Dr. Dongcheng Li, a Florida-licensed acupuncture physician, is a fifth-generation TCM practitioner who trained and studied in China from an early age, earning a medical degree in TCM and master’s degree in Chinese medicine. He came to the U.S. in 2007 and earned another master’s degree (exercise physiology at the University of Texas at Arlington, follwed by a doctoral degree in education at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Li has published nearly 10 books, and teaches acupuncture board licensing exam preparation classes in the U.S. and China.
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.
Research supports the effectiveness of selecting the distal acupuncture points for the treatment of microtrauma and for relieving pain, particularly in cases of chronic shoulder pain. But to make the treatment results long-lasting, clinical experience and research suggest that instead of treating the most painful structure first, we identify the inhibited driver, restore reliable recruitment, confirm it with immediate re-testing, and only then address the painful area as a branch of a deeper pattern.
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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.