Welcome to the year 2000. The new millennium presents us with new opportunities and challenges in the field of Oriental medicine.
This profession is young, and today we see that acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners are growing, both in numbers and acceptance in the medical community, at lightning speed. We can also see, however, that the profession is still somewhat isolated because of geographical barriers and disparate state laws and regulations.
Every day, I get calls asking questions on a variety of subjects from CPT codes to job opportunities to ways one can see an acupuncturist in Buffalo. Not long ago, in fact, I talked with an acupuncturist in a southern state who has been offered opportunities in two hospitals to develop departments of complementary medicine. Numerous questions came to mind: Who should he call? What questions should he ask? What protocols should he follow?
This publication will be the first truly open forum in which licensed acupuncturists can find out what is happening, discuss issues, share information, talk about coordinating efforts, and learn about new developments in the profession. This information needs to be communicated to (and within) the profession in a timely manner. Current news and important information needs to reach you as soon as possible.
Acupuncture Today will also be the first open forum in which professionals may share their views even if they disagree with one another. To that end, we are instituting a feature known as "Point-Counterpoint" in which both sides of an issue can be presented evenly and honestly.[PB]
In many ways, the acupuncture profession is divided within the profession itself. Now is the time to put an end to that divisiveness; to begin to stand and work together. This publication is designed to have something for everyone: to help build clinical skills as well as further practice success. A profession grows and becomes stronger because of the knowledge that is shared between practitioners.
Keeping you informed and up-to-date will be our primary job. In turn, your interests and participation will enhance our efforts. We want to hear from you - in news releases; in articles submitted for publication; and in letters to the editor. Your voice deserves to be heard. Your position has validity.
Throughout the years, while teaching at several acupuncture colleges, I have found it very important to keep up with (and on the cutting edge of) the latest trends in acupuncture. This makes the practice of acupuncture that much more exciting and fascinating. Based on the questions and comments we receive on a daily basis, it appears you think and feel that way as well. You understand that this kind of information and insight is what makes this profession special, unique and in demand all across the United States.
Acupuncture Today is not just our publication; it's your publication. Let's make it work for you.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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