BUSINESS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
A9
Demand for ‘integrated’ health care grows
BIZZ
BUZZ
By Bill Bradshaw
Acupuncture,
Oriental medicine
clinic thrives
E
NTERPRISE — Tired
of pills? Dread sur-
gery? Eagle Cap Well-
ness may have the type of
health care you’re looking
for.
Jamie Kimball, a doctor
of acupuncture and Orien-
tal medicine, recently moved
her 4-year-old practice from
her original location on East
Main Street to 616 W. North
St. across from Happy Gar-
dens Chinese Restaurant.
“We’re a wellness center,”
Kimball said. “We provide
integrated health care along
with traditional medicine to
give people an option out-
side of what you would con-
sider traditional or Western
medicine. There are a lot of
terms involved to what we do
— integrative, I think, is the
most ‘PC’ word these days.”
She also recently wel-
comed Amy Zahm, another
DAOM, to her practice,
which consists of fi ve prac-
titioners and two offi ce staff .
The clinic off ers acupuncture,
chiropractic, naturopathic,
physical therapy and massage
services, as well as a holistic
approach that often uses body
work, supplements, herbs and
nutritional guidance.
Zahm, Kimball said, had
been practicing at another
wellness center in Wallowa
County since the early 2000s
and joined Eagle Cap in early
February.
Kimball said she and
Zahm “treat all sorts of con-
ditions, pain, anxiety, you
name it. We can treat any-
thing that walks into our
door.”
Contrary to the concerns
the uninitiated may have
about acupuncture, she said
it’s actually quite painless
and very relaxing. It’s about
inserting a needle into one of
500 spots on the body where,
based on the practitioner’s
knowledge of the body, she
can achieve an expected
result.
“How I determine where
I put in the points is based on
what the person is telling me,
what I feel in their pulse —
pulse diagnosis is a big part
of acupuncture — and then
what I feel in their body,”
Kimball said. “The points get
placed in areas of either mus-
cle tension or diff erent points
depending on their action and
what they do. The points bal-
ance out the hormones, they
calm down the nervous sys-
tem, they release your body’s
own natural endorphins —
it’s kind of like taking a pain
pill, only naturally — and it
gets the body to establish a
whole new stasis.”
She said the tiny needles
are smaller than a human hair
and about 100 could be fi t
inside a standard hypodermic
needle.
“You don’t feel them
when they go in — some-
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
An acupuncture needle — which is smaller than a human hair — is shown by Jamie Kimball, a doctor of acupuncture and
Oriental medicine, at her clinic, Eagle Cap Wellness, in Enterprise. The clinic moved to its current location in January.
times you can feel a tiny lit-
tle bit of a pinch, but for the
most part you don’t feel any-
thing,” she said. “That’s one
of people’s biggest surprises
is they’re really scared it’s
going to hurt and it doesn’t.
The nice part about it is after
you get the needles in, you
get to lay there for 20 min-
utes and during that 20 min-
utes is when your body
releases all its natural endor-
phins and it’s a very relaxing
experience. Even if you’re a
‘Type A’ personality and your
brain doesn’t like to shut off
very easily, everybody is able
to relax because it’s released
those endorphins.”
But the clinic is about
more than acupuncture.
“The herbal medicine
is another big part of what
we do,” she said. “I can’t
treat any internal conditions
without the herbs. The acu-
puncture does a lot, but the
herbs are a big part of the
medicine.”
Having studied for 10
years, primarily at the Ore-
gon College of Oriental Med-
icine in Portland, she found
her studies quite similar to
that which a traditional medi-
cal doctor undergoes.
“OCOM is a really cool
college because they focus
a lot on Western terminol-
ogy and being able to inte-
grate acupuncture and herbs
into the Western world,”
Kimball said, adding that
while many Oriental med-
icine schools study a more
philosophy-based approach,
“OCOM is defi nitely a more
medical-based approach
where we take what we do
and can integrate it with other
providers.”
In so doing, here in Wal-
lowa County she’s devel-
oped a good working rela-
tionship with practitioners of
traditional medicine. She’s
also credentialed to practice
at Wallowa Memorial Hos-
pital, although she does not
perform surgery, which is not
considered a part of Oriental
medicine.
“I work closely with a
lot of providers in the com-
munity, so if we think sur-
gery’s necessary, I can refer
(patients) to them,” she said.
“What I do is preimpose sur-
gery support and help with
surgery recovery.”
She emphasizes that
her practice does not try to
replace traditional medicine.
“Western medicine is still
absolutely needed,” she said.
“There are things I can’t do
— I can’t cure cancer. I can’t
fi x a failed kidney. But can
I help with cancer support?
Yes. Can I help with nausea
and other side eff ects from
chemotherapy? I can cer-
tainly help with that.”
HAPPY
ST. PATRICK’S
DAY
Contact Jennifer today
and try your luck at
advertising in the Chieftain
jcooney@wallowa.com
cell 541-805-9630
209 NW First St.,
Enterprise, OR 97828
541-426-4567
Kimball said the herbal
medicine and acupuncture
also can help with today’s
COVID-19 pandemic.
Though she doesn’t claim
to be able to cure it, she cer-
tainly can help.
“Yes, I can help with the
symptoms of COVID-19.
Last March, when it became
a big thing and it came out
of China, and of course Chi-
nese medicine is out of
China and all these formu-
las were developed around
trying to treat the symptoms
of COVID, such as the lung
issues and things like that,”
she said. “I really haven’t had
the opportunity to treat some-
body who’s lost their taste
or smell, but I do think acu-
puncture’s going to help and
there have been some arti-
cles that’ve come out about
it. I just haven’t had any-
body come into my clinic.
Thankfully, it hasn’t been
a huge issue in our county
until recently, so I haven’t
had a ton of people come in
for treatment for it. But I do
think it can help some of the
residual eff ects (of contract-
ing the virus).”
Kimball said most insur-
ance plans cover treatment
at her clinic, including Med-
icaid. However, there’s still
work to be done to get Medi-
care to cover it.
Still, demand for the inte-
grated health care she off ers
is growing.
“It’s amazing the demand
there is for a diff erent form of
health care, so I have grown
exponentially in four years,”
Kimball said. “I have grown
because people want some-
thing diff erent than just a pill.
They want something diff er-
ent than surgery. They want
more wellness. They want
more natural medicine. They
want an alternative. I think
that’s why our business has
grown as much as it has.”
———
Bill Bradshaw is a reporter
for the Wallowa County
Chieftain. Have a business
tip? Contact him at 541-398-
5503 or bbradshaw@wal-
lowa.com.
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