After numerous efforts and letters on behalf of the Acupuncture
Society of New York and other independent efforts effective July 16th, ASNY was
informed that the diagnosis restrictions on Empire BC/BS plans have been
removed. Prior restrictions included knee and/or hip osteoarthritis
provable with x-ray and nausea from chemotherapy, pregnancy or post
surgical. After extensive contact with the company we have received the
response that "our medical policies have been updated and the prior diagnosis
restrictions have been removed". ASNY thanks everyone who helped
contribute to the reversal of these restrictions.
Please watch www.asny.org for upcoming ASNY programs on
Major Medical, No Fault and Workers Compensation
Insurance. Additionally, I look forward to updating you on
meetings that ASNY has this month with the Governor's Office,
Department of Insurance and the Workers Compensation Board.
I sincerely thank those who are ASNY members and strongly encourage new members
to join in order to help fuel these efforts.
9000 Needles is bringing acupuncture to the masses. The documentary follows Devin Dearth, a 40-year-old former bodybuilder, to China, where he is treated with acupuncture after suffering a massive stroke.
The film made a splash at several of last year's film festivals, including the Gotham Independent Film Awards, where it was a finalist. It was directed by Devin's brother, Doug Dearth, whose frustrations with the U.S. health insurance industry during his brother's recovery inspired him to research international options. He spent three-and-a-half months filming in Tianjian, China, where Devin participated in an affordable, comprehensive stroke rehabilitation program that included frequent acupuncture treatments.9000 Needles tells a unifying story of how Devin's family and local community put aside preconceived notions about medicine to embrace the solution that offered their loved one the most benefit.
Doug Dearth recently spoke with me about filming his brother's journey and how he hopes it will improve perceptions and accessibility of acupuncture in the U.S.
I always assumed that the doctors there would speak very metaphysically or philosophically, like there was something mysterious behind acupuncture. But talking with them was the same as talking to any neurologist here in the U.S. They were very medically sound in their opinions. All of their explanations of how the medicine works were based in science and medicine.
One of your initial drivers in making this film was highlighting the shortcomings of the U.S. insurance system. What is your mission for the film going forward?
It's two-fold: to gain awareness for acupuncture and then to allow that to improve accessibility. Better accessibility means that insurance companies support patients who choose this kind of care, and also that the mainstream medical community really accepts this as a viable treatment that should be integrated into our medical system. It makes nothing but sense for a stroke program to integrate acupuncture. There are no side effects; it can only help.
"NANJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese medical experts say Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), especially acupuncture, can help prevent suicide on the eve of World Suicide Prevention Day, which falls on Friday.
Du Wendong, president of the Institute of Psychology of the Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, said no suicide cases had happened in his university since 1985 when the school began to use TCM in students' mental crisis intervention.
According to TCM psychological theories, mental disorders can be cured through "coordination of yin and yang and treatment of both mind and body."
Chen Qing, Du's student, suffered from chronic diarrhea and was ill-tempered. She often clashed with classmates. After talking with Chen, Du realized that Chen suffered from depression due to study stress. Chen often told him she wanted to commit suicide.
TCM showed that Chen's diarrhea was caused by psychological disorders and her short temper was generated by "liver-yang hyperactivity," a TCM term indicating headache, dizziness and red eyes.
After applying some prescription, acupuncture and massage therapy, Chen's depression faded.
Du said such "mental crisis intervention" had helped prevent more than 160 suicide cases since 1985, and the school's psychological center had offered consultation to about 80,000 people.
Those who suffered serious depression or anxiety disorders would receive further treatment in the Nanjing Neurological Hospital, he said.
Chen Mingkang, who had been treated in the hospital, said the side-effects of anti-depression drugs were "scary" and caused insomnia, but it was gradually relieved after applying acupuncture, and his depression had not recurred for years.
The hospital said more than 500 patients had benefited from such combined treatment of acupuncture and drugs.
Zhang Ning, the hospital's vice president who specializes in treating mental disorders, said TCM-based treatment was more efficient than taking anti-depression drugs, and would improve sleeping.
He also said the recurrence rate was low and the side-effects few, both important factors when assessing depression treatment.
Young people's psychological problems have caused concern in China as experts found a high correlation between suicide and mental illness -- out of 287,000 people who committed suicide each year, 63 percent suffered mental disorders, according to research conducted by the government-funded Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center.
