Dr. Candace Quinn has a private acupuncture practice in Flint, Texas. She holds MS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University. Dr. Quinn worked for over 30 years in research and development for Corning Incorporated and Eastman Kodak, and holds 22 U.S. patents. She earned an MSAOM from Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at New York Chiropractic College, and was winner of the Shen Nong Herb Award for the class of 2008. Dr. Quinn can be reached at candace@ChinaRoseAcupuncture.com.
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.