Mary J. Rogel, PhD, DiplAc, LAc, played a major role in legalizing acupuncture in Illinois. She was the Chairman of the Illinois Board of Acupuncture for 14 years, and served for many years on the Board of the Illinois State Acupuncture Association. Mary graduated from the Midwest Center for the Study of Oriental Medicine in 1986 and has a full-time acupuncture practice in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. She is a licensed provider of acupuncture continuing education in Illinois, editor of Oriental Medicine Journal, and a teacher with the online and in person Panacea Community. Mary also holds a PhD in social psychology from The University of Chicago.
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.