Kari Cobb is a licensed acupuncturist in Fond du Lac, Wisc. She graduated from the Midwest College of Oriental Medicine in 2004 and is currently in the Doctoral Program at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. Kari has been an acupuncturist for 15 years and her motivation in the clinic is to help people achieve optimum wellness. She is passionate about offering the best practices toward helping people live longer, healthier, pain free, joyous, happy lives. Learn more at www.fonddulacacupuncture.com.
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.