CEU/PDA Alert

I had a wonderful time at this year's Pacific Symposium in San Diego. Although I only went for the weekend portion, I have already implemented many of the principles I learned from Alex Tiberi, Kiiko Matsumoto, Effie Chow, and Mark Kastner. Yet between flight, hotel, food, rental car, and incidentals, I could have paid for a the next 10 years worth of CEU credits. Lately I have been doing the one hour CEUs by Bob Flaws from Blue Poppy which are excellent, but there is a new company that has also started offering courses for those of us who live in the (acupuncture) sticks. I have yet to participate, but I will provide an update and review when I take a class.

Acupuncture continuing education courses online are offered by the Healthcare Medicine Institute (HealthCMI) at https://www.healthcmi.com/ . Acupuncture courses can be downloaded instantly and an online quiz is provided so that acupuncturists may receive California CEU, Florida CE, and NCCAOM PDA credit towards acupuncture license renewal. All acupuncture classes are certified for continuing education credit in all states that license acupuncturists. HealthCMI is currently upgrading their open source code to make the online experience more accessible and looks forward to presenting an expanded offering of online classes. All courses feature a secure online payment system using Geotrust SSL encryption. "Online classroom technology continues to expand at an incredible rate. HealthCMI will present several new classes using these open source solutions. Participants can look forward to a more streamlined online experience for immediate access to medical educational courses," said Executive Director of the Healthcare Medicine Institute, Adam White, L.Ac., Dipl. Ac. .

HealthCMI is pleased to announce several upcoming acupuncture continuing education courses online. "Acupuncture courses for continuing education credit provide important resources for clinical treatment to acupuncturists. The Healthcare Medicine Institute (HealthCMI) has contracted with professors from several acupuncture colleges and schools to provide high quality continuing education courses online. Our goal is to provide quality educational materials for licensed acupuncturists," said Adam White. "We expect our next course on the topic of pediatric disorders to be published shortly and several new courses will provide continuing education credits both for nurses and acupuncturists in all states that license acupuncture." HealthCMI plans to launch the nursing continuing education online department in early 2008 to complement its acupuncture continuing education department.

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New Study

Polycystic Ovary Disease/Syndrome seems to be cropping up more and more. It seems every one of my female clients having fertility issues have all been diagnosed with PCOS and the medications they are prescribing to aid it are less than friendly. Noe the University of Virginia is announcing a call for volunteers for a study to test the effectiveness of acupuncture on this growing disorder. Unfortunately, they are going with sham acupuncture as the control rather than no treatment, or doing a drug versus acupuncture study, but at least it is a beginning.

Acupuncture for PCOS

Stickin' It To Us

I came across this parody today that was marginally funny, although some of the other material on this site is downright hilarious. Have a laugh, check it out.

Acupuncture Proven to Relieve the Suffering of the Dead

Using the Needle After the Knife

Numerous articles came out today about the effects of decreasing the need for pain medicine following surgery. Of course, this came along with an onslaught of articles refuting the success of acupuncture for IVF, but I wanted to focus on the positive.

Studies find acupuncture cuts post-surgical pain
Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:35pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The use of acupuncture before and during surgery reduces patients' post-operative pain as well as the need for pain-killing medication, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina analyzed the results of 15 clinical trials on the effectiveness of acupuncture -- a practice that originated in China of inserting thin needles into specific body points.


They concluded that it is valuable for pain control in surgery patients.

The 15 trials showed that patients getting acupuncture before or during various types of
operations had significantly less pain afterward than patients who did not get acupuncture.
These patients also required less morphine or other opioid pain medication after surgery, which reduced the side effects like nausea and vomiting from these types of drugs, the researchers said.

In terms of pain-drug side effects, the acupuncture patients experienced 1.5 times lower rates of nausea, 1.6 times fewer reports of dizziness and 3.5 times fewer cases of urinary retention compared to the other patients, the study found.

These findings augment a growing body of evidence on the value of acupuncture in improving the surgical experience for patients, the researchers said.

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A Weekend with Mei Zen

Since I can never get enough CEU's, this past weekend I attended the Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture for the Face and I wanted to share a breakdown of the 2-day seminar.

The System: As I had to sign a releases that I cannot talk about specifics of treatment, I will leave the description general. As in other systems, Mei Zen includes a total body acupuncture treatment, uses the eight extraordinary point combinations, and is affiliated with a product line. What makes this system unique is that the same facial protocol is used on every patient and that it makes use of crossing and apex groups as described in the Huang Di Nei Jing. While I cannot disclose the points, I can tell you there are nearly 85 specialty needles in the face, all of which are inserted without a guide tube.

