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The Acupuncture Poll’s question for December 2005 was: On average, how many patients do you treat during a typical day in practice?

I recently returned from an excursion to Toronto, Canada. Now that I’m safely back in the states, I am of the opinion that with the possible exception of China, Toronto may have more acupuncture and Oriental medicine regulations than anywhere else in the world.

Looking at the face is as important a diagnostic tool as listening to the pulse. When observing the face, there are three aspects that are noted. First is the physical structure - the size, shape, and placement of bone and cartilage. This corresponds to “man.” Second is the glitter of…

The Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts (AOMSM, formerly the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts, or ASM) recently sponsored a public seminar, “Ancient Medicine in a Modern World,” in Brookline, Mass. Under the direction of president Ra’ufa Clark, the AOMSM is re-invigorating professional activity across the state by providing educational…

Impingement syndrome is one of the most common diagnoses among people with shoulder problems. It affects the rotator cuff, a group of muscles and tendons that secure the arm to the shoulder joint and allow the arm to rotate. People diagnosed with impingement syndrome usually experience pain in the area…

In 2004, Dr. Michael McCoy succeeded Tierney Tully as the new executive director of the National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance. Not only did the Alliance acquire a person with more than two decades of management and educational experience when Dr. McCoy was hired, they added to their ranks something…

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 regeneration 1 are the first effects of laser therapy 2 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.…

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…

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…

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…

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