Much has changed since the Western world has first encountered acupuncture. Many medical doctors and respected scientists would no longer laugh at acupuncture and dismiss it as a ridiculous superstitious folk medicine that lacks scientific basis. Acupuncture is now seen as a scientifically valid form of medical therapy.

Many scientific studies have been conducted that have proven the efficacy of acupuncture.

Due to numerous scientific findings supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture, the Department of Essential Drugs and Medicine Policy of the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a list of diseases, symptoms, and conditions that acupuncture can treat. Headaches, depression, sprains, strokes, sciatica, and rheumatoid arthritis are among the conditions included in WHO’s 2003 publication.

Most recently, researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center have demonstrated that acupuncture can be an effective therapy for breast cancer patients who are experiencing joint pain and stiffness while undergoing hormonal therapies. The results of the study were published last March, 2010 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Although scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of acupuncture abound, the ancient Chinese therapy has not yet freed itself from criticisms.

In a recently published online commentary in the British Journal of Medicine, Patrick Woo and his colleagues recently pointed last March 19, 2010 that “to prevent infections transmitted by acupuncture, infection control measures should be implemented, such as use of disposable needles, skin disinfection procedures, and aseptic techniques. Stricter regulation and accreditation requirements are also needed.”  

Acupuncture is absolutely safe when performed by a Licensed Acupuncturist. With more than 3,000 credit hours of acupuncture training, the risks that Woo mentioned would be extremely rare with Licensed Acupuncturists. Acupuncture in the hands of a qualified acupuncturist with a hard-earned license is just plain safe!

Patients, however, should avoid seeking acupuncture treatments from non-licensed medical acupuncture practitioners such as medical doctors or chiropractors who only have 300 credit hours of training. These non-licensed practitioners of acupuncture may not have enough experience to ensure the safety of patients. Ask your acupuncturist how much training they had and if they are licensed.

Every form of medicine should be done by a specialist. Western Medicine would not be safe if it is performed by non-licensed doctors. Likewise, acupuncture should only be performed by Licensed Acupuncturists who can offer maximum safety to patients.

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The majority of practitioners whose post graduate education and schooling is based in the field of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (AOM) receive about 80% of their education exclusively in the field. They are also required to undergo an extensive amount of clinical training for an average of 3 to 4 years. However, many other health care practitioners utilize acupuncture, which is one of the numerous therapies of Oriental Medicine, occasionally as a technique to supplement their primary practice. One philosophical distinction of Oriental Medicine is its whole person approach of body, mind, and spirit in an energetic and comprehensive system of health care that includes meditation, nutrition, tai chi, qi gong, Asian bodywork, and acupuncture.

Typically a Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) who has obtained a diploma/degree from a college accredited by the ACAOM, and has passed the national certification exams which are administered by the NCCAOM will have 3 to 4 years (1500 to 2000 hours in acupuncture study). A Typical naturopath, osteopath, medical doctor, or chiropractor who uses acupuncture as an adjunctive technique has less than 300 hours of acupuncture study! The World Health Organization recommends that all medical doctors have 1500 hours of acupuncture training to practice independently and 200 hours minimum for the purpose of research such that they will know when to refer to a Licensed Oriental Medical practitioner or more fully trained Acupuncturist.

Acupuncture should only be administered by a practitioner who has specific education in this field due to risk of improper needling, inadequate understanding of Oriental medical diagnostic procedures, transmission of disease, imbalancing of energy, or ethical violations. It is important that you be sure to ask your medical professional or therapist for his and/or her complete educational background in order to help ensure that you receive the most efficient and professional acupuncture care that is available to help ensure your optimal health and wellness.

Search the TCM Directory to find a qualified acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioner.

Information supplied by the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (CCAOM).

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Acupuncture is one of the most popular complementary therapies in the world and it’s crucial to go to a licensed acupuncturist (L.Ac.) to avoid serious complications while avoiding medical doctors, chiropractors, and other practitioners with minimal acupuncture training calling themselves acupuncturists.

