Acupuncture & Acupressure

Microcurrent Treatment of Headaches
You will frequently have good success in relieving localized bodily pain with microcurrents by simply "circling the dragon"; that is, stimulating where it hurts. This is usually not the case, however, in the treatment of headaches.

CA Bill Heads to Governor's Desk

The highly controversial California Assembly Bill 1822 passed state legislature this week and currently sits on the governor's desk awaiting his review.

On Tuesday, the State Assembly concurred Senate amendments, which includes adding two law enforcement officials to the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC). The amendment also stipulates that the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) and the California State Sheriffs Association have the only authority to select the law enforcement officials.

The Snackwell Effect, Part 2
The Snackwell Effect, Part 1 talked about how we lost our ability to regulate blood sugar by overwhelming our bodies with cereal, bread and Ho-Ho's. This article is going to be about how to reverse this whole process.

Centering the Umbilical Pulse and Akabani Testing
This article will address two very specific and important treatment protocols: the Umbilical Pulse and the Akabani Test, both of which can be incorporated with any style of practice.

The Changing World of Education
Back in December 2003, I attended a lecture by William A. Wulf, then president of the National Academy of Engineering. One of his comments that struck me was on the difference between small improvements in technology that make something already being done easier and on the continuing and often unexpected social changes stemming from huge quantitative changes in technology.

TCM and Weight Management
According to the World Health Organization there are 1 billion people globally that are overweight and 300 million that are clinically obese. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey from 1999 to 2002, 65 percent of the U.S. population is obese or overweight and 30 percent are considered clinically obese.

Making a Difference
Some people can live their whole lives unconcerned with the state of affairs of their community, the friends they have, or the profession they choose. I think we all know someone like this. It seems the only interest in life they have is simply to make more money.

Cultural Competency in the Mormon Community
The federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) define cultural competency as "a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations.

Acupressure Treats Dysmenorrhea
Dysmenorrhea, which can be quite common in women, is characterized by lower abdominal pain and cramping, sometimes accompanied by heavy bleeding, that begins at the start of the menstrual cycle.

Adrenal Support Important for Coping With Prolonged Stress
When the famous physiologist Hans Selye was conducting his original research on the stress response in the 1930s, he observed that prolonged and sustained stress eventually attacked the adrenal glands themselves.

A Snapshot Of the Profession
Given the current debates taking place over the role complementary medicine (and acupuncture and Oriental medicine in particular) should play in the changing health care environment, it is important to understand where the profession is currently at.

Falls to Remember
It's September! Hope you had a wonderful summer. This year fall will be really interesting because of a very important election. America now has two classes, a ruling class and the rest of us.

The Pulse of Aging
What would the pulse of aging look like? I use the term "look like" rather than "feel like" because I look at the pulses as the flow of qi through the organ systems rather than as a single or multiple of textures.

Take It From Your Peers: You CAN Get Paid to Work in Eldercare and Hospice
My last article focused on keys to opening doors to eldercare and hospice. If you desire to work in these settings, my guess is you have wondered: 1) How do I get my foot in the door? 2) How do I generate a clientele? 3) How can I get paid? All very valid questions!

Plotting Your Course

It's not enough to want to make a living to do what you do. Nor is it enough to be extraordinarily talented - the world is full of passionate, talented failures. If you want to earn money with your passion, you'll be running a business, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to plot your course.

Major Massage Associations Call for CA Legislators to Kill Bill
After months of discussions regarding the infamous "anti-prostitution" law, the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC), American Massage Therapy Association-California chapter (AMTA-CA) and Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) have ended negotiations and have called for an end to Assembly Bill 1822.

When a Client Crosses the Line
The sexual assault allegations against Al Gore has elicited much commentary about clients crossing the line sexually. Regardless of the veracity of this particular claim, it is an important topic to explore in-depth. Some clients may "test the waters" about sexual services, while others blatantly cross the line. Massage practitioners must know how to appropriately deal with those situations.

IMA's Demise
Will Green, the owner and founder of the International Massage Association (IMA), a business that was once a major insurer for the massage therapy community, said in an interview that depression was behind his failure to pay for more than $600,000 in insurance premium payments, an action that has effectively destroy the business.

Army To Include AOM for Pain Treatment
The statistics are sobering, to say the least. According to leading pain specialists in the Veterans Administration, nine in 10 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans return home with some form of pain, and 60 percent have significant pain.

What About My Feet?

During a recent session with a regular client of mine, we ended up having a conversation about feet. I cannot remember how the topic came up - maybe he was having particularly bad pain in his feet that day - but we ended up discussing what kind of shoes we wear the majority of the time.

The conversation made me realize that for as much time as I spend working peoples' feet, I have not yet written exclusively about feet and massage, or self-care of feet for practitioners.

Massage therapists are one of the groups of professionals who spend most of their time working on their feet; in addition to pulling, pushing, bending, leaning and lifting. We have a rather "physical" job, and after giving five to eight massages in one day, I know my feet have frequently felt the effects of this.

Proving East Asian Medicine
East Asian medical research focuses on quantitative means of proof. This affects the information obtained, thus what become considered best practices. I maintain that the world of East Asian medicine might also be understood through qualitative means.

Corporate Clutter
Eighteen boxes, seven piles, and 167 assorted objects found their way from our home to the curbside last weekend. In addition, books from three four-foot shelves were removed and taken to the University Book Give-Away Center.

Soft Tissue Pain: Calcific Tendinitis
Calcific tendinitis in the shoulder is a soft-tissue pain complaint that may be acute but is usually chronic, and affects the rotator cuff tendons. Its symptoms somewhat mimic other conditions such as adhesive capsulitis, rotator cuff disorders, shoulder impingement syndrome.

Police Group Seeks Even More Control Over Massage Board

After controversial amendments were made to the infamous "anti-prostitution" law of adding "hostile" law enforcement professionals to a California massage board, the bill gets even more contentious with its most recent language.

Advanced Stretching: Using Neural Inhibition to Enhance the Stretch, Part 1
There is an art and a science to practicing manual and movement therapies. The science yields a set of guidelines that provide the structure for our therapy. We develop this science as an extension of our understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology of the body.

The Life of Per Henrik Ling
In the early 1800s, Peter Henry Ling (also Per Henrik Ling) was perhaps the first to discover what countless others have since learned in the past centuries: massage is critical for healing pain.

2010 FSMTB Annual Meeting Held in Member Board Jurisdiction of Puerto Rico
The fifth annual Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB) conference will be held October 7-9 at the El San Juan Hotel & Casino in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Registration is now open.

A Rose By Any Other Name
In his July column, Will Morris asks "What's In A Name?" Rather more than Shakespeare's Juliet would imagine; indeed, more things than are dreamt of in her philosophy, to invoke Hamlet.

Dealing with Dangerous Clients
Recently, a colleague in another city called to inform me that a patient had been vandalizing acupuncturists' offices around town and, they believed, slashing tires of acupuncturists' cars. He wanted to know if I knew anything about this person, and to warn me.

As Time Goes By
I celebrated my 40-year anniversary in the field this summer. It was astounding to contemplate how my entire life has been built around learning, practicing, promoting, fighting for, and teaching this medicine all over the world. I have reminisced about the decades of struggle, passion, commitment and reward.