Most conversations about acupuncture start with the needles. This one starts with sinuses. Dr. Bonnie Kragel, a chiropractor and licensed acupuncturist practicing in Northwest Arkansas, joined Mark Anthony to explain why she treats acupuncture as chiropractic's natural teammate rather than a stand-alone therapy — and why, in a region where seasonal allergy symptoms are practically normalized, that combination shows up most often in patients who simply can't breathe.
Kragel's own path into the field started as a patient. Growing up in Northwest Arkansas, she dealt with near-constant sickness and daily over-the-counter allergy medication just to get through the day. After a volleyball injury hurt her back, her mother took her to a chiropractor — the back pain resolved, but Kragel also noticed she stopped getting sick as often and no longer needed daily allergy medication. That unexplained side effect stuck with her. She went into chiropractic school already planning to add acupuncture to her practice, convinced the two would work "hand-in-hand," and she opened her own Northwest Arkansas practice in September, roughly eight months before this conversation.
Key Takeaways
- Dr. Kragel treats chiropractic as the foundation — realigning the spine and clearing subluxation patterns so the brain and body can communicate — with acupuncture layered on top to speed up and extend the results.
- Her sinus and allergy protocol places needles between the eyebrows, beside the nose, at the top of the head, and in the ears, plus points in the legs and feet to help balance energy through the whole body.
- The needles she uses are roughly as thin as a strand of hair; most patients feel little to nothing, and sessions run about 20 minutes in a calm room, with many patients falling asleep.
- She described a patient in her 30s who said she could breathe through her nose for the first time in her life, and a singer who reported hitting higher notes without straining once his sinuses cleared.
- Results vary by patient — some feel improvement after one visit, others need four or five sessions — and she was clear that outcomes depend on the individual, not a guarantee.
Why She Treats Chiropractic as the Foundation
Kragel described herself as "a chiropractic corrector first." In her framework, adjustments address subluxation patterns and get spinal joints moving properly, which she says allows the brain and body to communicate — and heal — more effectively. Acupuncture, layered on top of that foundation, speeds the process up. Skip the chiropractic piece, she said, and acupuncture on its own becomes "kind of just like a band-aid at that point — it's going to help, but it's going to come back."
Her own first acupuncture session left an impression that shaped how she practices today. She described it as instant relief — "like my whole nervous system could take a breath," with everything feeling lighter. She's also a self-described traditional acupuncturist: needles go in, and then she lets them be. "I just very much put them in and then let that individual's innate intelligence do what it knows and it needs to do to heal," she said, noting that needles occasionally work themselves loose or fall out entirely on their own during a session.
"The power that made the body heals the body. It doesn't happen any other way."
— Dr. Bonnie KragelHer Sinus and Allergy Protocol
Asked to walk through the specifics, Kragel explained that acupuncture works by "leveling out the energy throughout our whole system." For sinus pressure and allergy symptoms specifically, she places needles between the eyebrows, beside the nose, at the top of the head, and in the ears, then adds points in the legs and feet "to help draw that energy down" and balance it through the whole body — what she called "a full body circuit." Patients lie with the needles in for about 20 minutes in a dim, quiet room with calm music playing, and many end up napping.
She said the response is often immediate: "Nine times out of 10, I'll go in to pull the needles, and patients are like, 'I already feel better. Like, it's already draining. I can already breathe out of my nose again.'" How long it takes to see lasting results varies by patient — some improve after a single visit, others need four or five sessions — and she typically pairs the acupuncture with ongoing chiropractic care, occasionally adding supplements to speed things along.
Patient Outcomes Discussed in the Episode
Kragel shared two specific cases from her practice. One patient, a woman in her 30s who had been coming in for a while and was on maintenance care, wrote on a re-exam form that she had never been able to breathe out of her nose in her entire life — and now could. Months later, without any additional acupuncture sessions, Kragel said the patient was still symptom-free: no seasonal flare-ups, and no longer avoiding time outside with her kids for fear of days of sneezing afterward.
A second patient, a singer in a band who had come in for allergy symptoms, told Kragel that after starting care he could hit higher notes than he'd ever been able to hit before, without straining — a side effect of being able to breathe more freely. Kragel was careful to frame both as individual outcomes rather than a promise: she can run "the exact same protocol on somebody else struggling with the exact same thing and get complete different results," which she attributes to differences in each patient's own healing response.
Who This Conversation Is For
This episode is aimed at two kinds of listeners. First, anyone managing sinus congestion, seasonal allergies, TMJ pain, headaches, digestive issues, or migraines rather than resolving them — Kragel discussed applying the same energy-balancing approach to each of these, alongside chiropractic care, though she was clear that results are patient-specific rather than guaranteed. She also mentioned using acupuncture for neuropathy-related discomfort, insomnia, anxiety, and hormone-related concerns.
Second, it's for anyone curious about acupuncture but hesitant about needles. Kragel's approach is to let patients try it with the understanding that they can stop at any point — needles come right back out if a patient changes their mind. She said the handful of hesitant patients she's worked with, including several teenagers, ended up glad they tried it. Her explanation for why keeps coming back to a two-word tagline: "It just works."
