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Acupuncturists from around the country will soon be making their way to San Diego for the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM) annual convention. The 2006 Pacific Symposium, Nov. 2-5 at the Catamaran Hotel, will feature more than 40 workshops from well-known members of the acupuncture community, as well as…

After traveling between the two houses of the California legislature for two months, A.B.3014, a bill that defines the term “Asian massage” to clarify the scope of practice for acupuncturists, has reached the governor’s desk and awaits his signature. After fighting against the bill throughout the entire legislative year, the…

The Serbian siege of Sarajevo in the mid-1990s has left scars on the land, its people and their spirits. For four years, from 1992 to 1996, the city’s inhabitants suffered through ethnic cleansing, torture, rape and being cut off from food, electricity and medicine. Ten years later, the Healing Hands…

No matter your economic background, health care is an increasingly hot topic these days. With more and more consumers looking for additional options from their insurance companies as prices continue to skyrocket, where do acupuncture and other forms of complementary and alternative medicine fit into the mix? And how much…

Welcome to the second installment of Student Corner, Acupuncture Today ‘s column devoted to current and lifelong students of Chinese medicine. In my last column , I talked about the philosophical dilemma of the American TCM student - the adjustment we go through in our pursuit of information and knowledge,…

How soon does acupuncture start to work after you put the needle in the acupoints? Some say it works immediately, while others argue it begins to work after the needle has been pulled out. Which is the correct answer?

In the first two parts of this three-part series on the sliding scale, we’ve looked at the why (part 1) and the how (part 2) of using a sliding scale. In part 3, we’ll consider the who . Specifically, who benefits from acupuncturists using a sliding scale? Who are the…

In a clinical practice, business success usually is measured by increased income, increased numbers of patients seen per day and lower operating expenses. By comparison, practice success may be measured by factors such as high percentage of favorable clinical results, high patient satisfaction, high referral levels, and personal satisfaction with…

In my last article, I discussed avenues for integrating TCM and ayurveda in chronic lower back pain and focused mainly on herbal therapies. In this article, I wish to expand this topic further and discuss clinical scenarios in which herbal medicine could potentially aggravate lower back pain, offer complementary yoga…

Regardless of the Causative Factor (CF), a patient will be imbalanced primarily at the level of body, mind or spirit. Just as no two bodies are the same in any two people, neither are two minds or two spirits.

Don’t you just love it when scientific evidence confirms the obvious? In a landmark study published in The New England Journal of Medicine , 1 researchers from Harvard Medical School found that sleep-deprived doctors make significantly more medical errors than those who work less and sleep more.

While traveling in Europe in May, my physicist uncle asked me whether acupuncture was supported by science. And although I did my best, in French, to answer, it has inspired me to examine the question more closely.

The discussion of pertussis would be incomplete without some comments regarding vaccinations. The DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccine is given in three injections. The first is recommended at 2, 4 or 6 months of age; the second at 15 or 18 months; and the third between 4 years and 6 years of…

The Acupuncture Poll’s question for August 2006 was: What percentage of your patients visits you on a regular basis as a preventative measure rather than for specific illnesses?

As the problems of the world continue to shrink our borders - the decrease in natural resources, the increase in global warming, and the growing population - we are all becoming more and more aware of the benefits of cooperation between countries and the exchange of medical and technological information.…

The American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia’s Earth-themed convention, held in July, opted for the golf course and fragrant wildflower meadow setting of the Olympia Resort at Oconomowoc, Wis., instead of the usual big city. As a result, there was a tighter sense of bonding and, true to the…

Becoming a licensed acupuncturist is a journey, rather than just a trip, particularly in terms of the training required. Students of the 3,000-year-old discipline must complete an average of three to four years of graduate-level training and then pass a nationally certified exam before being allowed to practice. In some…

Phantom limb pain, residual limb pain and complex regional pain are common symptoms for patients with limb injuries and amputations. Several studies have shown that approximately 70 percent to 80 percent of patients develop pain within the first few days after amputation.

The Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, recently played host to the first North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Sponsored by the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, the conference was designed to promote educational collaboration across the spectrum of health disciplines, and featured presentations…

Toronto will host the 3 rd International Congress of Traditional Medicine from Sept. 20-22, 2006. The conference, sponsored by the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies and co-sponsored by the Canadian Society of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, is expected to draw more than 1,000 practitioners from more than 100 countries,…