According to MEDLINE, the Department of International Health Development described the pathological findings of an autopsy case of bilateral tension pneumothorax after a medical acupuncture treatment. The most serious complications of acupuncture treatment is pneumothorax due to perforation of the lungs by needle insertion. This patient suffered dyspnea and chest pain soon after the medical acupuncture treatment, and died 90 min later.
PMID: 14568778 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The University of Muenster in Germany claims many cases of acupuncture related pneumothorax have been published over the years. They mentioned one case in particular which  was a woman who received acupuncture at the level of the spinous process of the third thoracic vertebra. She experienced difficulties in breathing and pain in the left chest. On x-ray examination a tension pneumothorax was diagnosed. What made it also shocking was that this woman received acupuncture from a “fully trained medical acupuncturist”.
(PMID: 15077937 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE])

The Institute of Community Medicine in Norway reported a total of 193 patients with adverse effects of acupuncture in 14 years. Pneumothorax being the most common. Medical Acupuncture treatment is claimed to be responsible in the death of three patients.

The study confirms that serious adverse effects, however, are few, and acupuncture can generally be considered a safe treatment and that “most adverse effects of acupuncture seem to rely on inadequate acupuncture education“.
PMID: 9395661 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

So how do you find a fully educated acupuncturist and avoid an acupuncturist with “inadequate acupuncture education” and lessen your risk of serious complications?

Just follow these common sense steps:

1. Ask your acupuncturist how many hours of acupuncture study they had?
The answer should be at least 2,000 hours.

2. Ask what acupuncture school they went to.
Accredited acupuncture schools can be found here and if theirs is not on this list, walk away!

3. Beware of medical doctors, chiropractors, and other practitioners who claim to be medical acupuncturists. Most often they only have 200 hours of acupuncture education.

As a rule of thumb, be cautious of anyone who practices acupuncture secondary to their advertised expertise.

A medical doctor or other practitioner who also practices acupuncture is OK as long as they meet the criteria of #1 and #2

To find a fully trained and licensed acupuncturist you can search this acupuncture directory.

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This is definitely a genuine contribution.  I believe that most of these practitioners have no interest in” taking over” as they are motivated by results and discovery.

However, the Medical Acupuncture groups do advertise and try to divert traffic to the quacky bastards (not the ones who have dedicated themselves to properly executed acupuncture). 

Additionally, these MD’s have the challenge of trying to make up for their grossly inadequate training. This means either years of patients paying for their ignorance or mostly “pin-the-donkey” acupuncture wherein one looks only for points empirically shown to  provide specific results.  One famous example is using P5 for nausea.  It works.  However it overlooks proper pulse and other diagnosis in the Oriental medical paradigm, hereafter to be known as the Correct Paradigm  

Truly though, if one does not understand how oriental medicine works it is the equivalent of discarding all of western medicine except antibiotics.  Excepting emergency medicine and some specialty care it would do us well to discard that drivel that drives one to fund the pharmaceuticals til the day you die instead of for instance telling the digestive complex to come back online and eliminating for instance, GURDS, reflux, bloating, concentration problems, chronic fatigue, “candida”, and more with a few simple needles rather than taking banal drugs forever.
 
So, I applaud the work of those dedicated MDs who carry their training to high levels, but still condemn the 300 hours training that deludes one to believe they are an acupuncturist and causes one to have to scramble to make up for it.  Most will never know what a real acupuncturist knows:  TCM is a complete, beautiful, natural medicine that heals most disease and the cause of disease with little effort. With a snap of the fingers we can treat hot flashes, asthma, shingles, Chrohns, and most  non-emergency primary medical problems, without causing leaky heart valves, lifetime pharmaceutical dependencies, suicide and without betraying our patients through ineptitude.  Isn’t it odd? Medical Doctors have so much training and knowledge and a generally very good intent.  Yet sadly, their medicine is half miracle/half crap and it’s easily delineated by emergency and non-emergency treatment.

