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Premature ovarian failure (POF) means that a woman’s ovaries stop working before she turns age 40. This process results in an increase in follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH > 40 Iu/L) and luteinizing hormone (LH > than 30 Iu/L), and a decrease in estrogen (E < than 25 pg/ml).

NCCAM National Advisory Council In February, the AAAOM wrote to Michael O. Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, regarding the composition of the National Advisory Council to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). As you may know, NCCAM is the federal government's lead…

This month, I am going to depart slightly from my TCM-based column. However, I want to continue the theme of my previous column, which looked at how the skills and yang energy cultivated by the busy career women who see me for fertility problems is probably an impediment to pregnancy.…

In the two previous articles in this series, I stressed the importance of sensing the energy behind the words - how they are said, including the sound of the voice, expression on the face, body language, breathing and much more. The “how” of a patient’s expression is far more revealing…

I first began writing this article in the month of March, but as most of us do, I procrastinated. I actually was sitting on an airplane on my way to the Great River Symposium in Bloomington, Minn. I must add that this was a great conference. It was very cold,…

Oriental medicine practitioners met from March 28-30 for the 8 th Annual Southwest Symposium in Austin, Texas to hear distinguished speakers and learn about the latest products and services. An opening statement was made by Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin (AOMA) President Will Morris, LAc, OMD, who spoke of…

I have come to realize the CEU courses offered at state or national conferences are just appetizers. By this, I mean they are not the main offering or the main reason to attend. Most of us, and I count myself as having been in this group, consider conferences as a…

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a swelling of the joint linings that causes pain and eventual deformity. Unlike osteoarthritis (actual degeneration of bone joint cartilage), there has not been much attention given to treating RA with acupuncture.

For years, traditional Chinese herbal medicine has stood as an alternative to Western medicine. Studies have been conducted to prove that TCM can produce the same - or better - results as Western medicine, with the added benefit of being less invasive and having fewer side effects.

The first two articles (November 2006 and February 2007) of this series examined the disharmony of addiction by way of using the Chinese Five-Element and the Eight-Principle theories. This provided us with a working model of the addict’s repetitive patterns and showed us how the basic mechanism of addiction works.…

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…