We are at a critical juncture in our profession. Many acupuncturists are doing well and acupuncture as a whole is getting more mainstream publicity; however, there are those in our profession who are not succeeding.
The root causes of the lack of success are complex and solutions to these challenges need to be multifaceted. As a certification commission, our mission is to assure the safety and well-being of the public and to advance the professional practice of acupuncture and Oriental medicine by establishing and promoting national evidence-based standards of competence and credentialing.
These credentials are what differentiates us as experts in acupuncture from those in other professions who seek to "add" acupuncture to their scope of practice. High standards of excellence protect our patients and our profession.
There is a critical need to educate regulators, legislators, insurance companies, politicians, other healthcare professionals, and everyday folk as to what acupuncture is, what it can do, and who is qualified to practice it. Psychometrically validated board exams are one way to establish a minimum high standard of entry-level competency.
We continue to hear from NCCAOM diplomates that the public does not know and does not understand the complexity of acupuncture or the extensive training necessary to become an NCCAOM national board-certified acupuncturist.
Over the next year — in direct response to NCCAOM diplomates' requests — we are undertaking a major national public education campaign to educate the public about who we are, what we do and why we, as national board-certified acupuncturists, are the most qualified to safely and effectively practice acupuncture.
As we are gear up to expand our outreach with this public education campaign, the NCCAOM needs all diplomates to update their profiles on the NCCAOM "Find-A-Practitioner database." This is free advertising to people who are searching for your help, as well as a repository for the media to find practitioners to interview.
Please help us help you. Update your profile: http://www.nccaom.org/find-a-practitioner-directory/.
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.
| Digital Exclusive
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?
| Digital Exclusive