Zhang Chun, head of the Nanjing Psychological Crisis Intervention Center, said most people did not seek help before they committed suicide and he suggested depression sufferers try the TCM-based treatment.
The treatment has also been promoted in the United States, France, Germany, Portugal, Singapore and some other countries by foreign students studying TCM in Nanjing, he said."
Anyone considering an alternative treatment for their health problems should read this article "Should you try acupuncture? from the Huffington Post. It explains what acupuncture is, addresses insurance concerns, and says that the new medical model of integrative medicine in patient centered and embraces any and all effective solutions to patient's health problems.
"According to the TCM view, a vital energy called qi flows through the body along channels called meridians. I like to think of these channels as a sprinkling system for the body, bringing qi to vital organs and extremities in much the way hoses bring water to your garden. In the TCM model of health and disease, when qi flow is blocked it stagnates. Stagnating qi causes illness. Acupuncture therapy unblocks the qi flow, strengthens or weakens the qi (think opening and closing the garden spigot) and directs it to areas of need.
A holistic practice, acupuncture seeks to re-establish the body's healthy equilibrium and function, as opposed to forcing healing using surgery or pharmaceuticals. Interestingly, Chinese practitioners were not the only (and may not have been the first) to identify these energy pathways in the body. The frozen body of a man recovered well-preserved from the Alps features tattoos that correspond to Chinese acupuncture's qi meridians."
"Some folks, including older Western M.D.s, still talk about whether or not they "believe" in acupuncture. Such thinking is ill-informed and outdated. One might as well speculate about whether to believe in aspirin, morphine, insulin, surgery or an MRI. The question is not whether acupuncture works, but how it works, and whether it is the appropriate therapy for a particular syndrome, problem, symptom, disease or patient. In a clinical setting and performed by a licensed professional (licensure is by state) acupuncture is effective for a variety of complaints."
There have been many misconceptions about acupuncture that many people in the Western world have inferred. When I see and hear all of these misconceptions, it causes me to start rolling my eyes in disbelief. So it is time to set the record straight.
The first misconception is that it is used for dealing only with stress.Now this statement is misleading because while certain people do use it for stress, it is not the only reason.We do look at stress as being the cause of some diseases but not all of them. If you look at certain diseases such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome, the root cause is stress. However, certain conditions that acupuncture can treat such as sinusitis or diabetes, the root cause is not stress obviously.Usually the cause of certain diseases can be environmental, genetic, dietary, or psychological.Another misconception that caught my attention a couple of years ago was on Oprah Winfrey's talk show with Dr. Oz.The subject on her show was about acupuncture and the acupuncturist treating Oprah was asked, "Do you need to be sick in order to receiving acupuncture?" The practitioner's answer was, "no."Now, I find this to be not only a misconception but a dangerous answer to give because there are cases from East Asia that shows that acupuncture to be a useful medical tool.Furthermore, the World Health Organization states that acupuncture is useful in the treatment of immune system issues up to the side-effects of chemotherapy.
Next is the subject of health insurance covering acupuncture treatments is another misconception.Health insurance companies are only going to cover diseases treated with acupuncture by a medical doctor who is a certified acupuncturist. I must say again that medical doctors practicing acupuncture have only three-hundred hours of acupuncture training. Whereas, licensed acupuncturists are not covered by health insurance companies despite having two-thousand hours of training than certified doctors practicing acupuncture.
Lastly, a misconception is that acupuncture is considered unscientific by the Western allopathic community. Furthermore is that they feel that acupuncture is more of a mystical, intuitive, and an exotic art form of medicine. The misconception of East Asian medicine being unscientific is also based on false postcolonial assumptions that date back to the 18th and 19th centuries regarding Eastern cultures by European imperialists according to Edward Said, the author of Orientalism. What people fail to realize is that the Western medical viewpoint grows out of the scientific model. The majority of individuals unfortunately fail to realize that science is a point of view without any more purchase on truth than the world views. This gives Western medicine an air of certainty which it does not necessarily deserve anymore than acupuncture and East Asian Medicine does.
This concludes some of the many misconceptions about East Asian Medicine that have been circulating within the country.
