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As a clinician with many male patients — and as a man myself — I am all too aware of the fact that we like to convince ourselves that we are doing great, when that may be the farthest thing from the truth. Men don’t like to ask for help,…

In early September, the North Carolina Acupuncture Licensing Board (NCALB) filed a complaint against the North Carolina Board of Physical Therapy Examiners over the issue of dry needling, a form of acupuncture that uses solid needles to puncture the skin and muscle tissue to relieve pain. The complaint was filed…

Gary

Janet

It’s morning and your first patient rolls in with a triple espresso steaming in one hand and a frazzled, desperate look in her eye. “You gotta help me, doc, I am constipated unless I drink one of these, and I am exhausted and anxious all the time.” You take her…

In the age of technology, everyone, including the patient, is seeking faster, easier ways to communicate. With a wealth of social media, blogs, websites and videos, we are constantly barraged with information – to the point of overload. To that end, patients are seeking alternative means to communicate. Enter the…

The use of cannabis for medical purposes is very controversial. Use as a panacea by physicians uninitiated to the proper application of herbal medicine, as well as an excuse for recreational use have greatly confused the issue. In spite of political and medical controversy there are indications that cannabis has…

Several recent studies suggest regular consumption of nuts may provide a significant degree of protection against certain types of cancer, heart disease, possibly type 2 diabetes and some neurodegenerative diseases. Let’s outline the epidemiological evidence, meta-analysis research and intervention trials published on this subject in the past few years.

Starting or expanding one’s family is a major milestone. It’s something that more and more people seek out health care advice and support for. While not an expert in eastern medicine, I have co-treated patients with several acupuncturists and Doctors of Oriental Medicine, and the results have impressed me. I…

Cause marketing is truly one of the best ways that you can promote your services as a acupuncture professional. Cause marketing refers to a type of marketing where a business partners with a non-profit organization to help bring awareness to a charitable cause.

In the last issue of Acupuncture Today , the first part of this article introduced the topic of trauma and resilience, and their relationship to the autonomic nervous system response and the concept of the spirit being grounded in the body, and suggested the importance of mindfulness as a tool…

Language – written, spoken, signed, or otherwise is learned as a means to express our individualized perceptions about the world around us. Language is designed to communicate our personal experiences. What problems arise when different languages are used to describe similar experiences? Additionally, how do these issues translate over time?…

Acupuncture’s cultural and historical roots go back to the emergence of Chinese civilization. For more than 2,000 years, acupuncture needling has been continuously practiced on the largest population in the world. As a system of medical treatment, acupuncture’s prevalence and robustness are continuously demonstrated by strong public demand, growing scientific…

How comfortable do you feel talking to Western medical providers? If you are like me, you may not feel as comfortable as you would like. Some of my interactions with MD’s haven’t been the fruitful steps toward integrative medicine for which I had hoped. So how can we improve communication…

We were always told in our Zen Shiatsu training (by Japanese and Japanese American instructors) that our ultimate aim was to to find that “One Point.” To be so focused we could touch just one point to transform Qi throughout a client’s body. It’s an art requiring not only focus,…

Patients make more excuses for declining care from an acupuncturist than perhaps any other type of doctor. Various reasons hold them back from making a commitment to care. You all have heard the excuses of costs, frequency of visits, the length or timing of a treatment plan, and even the…

When evaluating a new patient, it is common to note a relative shortening of one leg to the other. Some patients will even tell you they have one, and then pull out the store-bought heel lift they read about online. Leg length inequity has become a very controversial topic, as…

To extrapolate from the above quote, patients love healthcare providers they can trust. One way to earn the trust of your patients is by practicing with authenticity. What does that mean, exactly? An authentic person is one who is genuine and truthful in their interactions; one whose words and actions…

One of the great gifts of training in acupuncture is the ability to take good care of oneself. I recently had a bout of frozen shoulder — an inflammatory syndrome which can be debilitatingly painful and take years to resolve. Luckily, I figured out what was happening quickly and started…

“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” This simple, yet powerful statement was lived out time and time again by so many of the athletes from around the world during the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles. And Emperor’s College was…