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Acupuncture in the news

"Insurance Covers Acupuncture"

by AOMA: Graduate School of Integrative Medicine

 

The debate over health insurance is current and diverse. Some feel that insurance is inherently evil while others literally depend on it for their lives. As Asian medicine continues to move into the mainstream of health care, employers have begun to recognize it as a safe, effective form of healing and have started to integrate these therapies into their existing health insurance plans.

Seton Healthcare Network added acupuncture as a benefit to its employees in 2009. Laura Buford, with Infection Prevention and Control at Dell Children’s Medical Center found   relief at the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin (AOMA): “A couple of years ago I had bronchitis three times in a row. After that I noticed any minimal exertion was causing chest tightness and coughing spells–even just walking half a block. I have noticed acupuncture has helped me with it already, even just after the first treatment.”

AOMA is one of the ....

A Black Lab receiving acupuncture

"Finding a veterinary acupuncturist"

By Marlene Cimons, Washington Post

A veterinarian can receive certification in veterinary acupuncture, or a CVA designation, after taking courses approved by the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society and completing a certain number of observation hours with a certified veterinary acupuncturist. He or she also must write a case report suitable for publication and pass a test. Typically, the basic course is 180 hours or more, according to Susan Wynn, president of the American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture.

Her organization also offers advanced training — and a rigorous examination — for the designation Fellow of the American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture. “If you see ‘FAAVA’ after someone’s name, they have done a great deal of additional study,’’ Wynn says....

Acupuncture treatment in the lumbar back

"Acupuncture Provides True Pain Relief in Study"

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, New York Times, September 11, 2012

A new study of acupuncture — the most rigorous and detailed analysis of the treatment to date — found that it can ease migraines and arthritis and other forms of chronic pain.

The findings provide strong scientific support for an age-old therapy used by an estimated three million Americans each year. Though acupuncture has been studied for decades, the body of medical research on it has been mixed and mired to some extent by small and poor-quality studies. Financed by the National Institutes of Health and carried out over about half a decade, the new research was a detailed analysis of earlier research that involved data on nearly 18,000 patients....

 

 

"Acupuncture: A Clinical Review"

By Victor S, Sierpina, MD & Moshe A. Frenkel, MD, Southern Medical Journal, 2005;98(3):330-337

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of acupuncture to both the lay person and physician with a knowledge of anatomy, neuroanatomy, and physiology is how an unmedicated needle, inserted at a site remote from its desired application can work, eg, a point on the lower leg affecting gastric function, or a point on the hand affecting headache.

 

Skeptics maintain that acupuncture has basically a placebo effect, since the acupuncture meridians and their energy or chi (Qi) as described in TCM cannot be directly observed, dissected, or measured with standard anatomic approaches or physiologic instrumentation. The acupoints are located at sites that have a high density of neurovascular structures and are generally between or at the edges of....

 

 

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