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Worry for the Future of Acupuncture In spite of the recent national coverage of acupuncture on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and other shows, there are fewer sponsors of the Hinchey bill than from last year. I had been very interested in this bill and organized letter-writing campaigns for the last…

Sooner or later, you probably will encounter a patient who experiences anxiety related to their acupuncture treatment. You may already have encountered a patient like this. Perhaps the patient never returned due to fear or increased stress. However, an acupuncturist’s primary tool (the needle) may not be the main reason…

In the past, traditional knowledge and shamans were academically ostracized from being credible as science became more isolated and compartmentalized. As the centuries progressed and technology unfolded, the academic paradigm was created and accepted by the establishment, and still is practiced in the 21 st century. Ironically, we have come…

Infertility is defined as failure to become pregnant after several years of regular sexual activity during ovulation. Infertility afflicts more than 6 million American couples, of which approximately 40 percent is attributed to male and 60 percent to female partners.

NCCAOM Puts out Call for Participation in Job-Task Analysis The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) is in the process of conducting a job-task analysis for the month of April 2008, with assistance from Schroeder Measurement Technologies. The primary purpose of the job task analysis is to…

My mentor once told me this medicine is extremely difficult. Sure there is a lot to it, but he meant in regard to the thought processes. He explained that you really have to use both the right and left sides of the brain. The left brain is extremely useful in…

Immunology has long been well-recognized as an important part of human physiology in traditional Chinese medicine. As explained in the following famous passage of the 72 nd chapter of Su Wen ( Plain Questions ), written 2,000 years ago, “If zheng qi remains strong, xie qi cannot invade the body.…

Last year, I was approached by the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM) in New York City about creating a facial acupuncture elective. My assistant, Chrysso Neophytou-Tsimis, and I had a meeting with the three college heads in one of the only classrooms available. The main points were: What do…

This month’s article deals with credit cards, those magical pieces of plastic that can get us anything we want, including total financial ruin and poor health. Don’t underestimate the connection between finances and health. If you’re like most people, you worry about finances all the time, which leads to considerable…

Recently, a young male patient asked for a few minutes of private conversation with me. He was seriously injured at work, suffering disabling headaches and hadn’t worked for two years. He also got inadequate care from MDs (they had him on 23 drugs) and had an attorney who wasn’t really…

In my last column, I discussed basic, potential formula combinations for use in cold/flu presentations. In this month’s article, I will continue the discussion of formula combination by addressing common TCM pattern presentations found in gynecological pathologies.

Our modern medical system offers many effective treatments for injuries, infections and life-threatening diseases. Survival rates have improved for patients with heart disease and cancer. Yet, medicine offers few viable answers for patients with degenerative neuromuscular conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and Parkinson’s. This means…

It has never been easy to become an acupuncturist. The rigors and requirements are strenuous and the costs tremendous. The process takes forever and generates lots of stress. Becoming a sacrificial lamb is inherent. Murphy’s Law that “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” seems to visit every acupuncture…

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights conservatively estimates there are more than 17 million refugees and more than 25 million internationally displaced individuals worldwide. 1 Although Western biomedicine may be ideally suited to deal with acute epidemics and physical trauma, it often is not available and may not be…

Acupuncture has a long and turbulent history, yet it has survived. There is some discussion that it began with a legend of a soldier with a frozen shoulder cured when he received an arrow shot into his leg. No one is completely sure how acupuncture works. To some, it’s like…

Last year, a survey conducted by the Gilmore Research Group and commissioned by CodeBlueNow! sampled the opinions of registered voters in Iowa regarding health care. 1 The demographic mix of those participating in the survey was similar to that of the state. The topic of the survey was “Iowa Health…

Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) came about in 2005 as a result of a grassroots effort following Hurricane Katrina. Practitioners from all over the country responded to AWB's call and came to greater New Orleans to use acupuncture to help heal people. AWB set up clinics on street corners, in firehouses,…

A study recently published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology sought to establish the effectiveness of needle acupuncture in treating the common and often disabling issue of pelvic and back pain during pregnancy.

Without a doubt, the events of 9/11 were among the most shocking and traumatic in U.S. history; particularly for residents of New York City. For some residents, the road to recovery has been a long and painful one. In response to this ongoing need for trauma care - even seven…

A 42-year-old weekend athlete consulted my office, complaining of disabling right-wrist pain from which he’d been suffering for more than a year. He stated the pain was so intense that his three-times-a-week tennis match had been put on hold, and he had been forced to resign from his company’s softball…