Paid off your student loan yet? If average student-loan debt for graduates of AOM programs in this state is an indication of the nationwide reality, you're not even close.
An analysis of 500+ programs at 57 institutions in Oregon reveals that graduates of Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM, which offers a Master of Acupuncture, Master of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine) carry an average student-loan debt of $159,504. Graduates of National University of Natural Medicine (NUHM; originally a naturopathic college, but now also offering a Doctor of Science and Master of Science in Oriental Medicine) carry average debt of $231,702.
Here are the state's top 10 debt-generating programs based on the analysis of U.S. Dept. of Education data:
#1: Oregon Health & Science University (dentistry, first professional degree) – $276,675
#2: NUNM (alternative and complementary medicine and medical systems, first professional degree) – $231,702
#3: Oregon Health & Science University (medicine, first professional degree) – $221,089
#4: Pacific University (clinical counseling and applied psychology, doctoral degree) – $209,599
#5: Pacific University (pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and administration, doctoral degree) – $199,228
#6: Pacific University (optometry, doctoral degree) – $180,654
#7: University of Western States (chiropractic, first professional degree) – $169,703
#8: Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (alternative and complementary medicine and medical systems, master's degree) – $159,504
#9: Oregon State University (veterinary medicine, first professional degree) – $155,786
#10: Willamette University (law, first professional degree) – $154,190
Fertility acupuncture sometimes gets presented as a narrow protocol: a handful of reproductive points applied uniformly across patients. What this case reinforced for me: The most powerful work happens when we read the whole picture. The hormone data, the constitutional tendency, the sleep, the digestion, and the menstrual pattern, so we can treat the environment the ovaries live inside.
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) affects more than 15% of the U.S. population but evades most practitioners’ radar. Just five years ago, it wasn’t even on my radar, despite already having 20 years of experience as a clinician at that time. The more I dug (similar to leaky gut and post-COVID syndrome), the more I found my patients were suffering from this disorder.
The motivation behind our practice of medicine is important, impacting not just our experience but also the experiences of those we treat. It is perhaps for this reason that the aspiration to help not just some, but all beings heal, has historically been an important part of the medical tradition. To explain this, we need to consider how medicine is interwoven with other social domains.