Zhao Acupuncture

This is somewhat lengthy. That’s because it is aimed at fellow white people, who may not have much experience of this style of treatment, and are curious what will happen. Chinese patients will know what to expect.
I had a positive experience at Dr Zhao’s office. But I did not come in with a positive attitude at all. In the past I had gone to a chiropractor for treatment. He brought me back again and again and I felt no improvement. So I began with a doubtful attitude towards alternative medicine.
I came to the office due to hip pain. The pain was centered on my right hip. The area was about the size of a fist but would expand to 2 or 3 times that size from time to time. I especially felt pain when rising from bed. It hurt when I lifted my leg up and away from my body. The pain persisted for a long time without improvement. After a few months, I went to my physician. He examined me, ordered Xrays and eventually a CT scan. Nothing was found and he did not suggest any further treatment. My wife suggested that I go to Dr Zhao’s office.
The first treatment was massage. I lay face down on an exam table. First the doctor’s assistant, then later the doctor massaged and probed areas of my back and leg. Often they apply pressure to an area with fingers or the palm of their hand. At the same time they bend one of my legs and pump it back and forth. This allows them to apply pressure to an area while the muscles are moving. The doctor also applies chiropractic-​like techniques where he braces your body to a desired postion, then pulls your shoulder to align your spine. He uses firm though gentle force and this treatment I would describe as vigorous.
After one treatment, the pain in the hip went away completely. The next day it came back but much lessened, perhaps ¹⁄₃ of the original pain. A week later I had a second treatment. At that time the pain went away completely and hasn’t returned. Dr Zhao said that although the pain was centered at the hip, that is not where the problem was. He recommended continuing the massage and «torqueing» of my back. Additionally, he suggested adding acupuncture to the treatment. My wife explains that this is typical of Chinese medical philosophy. The techniques used are relatively gentle and gradual. A fairly long time period is needed to complete them. I’m not sure I’m completely on-​board with this, but I’ve been to the office about 10 times now. One of the other reviewers wondered why he was asked to come back again and again. I am not an expert on Chinese medical techniques, but I can say that both doctors and patients believe and accept this «many visits» process. Obviously, you can stop any time. It’s not a big issue for me because luckily my company insurance covers nearly all the cost. Once the hip pain was gone, I felt stiffness in my lower back on the right side. Although they continued to work along my back and leg, I could feel that they were putting a lot of attention on the area where I felt the stiffness and back pain even though I didn’t mention it to them.
A word on communication: Dr Zhao communicates OK in English but is not confident. His assistant Wendy is not a native speaker but communicates well with no problems at all. Wendy typically does the warm-​up massage. Dr Zhao then comes and continues that, plus any further treatment such as back alignment or acupuncture. Dr Zhao has strong confidence in his ability to see and feel your problems, and doesn’t always feel the need to ask you for input. Because of that, you will need to make an effort to ask questions. And to tell them where you are feeling pain or stiffness. Also, which activities you should avoid (if any) to prevent further injury, and so on. If you don’t ask questions, Dr Zhao is happy to perform the treatment and assumes things are going OK.
A word on acupuncture: I don’t know anything about acupuncture. I don’t know why anyone would expect it work. I don’t know if it is helping me. The doctor wants to do it, so I’m giving it a chance. But even though I am not a believer in acupuncture, for anyone who is afraid of needles I do want to reassure you. My experience with acupuncture has been that it doesn’t hurt. Imagine someone is touching your skin with a toothpick. You can tell that the object is sharp and you can feel pressure on a small area of your skin. But you don’t really have a painful feeling of being stabbed. The treatment is typically for 6 to 10 needles. A small area of skin is rubbed with a fluid or ointment. The needle is applied (not painful, at all). Once all the needles are in place a heat lamp gently heats that area of your body. The lamp is on a timer. When the timer beeps the lamp goes out and they come in and remove the needles. Truthfully, I don’t see any marks on the skin afterwards to tell where the needles had been. I guess they are very thin.
Based on my experience, I recommend Dr Zhao.

