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My goal this month is to help practitioners move into hospital settings, if they choose, by showing them how colleagues have done the same thing. Dozens of acupuncturists working in medical clinics and hospitals responded to a questionnaire I sent out. Below are the best responses. I hope you find…

As a consistent reader of Acupuncture Today , I noted that most of the articles in the publication are written by acupuncturists. Because I am a reader who is not an acupuncturist, I found the emphasis on the practitioners’ perspective insufficient, as the acupuncturist is only half of the equation…

On March 26, 2009, Gov. Haley Barbour signed HB 458 into law. Mississippi is now the 44th state to license and regulate the practice of acupuncture. This is the second year that the Mississippi Oriental Medicine Association (MOMA) lobbied for licensure. Here is our story.

There seems to be no question that Americans spend a great deal of money dealing with back pain. According to research, we spend at least $37 billion annually on medical care for back pain. Furthermore, the economy suffers another $19.8 billion in lost worker productivity due to back pain. In…

During a recent Q&A session of a Presidential Town Hall meeting in St. Louis, one licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist in Florissant, Mo., got to ask President Barack Obama what must certainly be one of the most important questions in the minds of all alternative health practitioners. Below is a…

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Matthew J.

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Alexis

AAAOM’s National Government Affairs (NGA) committee has taken an extremely active role to create a presence for acupuncture and Oriental medicine in Washington, D.C. The NGA committee membership includes experienced leaders from our field who are working to actively represent our profession on many fronts.

I recently took my dog Maggie to the vet for her checkup and shots. (No, we are not going into the debate on vaccinations) The visit was business as usual until the time came for the heartworm blood sample. Let’s just say Maggie didn’t like that. The vet had called…

In my last article, I referred to the challenges of getting medical doctors to take you seriously. Some readers asked me to expand on this important topic. How do you enlarge your practice and develop a network of physicians to refer their patients to you? The three keys to building…

Active care has become the buzz word from insurance carriers. They are referring to the multitude of treatment guidelines commonly used to determine the efficacy of treatment protocols. “Active” refers to a method of care where the patient is an active participant in as the services are being performed.

In previous articles in this series, I discussed the importance of questioning beneath the superficial levels in order to reach the actual patient who is before us. There is no question or area of inquiry that is irrelevant or insignificant, as anything may potentially give us more than information or…

The acupuncture profession has made more inroads for establishment than any time before in the history of the United States. There is licensure and regulation in most states, with several other states working on the process. The profession must be ever aware and vigilant against forces that would erode established…

My husband and I crouched near the speakerphone, stunned by the urgent words coming from my sister-in-law in England. “Dad has been admitted to hospital because his leg pain can’t be controlled with medicine. They are planning surgery for tomorrow. He will probably lose his leg. He says he doesn’t…

As the title of my column, “Not the Emperor’s Acupuncturist,” reflects, I don’t generally work with private patients. Rather, I have chosen to work with indigent and working-class patients, mostly in a hospital environment. In an effort to give some understanding of what this sort of practice entails, I have…

In my last article, I mentioned that I find it interesting when patients stop coming for treatment when they start getting better. I want to clarify and explore this more. I don’t mean patients that get a 70 to 80 percent improvement then stop coming for treatment instead of sticking…

You can treat these modern diseases - hypoglycemia, insulin-resistance, diabetes, food intolerances, adrenal fatigue, hormonal imbalances - but when the patient is malnourished (which is much more often than you can imagine), the treatment time is much slower.