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The American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) board members recently met with the Korean Customs Service, which is similar to the FDA, to discuss herbal safety and importation issues.

A doctorate in acupuncture and Oriental medicine has been a goal of the profession since its beginnings in the late 1970s. At that time, however, the maturity of the educational institutions and the regulatory environment made it a goal with only a distant completion date. Throughout the 1990s, the colleges…

The large intestine (AKA colon) is the great eliminator, or as J.R. Worsley called it, “The Drainer of the Dregs.” Dregs are defined as the remnants of liquid with its sediment left in a container, or the basest, least valuable portion of anything.

We all come into this world vulnerable, with seeds to grow into our strength. Some of us — through a combination of good fortune (i.e., family and culture we are born into, constitutional inheritance, or ability to learn) grow with minimal interruption from traumatic injuries and experiences. While others, after…

Imagine you're a recent acupuncture graduate, worried about making enough income as you forge your new career and seek more in-depth training in a particular treatment style. You'd love to find a place where you can jump into an established patient population, where you're fully booked treating clients with varied…

Parkinson’s disease (PD), a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects motor function, has a slow onset over time. In the early stages of the disease symptoms include shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty with walking. Dementia is another symptom, but generally happens in the…

I recently attended a faculty seminar held by one of the acupuncture schools. There was a facilitator who led us through some very interesting experiences. The attendees were a diverse group with varying opinions. Our first exercise was to reflect and list all of the projects, events and materials that…

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As every practitioner knows, the correct diagnosis is everything. Most healing disciplines rely on the use of symptomatology for their treatment implementation. Beyond symptomatology, we have clinical tests to provide more objective findings. We have patients coming with results from plain-film radiographs, MRI, CT, PET and blood work. All of…

The winter season is upon us and offers unique challenges for the clinician and patient alike. To effectively navigate through the winter season there are two main TCM medicinals, Huang Qi and Gan Jiang , to consider, as well as two important formulas which feature these two TCM treasures. The…

Jennifer Waters, TCM practitioner and writer of the Acupuncture Today column, “Talking With the Masters” sat down with Dr. Ping Zhang to discuss aniti-aging with acupuncture. After Waters attended a class in New York City last year she said, “I knew right away that she’s a true master, carrying on…

The earliest Chinese reference to channels is in the Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts , 1 which are dated to the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty (475 BC-221 AD). The text presents 11 channels. There are no acupuncture points listed in those channels. The treatment methods are moxibustion and bloodletting;…

It is commonly believed that substance abuse, in addition to harming one’s physiological state, hurts the spirit. There is also a belief that one’s spirit does not weaken due to substance abuse, but rather, the person finds solace in addiction due to an already weak spirit.

There are about as many adjunct therapies being marketed to acupuncturists as there are acupuncturists. While some may remain purist in their application of traditional Chinese medicine, others choose to explore new horizons of treatment. Even as we show great respect to the wisdom carriers of the former, we celebrate…

Protocols & treatment Timing A course of treatments should be performed over a period of 12 weeks if possible. Microneedling should be performed once every two weeks. It takes two weeks for the levels of collegenease produced in the skin to peak and it is only after this that another…

This month’s column is an exclusive interview with Betty Edmond MD, newly elected CEO/President of the AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine in Austin, Texas. Dr. Edmond is the former V.P. of Medical Affairs at Seton Healthcare Family, former Medical Director at Children’s Hospital of Austin, and a specialist in…

Established in 1984, Five Branches University (FBU) has campuses in Santa Cruz and San Jose, Calif., which serve the communities of Santa Cruz, the Monterey Bay, and Silicon Valley. In addition to their on-campus health clinics, both campuses have numerous free and low-cost community clinics, including on-campus veterans and community…

Yin and yang flow into and out from one another continually. Beginnings become endings and endings become beginnings again. Wholeness and cycles are the nature of Tao. When looking at your career from this perspective, rather than linearly, as time might have us do, it is easy to see why…