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I don’t think you can find land more idyllically beautiful than the high mountains and passes of Kashmir in Pakistan. It was during the holy week of Ramadan, on Oct. 8, 2005, at approximately 9 a.m. while most women and young children were at home, school-age children were in class…

Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California. I must have been daydreaming as I walked home from high school, because I bumped right into a strange looking man. Asian and clothed in a brown dress, woven grass shoes and ponytail, he clearly was pleased to see me. He said he had been…

Facial acupuncture embraces the language of body/mind/spirit. The face, due to the interplay of its sophisticated musculature, is the most expressive part of the human body hence its delicate terrain is particularly sensitive to the effect of negative emotional states. As we now live in a society characterized by a…

Since 1989, I have been teaching a class on Chinese medicine at Boston University. Hired to help develop their East Asian studies curriculum, my main task was to create classes on Eastern religions and culture, and for much of the time, that’s what I did. Since I was trained in…

Biostimulation - life stimulation - and tissue regeneration1 are the first effects of laser therapy2 cited in much of the scientific literature. How many therapies or drugs can make such a claim? Are there ways these healing benefits might be enhanced?

By the time most patients decide to visit an acupuncturist or other CAM practitioner, they are past the acute stage of pain or illness. In fact, most patients visiting us have a history of chronic pain and/or illness that has not been well-alleviated with Western medicine. When a patient tells…

A female patient presents to your office. When you ask about her main complaint, she replies: “My shoulders are tense; there’s a lot of pain and stiffness. I’ve had it for almost two months. I don’t have any history of injury or arthritis. I checked with a doctor, and everything…

In the December 2005 issue, Acupuncture Today published an article by Lisajeanne Potyk entitled “Eliminating Waste in Practice: Dr. Tan’s Eight Magic Points for All Digestive Disorders.” The article contained a sentence which appear as, “She is not the mother of a healthy, contented newborn.” The sentence should have read,…

Realize the majority (if not all) of these denials are not because there are new codes, but that codes billed are being scrutinized more carefully for accuracy. The ICD9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision - Clinical Modification) contains all the diagnoses currently billable under all insurance claims. These codes…

The following technique is a method for relieving muscle spasms that are otherwise intractable and don’t respond to conventional needling or tuina. It’s based on the concept of muscle fiber fatigue. Although variations of this technique have appeared in print elsewhere,1 this is, to the author’s knowledge, the most distilled…

I have a profound respect for all natural healing arts. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) positively affects the health of our patients on many levels, but what if I told you that there is something more you can do to enhance the therapeutic benefits for your patients while still keeping true…

I have learned tai chi, qi gong and qi theory, but during my four years of acupuncture school and five-plus years of practice, I have not seen qi in the clinical setting. I have worked with acupuncturists in offices throughout New York and Long Island and spoken with others at…

Traditional Chinese medicine primarily is based on systems of correspondences, which reveal the relationships between the universe and the human body. Bridging the relationship between macrocosms and microcosms are classic Taoist cosmological diagrams, including the He Tu and Luo Shu. Each diagram has profound applications in the theory and clinical…

The Acupuncture Poll’s question for November 2005 was: Do you support the Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act of 2005?

A few days ago,* Marilyn Allen stopped by the office with a giant tray of homemade cookies and seven-layer bars as a Christmas present. Being the generous soul that I am, I sent out a company-wide e-mail letting everyone at MPA know about Marilyn’s gift, and offering them a chance…

An Orange County Superior Court jury in Santa Ana, Calif., has found American Whole Health, a managed care company, liable for damages of $210,000 for the unauthorized taking and use of names and addresses of providers from the Web site of MPA Media, the publishers of Acupuncture Today. MPAmedia attorney…

Tea is among the most widely consumed beverages in the world. While hundreds of varieties exist, nearly all teas are derived from three main categories (black, green and oolong). Black teas are made from fully fermented tea leaves; after being crushed and rolled, the leaves are oven-fired, creating a distinctive…

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), has voted to recommend that the Secretary of Education renew recognition of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine for five years, the maximum period currently allowed by the DOE. The…

The beautiful, holistic, “microcosm within the macrocosm” view of nature so central to Chinese medicine is widely recognized as being inspired by early Taoist thought. Yet for many reasons, despite the fundamental role Taoist thinking played in the development of Chinese medical theories, little emphasis has been placed on the…

Outreach and education are the cornerstones of creating any program, in both the private and public sectors. All of the innovative programs we have written about in our column share a common characteristic: they have utilized the art of offering presentations to build constituency and support. We are dedicating this…