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When to use acupuncture or herbs? If you are having an acute attack that is life threatening, you should go to a hospital. If your condition is chronic, you're an excellent candidate for Oriental medicine.
If you're looking for statistics on acupuncture's efficacy on your specific condition, please see the Acupuncture and Herbal medicine Research Page. On this page you'll also see a link to MEDLINE at the end of the table of contents. Just about any keywords entered into this data base will turn up some useful information.
Or, see Acupuncture.com's Treatment Testimonials.
Essentially, the condition that you'd like to have treated is likely being described in Western terms like something such as "Uterine Fibroids" or "Ulcerative Colitis". These conditions don't actually exist according to the traditional Oriental way, and so, the differential diagnosis is an essential ingredient used to the creation of a prognosis. Even something as simple as a headache can be treated in minutes when it comes to a stress induced migraine, the kind that appears on the temples or the sides of the head. However, the chronic headache that one might feel in the back of the head might take much longer to treat since it has a very different cause, one that is just as treatable, but much longer time is required.
To see how the practitioner of traditional Oriental medicine might treat your condition, please see: Clinical Point Selections.
To see how the practitioner of traditional Oriental medicine might diagnose your condition, please see Symptomatic Diagnosis.
Now, to locate information on your specific condition, please see any of the following pages:
For more information, contact a practitioner near you who can better assess the potential efficacy of a treatment for your specific condition and your unique constitution. If there are no practitioners in your area, you might seek to find out how acupuncture is regulated in your state.
Another source for practitioners, even if acupuncture is not regulated in your state, or country is to visit a school that teaches Chinese martial arts. The instructors often know of Chinese practitioners who are practicing without a license "underground." In this case, you'll have to weigh the legal issues with the health concerns. It's your choice.
And now, the official Acupuncture.com list of experienced practitioners for specific questions regarding your health concerns. If the topic of your question isn't listed below, please follow the advice given above.
For more information on the difference between medical acupuncture (the popular term for Western medicine's interpretation of acupuncture) and traditional Oriental medicine's usage of acupuncture can be found at the article called "Oriental and Western Medicine Compared"
Depending on the practitioner, and the patient's unique needs, there may be some other needles placed elsewhere on the body as well.
Treatments vary widely. Some advertise that only one treatment is needed. I've heard of this working, though I think that the patients that respond to only one treatment are few and far between, but that's just my opinion.
The treatment protocol with which I'm the most familiar includes three treatments in the first week and two treatments in the fifth week. There's a psychological wall that one passes through after the fourth week, and this is why the fifth week's treatments are suggested.
Here are some articles that may be of interest to you:
For Practitioners:
For TCM school representatives:
Standards include, but are not limited to:
Firstly, each state has different educational requirements. For more info on this topic, see the State Laws page.
Then, see the list of schools available. Some are accredited by their state, some are also accredited by ACAOM, which is federal accreditation. The accreditation status listed on the schools list reflects the federal accreditation.
Federal accreditation means that the school has raised its standards to the minimum requirements set forth by the federal government. It also means that federally guaranteed student loans are available for tuition and living expenses while studying at these schools.
Another thing to keep in mind, is that since each state has different requirements for licensure, the lengths and qualities of the programs at these schools vary greatly. California schools are among the more challenging in that they require three years minimum training, though most students do it in four. Most California schools require 60 semester units to enter their program. Their programs are about one third acupuncture and theory, one third herbology and one third Western science.
And now, the link to the list of Schools and Colleges of Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine.
OMS
Medical Supplies, Inc.
Offering a complete 84 page color catalog, featuring:
Lhasa Medical, Inc.
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Chinese and Korean Acupuncture Needles, featuring:
The best book to begin with to understand acupuncture is "The Web That Has No Weaver" by Ted Kaptchuk. It is available at the Acupuncture.com Book Farm.
A great introductory text on Chinese herbal medicine is called "Between Heaven and Earth" by Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold. It is also found at the Acupuncture.com Book Farm.
You'll find them in the following articles:
And then there are some very good images found at the following site's bulletin board: University of Technology, Sydney: College of Acupuncture
If you would like to purchase some full-color charts, please contact: Redwing Book Company. They're located in Brookline, Massachusetts, USA.
Files can be sent in as attached documents to e-mail, or you can simply cut and paste your document directly into the e-mailing window. If you want to attach the file, I can open any Microsoft document generated from any platform. If you've created your document in any other program, you should save it as "text only" and then send it to Acupuncture.com.
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