A16
BUSINESS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Eagle Cap Wellness expands current clinic, opens new site
By Ellen Morris Bishop
Wallowa County Chieftain
Acupuncture, which orig-
inated in China more than
2,000 years ago, is one of
the oldest existing therapies
in medicine—and one of the
newest in Wallowa County.
It’s also one of the fastest
growing medical practices
here, with four acupunc-
turists in the county offer-
ing treatments for a full
spectrum of medical needs,
from eliminating wrinkles
to reducing chronic physi-
cal pain to managing stress,
anxiety, and depression,
as well as treating internal
medical issues.
Acupuncture is in such
great demand here that
Eagle Cap Wellness has
moved to larger quarters in
the EM&M Building at 117
East Main Street in Enter-
prise. And they have opened
a second, walk-in clinic in
Joseph. That facility, at 4
South Main Street, Joseph,
is open only on Friday and
Saturday from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m., and offers “walk-in
acupuncture,” with no
appointment necessary. The
catch, or maybe the advan-
tage, is that your treatment
will be in an open room with
up to four other people pres-
ent, and in varying stages
of their individual session.
While that doesn’t afford
much privacy, some stud-
ies suggest that acupunc-
ture in a group setting may
actually enhance or amplify
the effect of individual treat-
ments. The other advantage
is that each treatment costs
only $25.
Licensed
acupunctur-
ist Jamie Slagel, MACOM,
LAc, opened Eagle Cap
Wellness in 2016 with a
small, one-room studio
inside Belle Salon. Slagel
is a 2014 graduate of the
Oregon College of Oriental
Medicine, holding a masters
degree (MACOM) in acu-
puncture and oriental med-
icine. She fi ne-tuned her
formal education here with
studies and practice at Nan-
Ellen Morris Bishop
Essential oils and herbal medicines are important components
of treatments at Eagle Cap Wellness.
Ellen Morris Bishop
Acupuncturist Jamie Slagel, MACOM, LAC, applies thin
acupuncture needles to a patient’s arm for treatment of
anxiety.
jing University in China. “In
China, the hospitals offer
specialized
acupuncture
more than traditional medi-
cine,” Slagel said. “You can
walk into a hospital or clinic,
and fi nd a wing dedicated
to acupuncture for specifi c
kinds of internal medicine,
or cosmetics, or psycho-
logical needs. There’s less
of what we consider here,
and the pharmacological
offerings are more oriented
toward herbal medicines.”
Demand for her services
mushroomed. And so when
the Enterprise City Hall
moved out of their tempo-
rary quarters and into their
new building, Slagel saw
an opportunity to expand.
Eagle Cap Wellness took
their space (117 East Main
Street), adding three new
treatment rooms. With more
space, Eagle Cap Wellness
added a second acupunc-
turist, Julia Collins, who is
also a graduate of the Ore-
gon College of Oriental
Medicine. Collins brings a
talent for Yoga and certifi -
cation in Shiatsu massage
to the practice, along with
a deep interest in caregiv-
ing, hospice and the benefi ts
of acupuncture and herbal
medicine for an aging pop-
ulation. “When I was going
to medical school, I was a
caregiver for a man who had
been injured when a car ran
into his bicycle,” she said.
He became a paraplegic as a
result. “It was a very moving
experience, and it inspired
me to think and learn more
about caring for people who
needed more help.”
With two acupunctur-
ists on staff, Slagel wanted
someone with a complemen-
tary background. She found
that in Bonnie Wickwire, a
board-certifi ed chiroprac-
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tor and naturopath, who had
been working at Winding
Waters’ Holistic Health and
Healing Clinic. Wickwire
brings more than 25 years of
experience, including teach-
ing at Portland’s colleges of
Naturopathy and Chiroprac-
tic. She is an expert at sooth-
ing tired backs, realigning
painful spines, and prescrib-
ing herbal medicines that
can extinguish pain, soothe
digestive upsets, and calm
frayed nerves.
“We have a really exten-
sive stock of herbal med-
icines here,” Slagel said.
People can come by, talk
with us, and pick up all kinds
of supplements instead of
ordering from the Internet.
We take pride in the qual-
ity of our supplements and
are trying to have a compre-
hensive and thorough phar-
macy.” Some of the bottles
sport labels in Chinese. Sla-
gel pulled one of them off
the shelf and pointed to the
ingredients, listed in English
on the back. “This one has
some scorpion in it,” she
said cheerfully. “It helps
treat Bell’s Palsy.”
To most of us, the idea
of sticking needles into our
arms, face, ears, back or neck
hardly seems like a way to
reduce pain or treat anxiety.
And yet it works. “Some of
the high school athletes use
acupuncture and cupping
to help them recover after
an event,” Slagel said. “It’s
really pretty popular.” Other
applications of acupuncture
include dental pain, head-
aches, including migraines,
and the pains associate with
labor and childbirth. “We
encourage people to reach
out to us for whatever might
be ailing them,” Slagel said.
Acupuncture is based on
the ancient Chinese princi-
pal that energy (qi) fl ows
through our bodies along
pathways known as merid-
ians. By inserting very thin
needles into these meridians,
the fl ow of energy can be
rebalanced to alleviate pain,
establish a more positive
energy in the brain, thus alle-
viating stress, anxiety and
depression, or just get exces-
sively tight muscles to relax.
A more Western understand-
ing of the process is that acu-
puncture points are actually
places where inserted nee-
dles stimulate nerves, mus-
cles, and connective tissues,
and the body’s production of
stress-relieving hormones
known as endorphins.
However
acupuncture
works, the procedure is
generally painless — with
occasional very minimal
pain--when the needles are
inserted or removed. They
are virtually un-noticable
while they are there. Slagel
and Collins do their work
and then allow their patients
to lie comfortably and qui-
etly for exactly 27 minutes
before returning to remove
the needles painlessly. That
is the precise time required
for the qi to be optimally
balanced, Slagel said.
While conventional med-
icine may still harbor some
reservations about the true
effectiveness of acupunc-
ture, many studies indi-
cate that it works for a wide
variety of ailments, espe-
cially for those who take it
seriously. For example, the
National Institute of Health
reports that “.. acupuncture
may help ease types of pain
that are often chronic such
as low back pain, neck pain,
and osteoarthritis/knee pain.
It also may help reduce the
frequency of tension head-
aches and prevent migraine
headaches. Therefore, acu-
puncture appears to be a rea-
sonable option for people
with chronic pain to con-
sider. “
And a comprehensive
study of acupuncture’s
effectiveness for treatment
of depression, published in
the prestigious Journal of
Affective Disorders con-
cluded that “….acupuncture
was an effective treatment
that could reduce the sever-
ity of disease in patients
with depression.”
The increased popularity
of acupuncture in Wallowa
County suggests that many
people here fi nd it benefi -
cial. With growing options
and opportunities for treat-
ment, this ancient medicine
is going to be here for a long
time to come.