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.
Tom Ingegno, DACM, LAc
Dr. Tom Ingegno has been a licensed acupuncturist since 2001. He is the best-selling author of The Cupping Book: Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Healing; and owns and operates Charm City Integrative Health, a multifaceted clinic NYT bestseller and futurist David Houle called the “Future of Medicine.” Dr. Tom also has taught at two universities of East Asian medicine and served as chair of the Maryland Board of Acupuncture and VP of Public Affairs for the Maryland Acupuncture Society. He has been featured in both consumer and professional media, spreading his message of health using modern research, traditional practices, and humor to make complex theories and treatments understandable.