Billy Shonez Singh is a licensed acupuncturist and board certified Chinese herbalist by the NCCAOM. He is currently practicing in Westbury, NY. His primary focus with East Asian Medicine is stress, pain management, diabetic complications, and treating chemotherapy side-effects.
A specialized MRI scan shows the effects of acupuncture. The top two images show the brain of a healthy subject. In the middle two images, a patient with carpal tunnel syndrome registers pain (indicated by red and yellow). The bottom images show the calming effect (indicated by blue) in the brain after acupuncture.
This article describes how scientists are using ultra-sound, thermal imaging, and neuroimaging to show the effects of acupuncture. Scientists found that many of the 365 acupuncture points correspond to nerve bundles or muscle trigger points and several meridians track major arteries and nerves.
Acupuncture is being used by U.S. Army and Navy doctors for musculoskeletal problems, pain and stress in stateside hospitals and combat zones, and by Acupuncturists without Borders in Haiti after the earthquake. Major medical centers like M.D. Anderson in Houston to Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York use acupuncture to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy.
Image via Wikipedia Scar from carpal tunnel surgery
"Studies at the Martinos Center have shown that patients with carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful compression of nerves in the wrist, have heightened activity in parts of the brain that regulate sensation and fear, but after acupuncture, their brain patterns more closely resemble those of healthy subjects. Brain scans of patients with fibromyalgia show that both acupuncture and sham acupuncture (using real needles on random points in the body) cause the release of endorphins. But real acupuncture also increased the number of receptors for pain-reducing neurotransmitters, bringing patients even more relief."
Kelsey Dixon, a NYCTCM graduating acupuncture student, wrote on how she will contribute to the future of Chinese medicine in an American culture which is so different from the Taoist principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
"The TCM that exists in the United States of America
is, in some ways, childlike, having progressed past the novelty of its
infantile stages and the tremendous growth of early childhood, and now entering
its adolescence, and the struggle to blossom to its fullest potential while
maintaining its roots. It is an old and sacred medicine reborn within a young
and eager culture- a culture still, sometimes awkwardly, undecided as to how to
approach and integrate this strange new paradigm. At times, the impending
pressure upon becoming a practitioner of this healing art can seem intense..." "Reviewing the words of wisdom from
the 'sages' of both ancient Chinese culture and contemporary American culture,
the irony of TCM in America
is obvious. In TCM, we have a paradigm of health based on a worldview that
holds passivity and acceptance, and harmony within a greater whole, in highest
esteem. The American Dream, on the other hand, is fundamentally about
individuals distinguishing themselves, about challenging the status quo and
seeing the way things ought to be rather than the way things are. " read the complete article at NYCTCM blog page..
Those coping with cancer and other forms of disease often
look to acupuncture and other alternative therapies to provide relief for pain,
stress and anxiety. Practiced as early as the Stone Age, acupuncture has been a
source of relief for numerous conditions for thousands of years. The exact way the
technique was discovered or developed is not well-understood, but one legend
claims that Chinese soldiers receiving arrow wounds in battle reported relief
from pain in other body parts, which inspired further research.
Acupuncture
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines acupuncture as
the "application of stimulation such as needling, moxibustion, cupping, and
acupressure on specific sites of the body known as acupuncture points." They
report that acupuncture may work by inducing physical response in nerve cells,
the pituitary gland and certain parts of the brain.
Some notable conditions that acupuncture has been known to
treat include allergies, gastrointestinal conditions, back pain, migraines and
infertility. Some proponents of modern Western medicine continue to doubt the
effects of acupuncture, but a growing body of scientific evidence has prompted
many medical professionals to consider the benefits of this treatment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) published a scientific
review of controlled clinical trials on acupuncture in 2003, and concluded it
was an effective method of treatment for 28 conditions. Some of the listed
conditions include adverse reactions to radiotherapy or chemotherapy,
depression, hypertension, nausea and vomiting, and postoperative pain. They
also found evidence that suggests acupuncture could be effective for several
dozen more conditions, including abdominal pain, cancer pain, insomnia and
whooping cough. Due to the relief of symptoms associated with cancer, breast,
colon and mesothelioma cancer patients,
among others, have turned to acupuncture for relief of their cancer symptoms
and side effects.