Zhao acupuncture is terrible. Let me tell you why. I went there to have him check out my sprained wrist. He has me just sit outside on this old wooden chair and started to twist my hand around for about 15 min. After that he just said «ok your done» …uhh that was it? and then he charged me 50 bucks cash for 15 min of just twisting my hand around, without even treating the pain in detail. Then, he told me to keep coming back again and again.
This guy is a fake and he lies. He purposely does not treat you fully and help you heal, instead he just makes you keep coming back so he can charge you more money. Also charge your insurance as well. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

Amazing Doctor
I have visited Dr. Zhao a couple of times in the last few years. My daughter got hurt her ankles during her dance practice, and could not walk. After massage by Dr. Zhao, she can walk immediately. My husband hurt his shoulder when exercising, and after visiting some other doctors without improving, he visited Dr. Zhao, the problem solved with just one visit. Recently one of my fingers got swollen, Dr. Zhao diagnosed and repaired the misalignment with his magic hands.
This is absolutely an amazing doctor. I heard many good words from people who visited there as well.

I went to see Dr. Zhao several years ago for a torn Rotator Cuff. He applied acupressure to my shoulder. I had walked into his office with my arm in a sling, and left with far less pain and no need for the sling. Five sessions later, my shoulder was almost completely healed. I did as Dr. Zhao prescribed after that: used my arm as if nothing was wrong with it and let time heal the rest. Perfect!
I wrenched the same shoulder badly a few years later and had to see Dr. Zhao again. This time, he used needles. OMG! The results were amazing! I only needed one session with him that time.
Originally, my regular doctor had prescribed physical therapy, without first taking x-​rays. This treatment exacerbated my problem exponentially. I ended up having to have two Cortisone shots within half an hour, and it took almost two weeks for the pain to ease up.
Dr. Zhao has rescued me from the root cause of my pain on a number of occasions. His treatments are always effective, and his advice is sound. I trust him completely, and I recommend him highly.

I had severe back pain for several years. I have seen many doctors including western doctors, chiropractice, other acupuncture doctors from time to time, but no one really healed my pain.
When I visited Dr. Zhao early last year, my only expection was to reduce the degree of the pain, but surprisedly, my back pain went away completely after just 5 treatments. It was awesome!
Several months ago, my little boy often complained that his stomach was not feeling well in the morning. I brought him to Dr. Zhao. Dr. Zhao pressed some places of my son’s tummy. No needle, no medicine, my son’s stomach pain was healed in two treatments.
Plus, the treatment fee is very affordble compared with other acupuncture clinics.

So, this is the FIRST time I’ve EVER gotten acupuncture in my LIFE.
However, based on my dad’s awesome experience at this place, I decided to give it a shot and see if Dr. Zhao could fix my wrist.
Background info: my left wrist has been bothering me for the past couple years. I’ve gone to Kaiser to get it checked out, got x-​rays, the whole nine, and the Dr. said it’s probably just tendonitis and that I’d probably just have to live with it and she suggested that I get Bayer.
OK. that’s great, I’m sure the Bayer will help relieve the pain, buuuuuut. this doesn’t exactly allow me to do stuff that I want to do and can’t do because it makes my wrist hurt (certain Yoga poses, for example, or putting too much weight on the wrist).
Enter Dr. Zhao. I go into his office, and he examines my wrist. Then he started pressing different parts of the wrist and adjusting it, I guess? While he’s doing this, he explains the anatomy of the wrist to me, what’s wrong with my wrist, and after messing around with my wrist for a bit, he asks me to test the wrist again. And voila, it hurts less than it did before. He then asked me if I wanted the needles and that the needles would help my wrist heal faster. So, he sticks my arm/​wrist with some needles and then puts this electromagnetic contraption heat lamp thingy over my wrist.
After the session, my wrist did hurt a little bit, but I’m assuming it’s part of the process, because now my wrist feels better than it did before. It’s not 100% better though, so I’ll probably have to go back and get a few more treatments.
I hope it works, because it definitely worked for my dad. My dad has had chronic back pains for the past 20+ years (from working hard and doing heavy lifting during the many years he’s worked at the SJ Flea Market to provide for us *tear*), and he’s tried everything, from western medicine to other acupuncturists. And a few years ago when he tried Dr. Zhao, after 2 months of treatments he said his back pain is pretty much all gone. Miraculous!
Oh yeah, I didn’t know this place was cash only, so when I went and realized they didn’t accept credit cards, I was feeling so mortified because not only did I not have cash, I didn’t have my ATM card on me. The receptionist and Dr. Zhao were both insanely nice and accommodating, and they told me that it’s fine if I don’t have the cash to pay that day, and that I could just pay the next time I come back.
Of course, I went back the next day to pay, and when I did they looked surprised and told me that I really could have just waited until my next treatment to pay, but I couldn’t have that on my conscience. Either way, that was a really nice thing of them to do.