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The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s (NCCAOM) Board of Commissioners has voted to revise existing recertification requirements. The new requirements, adopted at a board meeting in September 2004, cover areas such as continuing education, research and clinical supervision, and - with one exception - will be implemented…

Moxibustion and acupuncture have always gone together as one compound name in the Chinese classics on treatment of illness. We have explained in previous articles in Acupuncture Today how acupuncture works in terms of modern science. How does moxibustion work in terms of modern science? The simple answer is that…

In one of the largest trials of its kind published to date, researchers in Maryland have found that acupuncture applied to specific points on the leg can provide significant pain relief and improve function in patients who have osteoarthritis of the knee. The results of the trial, published in the…

Almost 5,000 years ago, the Chinese had evolved a unique philosophy of music, which, according to author David Tame, in The Secret Power of Music, involved a “system of musical mysticism.” Music contained an essence of transcendent power, and a composition was an “energy formula,” not unlike the flow of…

If you already know what a blog is, skip ahead. If not—blog is short for “weblog,” a collection of personal writings organized by date. It’s a Web site that services like Blogger make easy to use, including fancy professional templates that make it look like you hired a Web designer.…

In our culture, in January, many of us are still hopeful that the possibly unrealistic goals regarding our body weight and fitness may be achieved. By February, the dust is settling on the gym bag, and the fresh vegetables are mounting up in the icebox. By March, much of one’s…

The experiences you have as a licensed acupuncturist, seeing patients and making the benefits of our medicine known throughout your community, are quite important to us. You can provide us with additional insight on how Acupuncture Today can best serve our profession, and in turn, help you best serve your…

Historic Deal Stuns Some Observers On Oct. 24, 2004, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) and the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAOM) announced the largest sponsorship agreement in the acupuncture profession’s history at the AAOM’s annual meeting in Las Vegas.

Wow! What an experience! I was honored to have been chosen last year as a volunteer to work at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. As part of the Athens Olympic Committee Medical and Health Services Sports Massage Team, I was assigned to the baseball venue and to the…

“What Are My Choices?” is here to answer those questions. What Are My Choices? is a periodic column that gives you the information you need straight from the experts - the companies themselves. This issue’s column focuses on continuing educational unit courses, colleges and educational programs - all important components…

After a few years in practice, I discovered a way to get people to see beyond the Western medical model so they understood that natural health care was a positive alternative. For the last 25 years, I’ve been helping natural health care professionals lead people to discover that they could…

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), genetically engineered (GE) foods and crops, biotech foods and crops, transgenic foods, “Frankenfoods” - these are all synonyms for the same thing: an unprecedented new technology that inserts genetic material from one organism into another. GE foods are here, their affects largely unknown and unexplored, and…

Acupuncturists from the Boston-based PanAfrican Acupuncture Project (PAAP) recently completed the fourth in a series of trainings of health care workers in Uganda. The group was invited to Kampala, Uganda in 2002 to discuss the feasibility of beginning an international collaboration.

How many patients do you refer out to medical doctors or chiropractors each month?

Twenty years after it first opened in Santa Cruz, Calif., Five Branches institute has decided to “branch out” by opening a new campus in San Jose. The new campus is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and includes a patient clinic with eight treatment rooms.

We can thank our politicians in Washington, D.C. for doing a wonderful thing - even when it arrives as a bit of a paradox. In July, D.C. legislators refused to allow non-MD health care professionals to practice acupuncture with fewer than the minimum number of hours (1,725) now on the…

As you develop your acupuncture practice - on your own or with others - you will need to know how to get the word out about you and your Chinese medical therapies. There are three main ways of marketing your practice: external, internal and community. Understanding what they are and…

Recent studies suggest that the percentage of companies offering health insurance for employees has decreased over the past few years. The latest estimates show that only about 60 percent of adult workers in the U.S. receive health benefits through their employer. There are a variety of reasons for this decline,…

In 1999, a panel at one of the AOM profession’s national conferences addressed the issue of professional ethics. In 2001, a Joint Ethics Committee, composed of members of the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAOM) and the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance, began to work on a model code. Since…

Last September, in response to an official request by the California Legislature, the Little Hoover Commission issued a report on the state of the acupuncture profession in California. Included in the commission’s analysis were a series of six findings related to scope of practice, educational requirements and other important matters,…