After watching the demo, I was surprised at the lack of "facial" as I typically incorporate masks and massage in my treatments, but the instructor states that is the practitioner's preference how much of this they want to incorporate in addition to the protocol. A wealth of nutritional, herbal, and marketing materials are provided which would be useful even if you did not want to practice cosmetic acupuncture.

Aside from cosmetic acupuncture, Mei Zen is about branding. At the seminar, T-shirts, hats, logo CDs, and cards were for sale, and Martha sponsors a Google group so the Mei Zen community has an open discussion forum. In order to be "certified" and listed on the main website, you must present cases and have your needling technique observed at a special certification seminar. This ensures standards of practice and is a good device for building further branding and loyalty. Above everything else, this is a well conceived business plan!

The Instructor: Martha Lucas is all knowledge and no fluff - her matter-of-fact method really gibes with my learning style. She had a strong foundation in her particular style of acupuncture and is an enthusiastic, articulate presenter. Her supervised practice was invaluable, she was open to knowledge offered by seminar participants, and she was humble enough to only answer questions she knew the answer to. She kept good control over the seminar in terms of ensuring everyone stayed on task, was able to give detailed, individualized feedback of needling technique, and demonstrated great respect and deference to her own teachers.

My only criticism is that she did make some disparaging and somewhat uninformed comments about "rival" facial acupuncture instructors and their techniques. I have never taken Virgina Doran's seminar, but I did participate in Mary Elizabeth Wakefield's and there are many similarities between the two systems. That being said, I am would love to attend her Pulse Seminar and Mei Zen system for weight loss, infertility and health issues should they ever be located nearby.

The Product: Lili Flora is the affiliated skin care line that uses all natural western herbal ingredients. I was able to pick the founder's brain about the products, but I would have liked for her to have had some presentation time during the seminar. There was no sales pressure to buy these products and in fact, if you are at all crafty and like to experiment, it would be easy to make most of them in your kitchen. I have been using some of the products at home and feel they are of good quality and smell wonderful.

I am glad I attended this seminar if only for the great nutritional/herbal information and marketing ideas presented. I think Mei Zen is a solid system, and while the apex and crossing points are a good theory, but honestly, threading works and is no more uncomfortable that the Mei Zen way if performed properly. Ultimately, it is my patients who decide what method they prefer. I hope to continue to study with Martha in the future as she is a dynamic, innovative, and practical instructor who provides good value and knowledge for your CEU dollar.

Stabbed in the Back

The proclamation that acupuncture significantly outperforms conventional medication and physical therapy was published on multiple sites this morning. The only downside to the research is that they found sham acupuncture works almost as well, upping the potential for "quackery."

Acupuncture better at treating low back pain than conventional therapy
From our ANI Correspondent

Washington, Sept 25: A new study has revealed that six months of acupuncture is more effective than conventional therapy for treating chronic low back pain.

The study conducted by researchers at the University of Regensburg found that both sham acupuncture and traditional Chinese verum acupuncture, seem effective in treating chronic pain.

"Low back pain is a common, impairing and disabling condition, often long-term, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 70 percent to 85 percent," the authors wrote."

It is the second most common pain for which physician treatment is sought and a major reason for absenteeism and disability," they added.

Michael Haake, Ph.D., M.D., of the University of Regensburg, Bad Abbach, Germany, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 1,162 patients (average age 50) who had experienced chronic low back pain for an average of eight years.

"At six months, response rate was 47.6 percent in the verum acupuncture group, 44.2 percent in the sham acupuncture group and 27.4 percent in the conventional therapy group."

"The superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system and that is stronger than the action mechanism of conventional therapy," the authors said.

"Acupuncture gives physicians a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications. The improvements in all primary and secondary outcome measures were significant and lasted long after completion of treatment.," they added.

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From the Associated Press: Study: Acupuncture Works for Back Pain

Funny Tidbit

Okay, this is not stricly acupuncture related, but it is amusing and possibly something to consider when treating patients with implants.


Bee sting burst breast implant

A Taiwanese woman's breast implant was reportedly burst by a bee sting.

The 31-year-old woman, from Miaoli town, was wearing a low-cut dress while riding her motorcycle when her right breast was stung by a bee.

"My right breast disappeared in only two days," said the woman, who received the implant three years ago, according to Southern China City News.

Surgeon Zeng Dingchang says the saline implant is supposed to resist pressure of up to 200 kg, and said it was "very strange" for one to deflate because of a bee sting.

"She is very skinny, and the implant made the skin of her breast even thinner, and therefore easy to penetrate," he said.

The surgeon has now performed a replacement implanted operation - but warns that acupuncture or yoga could cause it to burst again.