said now that she's retired, she's been able to spend more time with her four young grandchildren and at her cottage on Agnew Lake.
She and her husband were also able to go on an RV trip to Alaska this spring.
It's a welcome breather from the hectic pace she kept up during her working life, in which she only took two weeks' holiday a year.
“When I finished practising, I was treating like 175 patients a week,” she said.
“We'd work long days. Sometimes you'd go in at 8 a.m. and leave at 8 p.m., but it was about client service and care.”
Acupuncture, a key component of traditional Chinese medicine, involves inserting thin needles into the body.
“Does it hurt?” Best said. “I say 'Not me.' The more relaxed the patient is, the easier they are to get into them.”
According to information provided by the Mayo Clinic, the benefits of acupuncture are sometimes difficult to measure, but many people find it helpful as a means to control a variety of painful conditions.
Several studies, however, indicate that some types of simulated acupuncture appear to work just as well as real acupuncture. There's also evidence that acupuncture works best in people who expect it to work.
However, the Mayo Clinic goes on to say that acupuncture has few side effects, so it may be worth a try if you're having trouble controlling pain with more-conventional methods.
Best said she's had good results in patients with a variety of conditions, including anxiety and depression, migranes and pain.
Acupuncture, in stimulating nerves, muscles and connective tissue, causes the body to secrete endorphins, she said, which helps to ease these conditions, she said.
At least that's how Western practitioners see acupuncture.
Traditional Chinese medicine explains acupuncture as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as chi or qi (chee) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body, the Mayo Clinic said.
By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.
In Best's opinion, the western and eastern philosophies of acupuncture don't conflict, but rather “marry each other well.”
There's been some big changes in the acupuncture profession since 2013, as the Ontario government regulated the profession, setting up the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario.
“There were 8,000 acupuncturists practising in Ontario in 2013,” she said.
“These changes happened, and there's 2,200 now. So only 2,200 completed their requirements to fulfill the new college … It's all to protect the public, which is good.”
Best said it's been her honour to serve the community for so long. “It was a great career,” she said. “It was really fulfilling for me to help people.”
Learn more about Be Well Acupuncture and Wellness Clinic on its website.
