David Green’s interest in acupuncture started when his mother, Cheryl, was struggling with arthritis in her knee.

The word acupuncture is derived from the Latin "acus" meaning needle, and "pungere" meaning to prick.

Green said the alternative therapy of acupuncture helped his mother as it has been used for thousands of years to treat pain for others, as well. It is also used as an addition to help lower dosages of pain medication.

“I really wanted to get involved with medicine and the more I learned about acupuncture, the more I got excited about it,” he said.

Now, Green has been practicing acupuncture for more than two and a half years and opened a new facility in May at 3379 Woolbright Road.

“Acupuncture is just a good way of treating pain without using drugs or at least reducing the use of drugs,” Green said. “Boynton is a good place because there is a large demand with not a lot of other acupuncture places in the area.”

Green said that the Chinese figured out that there are channels all throughout the body that carry energy and that blockages can occur that cause pain. Acupuncture is supposed to open up these blockages and release chemicals into the body that ease pain.

At Green Acupuncture, David Green uses fine needles, which stimulate the nervous system to release the chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord and brain.

Green is a Board Certified Acupuncture Physician and said that reports state that acupuncture is effective for migraines, neck pain, back pain, tendonitis, arthritis, shoulder pain, surgical pain and cancer pain.

For information, call 561-414-6915.

Read more about this story in the Sept. 23 issue of the Boynton Forum.

Mike Rothman can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com.