Remember, if you celebrate Halloween you can dress as a Medical Doctor.  They kill 100,000 a year just with mistakes by their own count.  That doesn’t include all the “non-mistakes” that you see all the lawsuits out! 

Keep Sticking!

Tom Chi
 
For more on Dr. Tom Chi (Doctor of Acupuncture, Rh. Isle., L. Ac.  NYS) go to www.FixPainNow.com
There you can also find info on the amazing pain therapy he pioneered “Soft-Tissue-Reprocessing” also known as “SUPERTOUCH ™”.  Soon posted there will be info on his upcoming series now in production called “The Pain Whisperer” as well as upcoming availability of the new Magnetized Acupuncture Needles for which he is worldwide patent-pending. Tom Chi has practiced acupuncture for 25+ years and done over 130,000 treatments.  As with many acupuncturists virtually all of his patients illnesses are “cured” within a few short treatments and with the SUPERTOUCH ™ therapy even difficult and chronic pain patients receive immediate, tangible, lasting results as their injuries are reprocessed and reformed so that the injuries no longer exist and are therefore no longer predisposed to pain or reinjury as they are gone! You may contact Dr. Chi at: DrChi@FixPainNow.com

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These practitioners have between 100-300 hours of training in acupuncture (often completed at UCLA seminar).  They get a brief overview about acupuncture meridians,  learn a few acupuncture points, and receive instruction about how to insert an acupuncture needle.  While trigger point needling may have some benefit in pain relief, these practitioners have no training in, nor are they practicing Oriental medicine. They are using neuromodulation as an adjunctive therapy to their primary practice.

Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc), whose educational focus is in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, receive approximately 80% of their training exclusively in this field, and undergo an extensive clinical internship in Oriental medicine averaging three years.

COMPARISON OF LICENSED VS. CERTIFIED ACUPUNCTURISTS

THE FACTS

Certified/Physician Acupuncturist

Certified physician, chiropractor or dentist [medical] acupuncturists (CAc) with 100 – 300 hours of training

Training which is often comprised of home study and video-taped lectures

Minimal clinical experience in acupuncture or no actual patient treatments before certification

Not required to complete the national certification examination to prove competency in acupuncture

Not required to regularly complete continuing education courses

Licensed Acupuncturist

Licensed acupuncturists (LAc) with an average of 2,700 hours of master’s-level training

Master’s level, on-site training at a nationally accredited school or college of acupuncture

Hundreds of hours of clinical experience and at least 250 actual patient treatments before licensure

Required to pass the national certification exam in acupuncture in order to become licensed (NCCAOM board certification)

Required to do regular continuing education to maintain national certification

Amount of Training in Acupuncture

1905-2000 hours in Acupuncture

2625-3500 hours in Oriental Medicine

•    Licensed Acupuncturist

•    Traditional Chinese Medicine Comprehensively-trained Acupuncturist

•    Oriental Medicine Practitioner

•    Oriental Medical Acupuncture

Many Acupuncture and Oriental schools exceed 2000 hours.  Colleges in California must meet a minimum required 3,000 hours in Oriental Medicine.
Oriental medicine includes acupuncture, Chinese herbology and dietary therapy, tui na massage, tai qi and qi gong meditative exercises.

300 hours or less

•    Medical Acupuncture

•    Neuromodulation

•    Meridian Balancing/Therapy

•    Chiropractic Acupuncture

•    Naturopathic Acupuncture

100 hours or less

•    Medical Acupuncture

•    Chiropractic Acupuncture

•    Detox Tech

Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc
Asheville Center for Chinese Medicine
70 Woodfin Place    Suite West Wing Two
Asheville, North Carolina 28801   828.258.2777
kbartlett@AcupunctureAsheville.com
www.AcupunctureAsheville.com

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It is not rude to question the qualification of the person who intends to treat you for a physical ailment, especially if they offer to perform a treatment secondary to their advertised expertise.

Ask your practitioner how many years and hours  of acupuncture training they had!

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