A student stands over a patient, needle poised. They have a “perfect” prescription: a textbook combination of points harvested from a lecture slide on chronic lower back pain. But as the needle meets the skin, the student hesitates - the symptom of a quiet habit that has taken hold of our profession. We routinely say we “prescribe” points. It sounds efficient. It echoes the authority of biomedical culture and fits neatly into the insurance field. But vocabulary is never neutral; repeated long enough, it dictates behavior.
Chris DiStefano, LAc
Dr. Chris DiStefano graduated from Tri-State College of Acupuncture in 2007 and received his DAc from Five Branches University in 2022. He has been operating Scarsdale Health and Wellness in Eastchester, N.Y., since 2008.