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Cell phones do not belong in the treatment room unless they are turned off. While I was having lunch the other day with several acupuncture friends of mine, the horror stories about cell phone use in the treatment room monopolized the conversation. Read on to see just the sorts of…

I am very excited to note that last two major changes to diagnosis codes (2007 and 2009) included new codes for the diagnosis of pain and headaches. For 2009, there are 35 new and updated ICD-9 codes for headaches and three new CPT procedure codes for injections (note that there…

As a practicing acupuncturist, I find that I continually wonder how a few well-placed needles can have such transformative results in my patients. Over the past 10 years I have read explanations that vary from the vague and mystical idea that the needles move qi in the meridians to scientific…

Recently, I have received several requests for information on battlefield acupuncture. The term battlefield acupuncture was first used in 2001 by my friend and colleague Col. Richard Niemtzow MD, PhD, who serves as a consultant for complementary and alternative medicine to the Surgeon General of the Air Force. I have…

America has a voracious appetite for goods and services. We are told that if some is good, more must always be better. Our modern economy produces a constant flow of stimulating experiences. Such interactions generate internal transactions. These transactions then yield influences that are integrated into postnatal qi (qi and…

The Random House dictionary defines the word ancestor as “a person who serves as an influence of model for another; one from whom mental, artistic, traditional and spiritual ideas, information and values descent is claimed.” In Asian medicine, this bears truth. Ancestry is most important. A big plus of traditional…

On Feb, 20, 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the 2009-2010 California state budget approved by the legislature earlier in the week. Schwarzenegger’s stamp of approval finally brought to a close what was a grueling 106 days with no state budget, where the fate of public-works projects and state employees’…

While the future of acupuncture legislation at a federal level under the new Obama administration is still unknown, several states are taking the initiative and moving forward with bills. These bills range from establishing an acupuncture quality assurance commission to regulation of Asian-bodywork practitioners to establishing licensure. Here is a…

I have recently argued against Westernizing Chinese medicine and asserted that prematurely integrating Chinese and allopathic medicine will destroy Chinese medicine as a valuable diagnostic methodology and preventive medicine. The danger is simple. You cannot have a medicine with almost 1 million practitioners join a medicine with less than 20,000…

One of the more encouraging findings from the recent National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine CAM survey (see February issue of Acupuncture Today) was the increase in its use among pediatric patients. Combine this with the trend toward integration into traditional medical settings, and there would seem to be…

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It has been very interesting for me as a practitioner of an alternative healing modality to have made this long pilgrimage to the East to present my facial acupuncture protocol at an international TCM symposium in Shanghai. Our medicine enjoys an enviable position at the pinnacle of the healing arts.…

There has been a huge amount of recent research into the healing effects of light on our bodies. What once seemed like the practice of fringe healers is now firmly moving into mainstream medicine. Various forms of light therapies have been around since ancient times. There are accounts of healing…

People provide the human energy that fuels organizations. If we seek to renew human energy, rather than simply use it up, we try to build ways that sustain rather than just use people. Like the Green movement’s goal - renew rather than use up fuels - a sustaining organization can…