Professor Lixing Lao, president of the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine, is also the current vice president of the World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies. He is the former director of the School of Chinese Medicine at the University of Hong Kong (2013-2019), and served as a professor of family medicine and director of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Program in the Center for Integrative Medicine of the School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), until 2013. Prof. Lao graduated from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in 1983 and completed his PhD in physiology at UMB in 1992. He has served as the principal investigator / co-investigator of more than 20 clinical trials and preclinical studies in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DoD), and the Medical and Health Research Fund (MHRF) in Hong Kong.
Over my almost 30 years in clinical practice, I have used Chai Hu Long Gu Mu Li Tang extensively for a wide array of clinical presentations ranging from chronic headaches to anxiety, insomnia, and prescription drug withdrawal symptoms if these situations fit the appropriate patterns – all with extremely positive clinical outcomes.
There’s no doubt that many of your patients visit your practice because they are in pain. And there’s certainly no doubt that curcumin from turmeric (Curcuma longa) can be incredibly effective in stopping that pain, whether due to chronic conditions like arthritis or acute pain from intensive workouts. But your patients may also benefit from curcumin for other reasons.
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Low back pain is defined as pain the posterior superior iliac spine (PSIS), and it can be acute or chronic, localized or radiating. It is a common ailment for adults in the United States, with a lifetime prevalence as high as 65-80%. Whether or not an MRI is available to provide definitive knowledge of a structural issue, acupuncture can be an effective treatment for low back pain.
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