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.
Sherry Mizumoto, DAOM, MSTOM
Dr. Sherry Mizumoto is an experienced doctor of Chinese medicine, acupuncturist and herbologist licensed in Hawaii, California and nationally. She has been an educator at Pacific College of Health and Science, served in the oncology department at University of California San Diego, and is now committed to her private practice in Lahaina. She received earned a Master of Science in Traditional Chinese Medicine (MSTOM) and Doctorate of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM), and studied and trained abroad at the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Chengdu, China. In addition, she was fortunate to visit Tibet and engage and observe their unique form of medicine.