Shelly Bobbins, RN, LAc, Dipl. CH, worked in the healthcare field in Los Angeles for more than 25 years specializing in the areas of mental health, addiction and pain management. In 1996, she became a Licensed Acupuncturist and while in private practice obtained certification as a Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME). She has been a clinical supervisor and professor, teaching courses and seminars on addiction and as an acupuncturist worked with inpatient drug and alcohol rehabs. Shelly is the author of a soon to be released book, The Whole of Addiction: The Nature of Addiction & Recovery According to East-West Teachings. Shelly can be reached at shelly@shellybobbins.com.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
| Digital Exclusive
One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
| Digital Exclusive