How acupuncture helped me regain my sense of smell

Almost three months after I got healed from COVID last year, I still couldn’t smell anything. My sense of smell deteriorated and I was already exhibiting signs of depression. Who wouldn’t be when the world was scentless? And of all my senses, it was my sense of smell that was very keen before my bout with the virus.

It was a weird world without my sense of smell. I was beginning to lose my appetite for life. But I was born a fighter and my survival instinct has always kept me afloat. For about three months, with a grateful heart to God for another lease on life, my specific prayer to Him was to restore my sense of smell.

I searched the Internet for answers. I tried putting coffee beans under my pillow. I rubbed orange rind under my nose. I even sniffed the grease on my bike’s chain. I did everything to no avail. I grew frustrated.

I grew more worried when my blood sugar was showing signs of elevation. It was the result of my bingeing when I was in isolation for three weeks. I was so afraid to die of COVID I fortified my body with food. Any kind of food.

God is good; He heard my pleas when my dear friend Sonya Garcia, the innkeeper of Sonya’s Garden, learned about my predicament and invited me to try acupuncture in her haven. I was hesitant at first but I couldn’t say no anymore when her driver came to the house in Gulod from Alfonso, Cavite. I packed my bag for a two-week healing vacation.

Acupuncture relieves stress. It improves emotional difficulties like loneliness and anxiety. It’s a treatment as old as time,’ says Mr. Kim.

At Sonya’s Garden, I met Tae Sung Kim, a Korean acupuncturist, who is the new addition to Sonya’s Garden in-house treatment healers. (The therapists at Sonya’s Garden Spa possess healing hands, too.) He’s known among the guests he has treated as Mr. Kim, a tall guy with a comely face and a reassuring tone.

He knew of my problem, and about my loss of sense of smell. As I lay supine in bed, he looked for my pressure points on my face and poked about 30 small needles. Each prick was like an ant bite. I didn’t mind. I was hopeful my sense of smell would be restored.

“It will not come back right away,” Mr. Kim told me in halting English, meaning my elusive sense of smell.

Mr. Kim, as per his certificate obtained from the Department of Health-Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care, is a registered acupuncturist. Because of his desire to be of help to people with ailments, he worked hard to secure an alien employment permit from the Department of Labor. He has been practicing acupuncture for 40 years now, and once practiced in Korea and Indonesia.

While there were needles on my face and my neck, I interviewed Mr. Kim about the benefits of acupuncture.

“We will address next your problem with blood sugar. One by one,” he said.

“Can acupuncture heal a broken heart?” I joked to Mr. Kim.

“Yes” was his quick reply, taking my question seriously.

“Acupuncture relieves stress. It improves emotional difficulties like loneliness and anxiety. There are pressure points that need to be addressed. Even depression can be addressed by acupuncture. It’s a treatment as old as time,” he said.

He added: “Acupuncture is a stimulant that helps in producing vital emotion and managing hormones. It helps in producing endorphins. And endorphins are the happy hormones.”

Mr. Kim said, “Psychological diseases and mental troubles are considered to be deeply rooted to the heart in Oriental medicine. Therefore, treatment is mainly based on the heart, but depending on the symptoms and severity, the stomach and spleen are also treated together.”

According to Mr. Kim, many kinds of diseases emanate from stress and imbalanced food intake. Hypertension, diabetes, heart ailment, fatty liver, cancer, trauma. He told me about one patient with skin asthma who got healed by acupuncture. He had also seen patients with chronic neck pain and back pain — even those people who are pasmado (with sweaty hands and feet). He also sees patients who are suffering from chronic migraine and insomnia, even women having difficult pregnancies.

“Since all diseases are related to human organs (heart, small intestine, stomach, spleen, lungs, large intestine, kidney, liver, gall bladder), the disease can be cured by treating the organs,” he said. “Acupuncture can help treat diseases.”

Mr. Kim and I must have been talking for 30 minutes already when he decided to take out all the needles. He then asked me to open my hand, and sprinkled some liquid on my palms. “Rub then smell,” he asked. I did. And with dismay on my face, I shook my head.

“No worries, I’ll come back tomorrow night in your room. We’ll do the same thing,” he said.

I was hopeful. Mr. Kim, too. He was sure he would be able to heal me.

He came back the following night, did the same routine. This time, he also poked some needles on my back and legs — “for your elevated sugar treatment.” After the treatment, he poured liquid again on my palms. Asked me to smell it. I cried. I could smell a faint scent of lavender. He smiled. The same thing happened on the third time of my treatment. There was a clear glimpse of hope.

On the fourth time he treated me, I could already smell the sweet scent of the linen in my room. The whiff of Indian parijata and dama de noche from outside my cottage welcomed the full return of my sense of smell. Morning woke me up with the scent of fabric conditioner emanating from the laundry area of Sonya’s Garden, which was several meters away from my room. And the scent of the forest that was just outside my bay window added to my full healing.

The nurse at Sonya’s Garden measured my blood sugar level that day. It was back to less than 100. I had it checked again by a doctor when I got home. I’m back to being normal again.

To live a normal life is important to one’s mental health. With my sense of smell and my blood sugar level back to a good level, I have more reasons to celebrate life.

God led me to Mr. Kim. I’m grateful. *

(For best results, consult your doctor. Mr. Kim holds clinic at Sonya’s Garden. Please call or text 0917-5335140, 0917-5231080 or send e-mail to [email protected].

‘Acupuncture relieves stress. It improves emotional difficulties like loneliness and anxiety. It’s a treatment as old as time,’ says Mr. Kim.

Tae Sung Kim, Sonya’s Garden’s resident acupuncturist, with his assistant Ma. Sybilene Peñano.