The vast majority of specialists who do acupuncture in the United States are licensed acupuncturists. As more research studies have been demonstrating evidence that acupuncture can be effective in treatment of many different health issues, however, more medical doctors, osteopathic, chiropractors, and physical therapists take acupuncture courses and become certified in acupuncture. While all these medical practitioners know anatomy and physiology well, similarly to chiropractic adjustments and osteopathic manipulations, acupuncture requires a lot of hands-on experience to be effective. And since medical specialists do something else, they usually do not have enough time and focus to hone their clinical acupuncture skills. But differences go further.
What Is Medical Acupuncture, and Who Does It?
When physicians, chiropractors, or physical therapists study acupuncture, more often than not, they study so-called medical acupuncture. While medical acupuncture may sound more impressive than classical or traditional acupuncture, it is a new field. It’s made up of bits and pieces of point combinations and general effects of acupuncture on the body that have been collected through research and evidence collection, but it does not make sense as a complete system. Currently, medical acupuncture makes little sense from the traditional standpoint, because classical acupuncture looks at each patient as a whole. The purpose of diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine is to identify any imbalances and the purpose of treatment is to restore the balance among body’s internal organs, which leads to another series of differences among those who do acupuncture professionally where you live.
What Are Traditional Acupuncture Methods?
Even though many acupuncture systems follow the theoretical framework of traditional Chinese medicine, they are different, and acupuncturists who follow specific school of thought are also different. In addition, Japanese and Korean acupuncture schools are also popular as well as effective. Moreover, modern methods have been developed from classical approaches and gradually turned into separate systems of diagnosis and treatment, such as scalp and auricular acupuncture. Some modern inventions such as lasers and electrical stimulation has been known to enhance otherwise traditional acupuncture treatments. At the same time, disposable stainless steel needles have become an essential part of both traditional and medical acupuncture approaches.
Who Does Acupuncture in the Advanced Holistic Center?
All acupuncturists at the Advanced Holistic Center are trained according to modern guidelines, which include traditional and medical acupuncture methods. Considering that medical acupuncture is nothing more than a compendium of tested recipes, we prefer to rely on classical acupuncture for structure of the diagnosis and treatment, and we use medical acupuncture techniques as additional modalities when they can improve treatment outcomes in particular circumstances and in individual patients. After all, our goal is to design individualized treatment that can be most effective to each individual patient, and our specialists regularly review latest discoveries not only in acupuncture, but also in neighboring professions. On the other hand, acupuncture is our specialty.
