Husband, Wife Acupuncture Team Use Needles to Heal

Linda Meyer and Miguel Bautista run Healthy by Nature, an acupuncture center on Route 31

The pounding began behind her eyes. She took Aleve, Tylenol and all kinds of pills, but still, it remained. For Mary Waddick, the migraines began when she was 6 years old, and the pain stayed for more than four decades. The headaches kept her from school, from work and from social situations. "I was willing to stand upside down on my head if that would work," said Waddick, 50, of Cary. "I was so desperate." She opted for needles instead. And for Waddick, acupuncture worked. She goes twice a week now to Healthy by Nature Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Center, 9231 S. Highway 31, an acupuncture and massage treatment center at Trinity Commons in Lake in the Hills. There, husband and wife acupuncture team Miguel Bautista and Linda Meyer work…

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Verdict Still Out on Acupuncture's Healing Powers

Erin Chan Ding says procedure offers relaxation, but she is still skeptical if treatment heals.

The needle measured 1 1/2 inches long. Half an inch of it would go into my skin. I lay on a massage table, a cushion below my knees, an aroma of herbs and lavender and incense wafting through the room. I tried to relax, but when I peeked at the needles, a frisson of anxiety shot through me. My feet began perspiring. Acupuncturist Linda Meyer held the first needle, approaching my forehead. I felt a pinch, a slight pulling and then, well, nothing really, except a greater awareness of my body, like I could feel blood rushing through my veins and arteries, everything doing what it was supposed to do. The tugging felt greater when Meyer inserted needles in each of my hands at the point between my thumb and index finger, but the initial puncture…

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