Ex-Beatle likes Acupuncture (1981)

Ex-Beatle likes Acupuncture

UPI

October 20, 1981 

    George Harrison, the ex-Beatle, appears on an eye-catching record album cover with his skin pierced by slender acupuncture needles. It's not just a record-selling gimmick; he actually gets acupuncture treatment-a "tune-up," he calls it whenever he visits Los Angeles, he said in a recent interview.

     Harrison, 38, is among many youth and health-conscious celebrities who visit Zion Yu, a 20th-generation acupuncture practitioner in an area of the country where the pursuit of happiness produces considerable tension and torment. 

    "Why do I get acupuncture?" Harrison joked at Yu's new rejuvenation center. "Oh, you know, tumors on the brain, amputated legs, the run-of-the-mill diseases you pick up in Hollywood."

     Growing serious, Harrison said he learned about Yu's treatment through a friend who suffered a serious motorcycle injury. "I thought there must be an alternative to taking drugs all your life," said the famed singer-guitarist with the former Beatles, who has been seeing Yu since 1974. "He pinpoints the weak part of your system and zooms in," Harrison said at a party celebrating the opening of Yu's new center that offers acupuncture, the concentrated exercise, Tai Chi, calisthenics, massage, and skin treatments. 

    Yu has practiced acupuncture in Los Angeles for 10 years since coming from Taiwan, and his patients include actors William Holden, James Corburn, Jim Garner, and William Shatner; entertainer Merv Griffin; actresses Jane Fonda, Natalie Wood; and singer Peggy Lee. Other celebrities have asked Yu not to disclose their names. 

    Yu, 35, uses the 5,000-year-old Chinese medical treatment for all kinds of ailments: arthritis, depression, and hair loss. He even offers acupuncture facelifts that he claims tighten facial tissues. "Everything the body is based on is the nerves," Yu said. "When they deteriorate, the body's energy flow doesn't supply enough messages to the memory bank, and everything slows down. We stimulate the nervous system properly, and the weak part gets stronger. People look better, their memory is better, and they are happier, willing to do more things."

     Yu advises his patients to accept acupuncture as something that will help them. "Their mental attitude towards the treatment is important," he said. "Many people think this is a gimmick or something.  Wrong. People who experience this know they feel the changes released through their entire system."

     His patients claim he has cured uncomfortable chemotherapy symptoms, increased hair growth, and heightened their body sensitivity. "The whole thing is different from American medicine," said Gary Steffen, 57, a ruddy-faced businessman who suffered from back trouble, skin cancer on his hand, and ulcers. "Zion doesn't claim to cure cancer, but after the treatment, the redness and itching went away, and those were the cancer symptoms," Steffan said, rubbing his right hand. 

    Larry Sears, 38, said he had suffered excruciating pain from a herniated disc and was hallucinating on morphine. Doctors had recommended surgery when Sears heard of  Yu's clinic and decided to try it. "I was in tears when I came to Zion," he said. "But 45 minutes after my first treatment, my pain was gone."

     The pain returned, but so did Sears, and within 60 days he was virtually cured, he said. 

    Writer Maurice Zolotow, 67, started getting acupuncture for a pain-wracked back and was skeptical at first. "I was very much afraid of it. I'd scream as every needle went in, but most of it was in my mind. Every pain went away."

     Now he visits the clinic every two weeks for a balancing treatment, which Yu inserts needles in various parts of his body "to keep me feeling good."

     "Insertion of the needle takes just a few minutes,: Zolotow said. "Then you lie in semi-darkness for 20 minutes. Acupuncture prevents blockage and permits free flow of energy. "

    Thelma Walker, 59, executive secretary to Mo Ostin, chairman of Warner Brothers Records Incorporated, suffered agonizing chemotherapy effects during a bout with cancer three years ago. "Nobody knows how bad you feel when you're on chemotherapy," she said. Then she experienced Yu's needles. "It was so nice not to have to take a drug and worry about the side effects," she said. Spinal arthritis also plagued her, and putting on her clothes was a painful, time-consuming chore.