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.
Yun-tao Ma, PhD, LAc
Yun-tao Ma, PhD, LAc is a renowned, international authority on acupuncture pain management and trauma rehabilitation, and a founder and director of the Biomedical Acupuncture Institute. Dr. Ma conducts seminars and teaches biomedical acupuncture for pain management to medical professionals in the U.S. and worldwide. He currently practices in Boulder, Colo.
For questions or comments regarding any of Dr. Ma's articles, please contact him directly at bmai@biomedacupuncture.com.