Acupuncture and
Cancer
Acupuncture can be used as an additional and complimentary
treatment for the side effects that cancer patients experience, such as overall
pain and nausea (caused by other cancer treatments like chemotherapy). NCI
reports that clinical studies of acupuncture as a treatment for cancer show
that acupuncture can reduce vomiting and nausea caused by chemotherapy. They
also found that acupuncture may improve the immune system, helping cancer
patients to fight their condition and its side effects.
The physical responses acupuncture can induce in nerve
cells, the pituitary gland and parts of the brain can cause the body to release
hormones, proteins and certain brain chemicals that affect a range of bodily
functions. Through this response, it is proposed that acupuncture can affect
blood pressure and body temperature, enhance immune system function, and
prompts the body to release natural pain killers (such as endorphins).
Considered a natural form of treatment, acupuncture can help
to treat side effects of cancers that are caused by exposure to natural,
environmental forces, such as UV rays, radon or the toxic mineral asbestos.
Clinical research currently suggests that a number of cancers are caused by
exposure to environmental forces in those who happen to be genetically
predisposed. A notable example includes skin cancer, but other lesser-known
cancers, including the rare cancer mesothelioma, are also caused by exposure to
environmental toxins. Asbestos exposure is one of the only mesothelioma causes and it is
even linked to ovarian and prostate cancer. Patients coping with the symptoms
and side effects of these cancers have reported relief after receiving
acupuncture.
Though the benefits of acupuncture are still questioned by
some medical professionals, numerous cancer patients have attested to the
healing effects of this age-old treatment approach. Acupuncture, along with
other forms of alternative medicine such as massage, meditation and yoga, have
certainly gained support from countless cancer patients, and clinical trials
continue to provide scientific evidence of the benefits of this treatment.
Jonah Ewell, an acupuncture student, talks to his father about the swine flu H1N1 virus and the Chinese Medicine perspective. Please read the whole article on Everyday Health blog:
Its very informative on both the Western and TCM viewpoint on disease.
"In the framework of Chinese medicine, it's unimportant what exact
microbe or virus is causing you problems. Western science and medicine
is reductionist, always looking for that ONE THING that they can point
to and say is the cause of illness. When you find the exact bacteria or
virus, all you have to do is kill it, or remove it, or block it, or any
of the other things Western medicine does. This is a relatively recent
development, hinging on the invention of advanced microscopes. Thanks
to these instruments, we have made incredible advances in being able to
look at and detect these small microbes and viruses, which has helped
the world deal with serious health problems. However, as we are seeing,
looking for the one microbe and trying to eliminate it is a textbook
case of missing the forest for the trees.
What causes disease?
Why do some people get sick and others don't? If the swine flu was
really so contagious, why haven't more people become sick and died?
According to what I've heard on the radio and read in the newspapers,
less than 10% of people with swine flu have died. Over 90% recover.
Think of fruit in a basket. If you leave it for awhile, you might find
that one piece of fruit has mold on it. Another piece of fruit, sitting
right next to it and even touching it, cheek-by-jowl, is unaffected.
Why is that?"
"NCCAOM Promotes National Acupuncture Recognition
August, 2008: The NCCAOM is working with the CCAOM, AAAOM, FAOMRA,
ACAOM, and the NAF to have "acupuncturist" listed as a distinct
profession by the US Dept. of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Currently, "acupuncture" is only listed as a treatment modality
technique under the professions of nursing and chiropractic.
Other
than this listing for chiropractors and registered nurses, there is no
other recognition for acupuncture in the bureau's listings. This
clerical oversight hampers the progress of acupuncture in the US.
Inclusion of "acupuncturist" as a distinct profession will facilitate
improvements with insurance reimbursements and possibly the institution
of Medicare coverage. This will also help to create legal protections
for the profession regarding the use of medicinal herbs.
The NIH
(National Institutes of Health) will also provide direct funding for
grant research once the listing is created. As it stands today, the
NIH cannot provide direct funding due to this oversight. The work of
the NCCAOM (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine), CCAOM (Council of Colleges for Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine), AAAOM (American Association for Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine), FAOMRA (Federation of Acupuncture and Oriental
Medicine Regulatory Agencies), ACAOM (Accreditation Commission for
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), and the NAF (National Acupuncture
Foundation) may also assist with the creation of a federal loan
forgiveness program for licensed acupuncturists."
It would be great if acupuncture was more widely covered by health insurance.
Acupuncture on the Big Screen
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