Dr. Clayton Shiu earned a Bachelor of Science in Human Physiology from Boston University and a Master of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. He received his PhD in Acupuncture and Moxibustion from the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and completed his residency at the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin, a highly regarded teaching facility and the largest stroke rehabilitation acupuncture and moxibustion center in China. He founded The Shiu Clinic in 2019 in New York City, where he currently practices TCM and nanopuncture. He holds faculty positions at the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, teaching stroke rehabilitation courses for their doctoral programs.
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.