An Introduction to Acupuncture for Integrative Medicine Practitioners
- Understand the development of the practice of acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in the United States, the various styles of acupuncture currently practiced, and how it currently integrates with allopathic and Integrative Medicine.
- Understand the current scientific understanding of how acupuncture works, and where it has proven most useful in the prevention, amelioration and treatment of disease.
- Understand when it is appropriate to refer someone for acupuncture, and how you might offer certain treatments in your practice.
Acupuncture and the other techniques of Oriental Medicine are well established in North America, and elsewhere are an important part of the health care for almost one-half of the world’s population. After over 20 years of study, the NIH put out its Consensus paper on acupuncture in 1997, entitled simply “Acupuncture Works”.
When an acupuncturist and a western medical doctor look at a patient, they use different language and come from a different model of understanding to talk about the problem. The problem is the same, but the understanding of the causality of the problem and the approach needed to treat is often different. Neither medicine is better, but having some understanding of Oriental medicine can give you access to novel approaches and treatments for disease that can help in cases not well treated by what you learned in your western training. The treatment modalities in Oriental Medicine blend well with western treatments, are remarkably safe, and often very effective. As the NIH report said, “Acupuncture Works”.