CAB Institutes New Regulations for Licensed Acupuncturists
The California Acupuncture Board has approved a series of changes pertaining to the regulation of the acupuncture profession. Among the changes are new regulations for single-use needles and continuing education hours for practitioners.
With regard to single-use needles, the board has approved "emergency regulations" requiring that such needles be used by all licensed acupuncturists in California effective immediately. The regulations prohibit needles from being used more than once, and require that all needles be labeled "for single use only."
Concerning continuing education hours, new regulations effective Jan. 1, 2006 require licensed acupuncturists to complete four hours of training in herb-drug interaction every two years as a condition of license renewal. In addition, limits have been placed on the number of hours of credit licensed acupuncturists will receive for courses related to "acupuncture research and evidence-based medicine," "practice management and ethics," and "breathing and other exercises" such as qigong and tai chi, to a maximum of four hours every two years. Practitioners are welcome to take more hours and courses as they see fit, but credit will only be granted for up to four hours. Acupuncturists will also be required to maintain records of all continuing education programs for a minimum of four years.
Specific language regarding the new regulations can be accessed at the California Acupuncture Board's Web site (www.acupuncture.ca.gov).
New Dean of Integrative Medicine at AIMC-Berkeley
The Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College-Berkeley has named Yoon Hang Kim, MD, MPH, as its new dean of integrative medicine. In his role as dean, Dr. Kim will direct the school's program in integrative medicine, along with its integrative medicine clinic.
"Having Dr. Kim aboard propels us toward fulfilling our vision of becoming a leader in the advancement of integrative medicine," said AIMC President Skye Sturgeon, LAc. "I am extremely impressed with what he has been able to accomplish in just a few short months."
Dr. Kim is a graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was honored as a Howard Hughes Fellow. He also completed a two-year fellowship at the University of Arizona's integrative medicine program. He is board-certified in preventive medicine, medical acupuncture, and holistic medicine, and has served on the boards of various integrative health organizations, including the American Holistic Medical Association.
Bastyr Welcomes New Chair to Board of Trustees
Julie Tall, LAc, has been appointed as chair of the board of trustees of Bastyr University. She has served on the board since March 2004, and is the first acupuncture practitioner to be named board chair in the university's history.
"This is an exciting time for Bastyr University and natural medicine," said Tall. She added that she was "thrilled to help provide vision and oversight" in helping shape the direction of the university.
In addition to being a licensed acupuncturist, Ms. Tall is a 1981 graduate of Wellesley College. She is also an active volunteer in several community organizations, including Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, the American Heart Association, and the Dean's Circle at the University of Washington Medical School.
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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