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.
Linying Tan, PhD, LAc
Dr. Linying Tan has a PhD from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China) and is currently a faculty member and Director of Research Program at Texas Health and Science University (Austin, TX). She plans to continue her research into moxibustion therapy.