Healthcare Providers
How might acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM) enhance the care you provide?
If you are a health care professional who is curious about acupuncture and Oriental medicine that your patients may use, or if you are considering teaming with an AOM professional, read on.
In any type of health care, there are times when care can be provided by a single provider utilizing a single form of care, and times when a team is required. Oriental medicine is a complete, codified system of healthcare that works well in its own right, but also works well in cooperation with other forms of care.
AOM is regarded as a very safe form of care with a very low rate of side effects. The most common side effect will be temporary aching or bruising at the site of acupuncture.
Integrating | Referrals Accepted! | Adding Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine to Your Practice | Research | Treatment | Brief examples of Integrating AOM With Other Forms of Care | More Information
Integrating
This medicine can be used in conjunction with other forms of care to speed healing and rehabilitation after a health crisis or surgery. AOM can provide resolution of symptoms, sometimes effectively enough to prevent the need for surgical intervention. And finally, it can be used effectively to manage illness or pain syndromes when there is no corrective procedure available or advisable.
AOM is also a great method of health prevention. Through this medicine's method of assessment, we are able to identify and correct early indicators of imbalances in the body before there is evidence of illness or disease.
Referrals Accepted!
Our AOM practitioners are happy to accept referrals from other health care providers and refer our clients to other practitioners. We commonly work as part of a team of health care providers.
Using two systems to complement each other can work very well. One system may treat symptoms while the other treats the root cause. The Oriental medicine may relieve the side effects or speed results of other treatments. Two different systems are often good at opposite pieces of the puzzle.
Adding Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine to your practice?
- Please use our website to assist you in moving forward.
- In addition to the information in this section, you will find resources on this site that will point you to research about the many ways Oriental medicine can improve health outcomes. (See About Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine)
- Our directory of providers (Find a Practitioner) will help you see who is already practicing in your area and may provide some networking contacts in your search for a practitioner to add to your practice.
- Place a Classified advertisement looking for practitioners in our members-only section by e-mailing:
- If you would like to learn more about space and equipment requirements to integrate this into your existing practice, you can contact us at:
- Read on to learn a bit more about how this medicine can work with other forms of healthcare.
Research
Each year, more research is being conducted utilizing acupuncture and Oriental medicine. The development of this medicine was based on empirical evidence. Today, there is much effort put into using scientific method to substantiate this method of care using randomized, controlled studies. The challenge in researching this medicine using a reductionist method is that treatment in Oriental medicine is holistic, in that it treats a symptom within the context of treating the patient's entire set of systems.
Treatment
1. Treatment sessions
A treatment typically begins with an assessment and then may involve insertion of acupuncture needles or consultation on herbal medicine, foods or exercise. Treatment with acupuncture and Oriental medicine can be provided in varied settings: individual treatment rooms, hospital rooms, in the home, or in larger community rooms or groups.
Treatments can vary in length from 15-90 minutes depending on what is being done. If acupuncture is used, the needles are most commonly left in place for 20-30 minutes.
Frequency of treatment can vary. A patient may require more frequent treatments (2-3 times per week) for certain conditions or at the beginning of treatment and may only need to be treated once per week for a time after that. Once a problem has been resolved, a patient may choose to terminate treatment or seek periodic health maintenance treatments once per month or once per season.
The time span of a course of treatment can also vary depending on the condition being treated. A common guide is that the length of treatment will correspond to the length of time the person has had the condition for which they are seeking treatment. Some acute conditions may only require one treatment, where some long-term acute conditions will require treatment for a longer period, although each case varies.
2. Diagnosis
Practitioners of Oriental medicine assess a person's state of health through a set of well-developed diagnostic methods, some unique to this medicine and others used in allopathic medicine.
Diagnosis is made through observation and analysis of external signs, even in the case of internal pathological changes. This medicine holds that the human body is an organic whole, and all parts are connected with each other through meridians or channels. Changes inside the body are reflected externally and can be observed through changes in complexion, emotion, pulse, or appearance of the tongue.
There are four examination methods in Oriental medicine:
-Listening: This includes questioning, history taking, and auscultation. The patient's history is important, as is listening to his or her voice.
-Looking: This involves observation of body tone, gait, facial expression, mannerisms as well as looking carefully at the tongue. The tongue body and tongue coat are inspected for color and appearance, which reveal internal conditions.
-Smelling: A practitioner will inquire about odors and tastes, as well as note any smells coming from the patient. These can be signs of imbalances in the body.
-Palpation: The practitioner may palpate certain areas of the body to check tone, temperature, sensitivity, accumulations or other signs of abnormalities. In addition the pulse is taken on both wrists. In addition to noting its rate, rhythm and overall strength, the provider will note the type of pulse quality. The texts classify 28 types of pulses. This is the truest way to corroborate a diagnosis in this medicine.
A skilled practitioner will integrate all of these examination methods to determine the source of discomfort or illness.
3. Treatment methods
Acupuncture, Cupping and Moxibustion
- Acupuncture involves the insertion of thin, sterile, one-use needles along specific points on pathways through the body. Acupuncture points are usually located in small depressions in the skin where the pathways of energy circulation come closest to the surface. The selection of points is based on the practitioner's specific diagnosis.
- One form of acupuncture involves stimulating points on the ear, which has corresponding points for the various parts of the body. Often if there is a problem in a part of the body, there will be changes to its corresponding point on the ear, such as discoloration or tenderness.
- Cupping uses suction to move circulation and energy. The cups may be left on one point on the body for a period of time or glided over an area.
- Moxibustion is a warming method commonly used to treat cold conditions. It involves using the herb, artemesia vulgaris either loosely rolled into cones or tightly rolled into a stick. It is lit and placed near the body, often at specific acupuncture points. The smoke produced is extremely warm and penetrating.
Chinese herbal medicine
The herbal approach to treatment involves using formulas that are a combination of herbs that are specific to the patient and their diagnosis. This allows patients to augment their acupuncture treatment at home. Because these formulas are prescribed based on the patient's constitution and current condition, rates of side effects are quite low.
Oriental bodywork
Oriental bodywork is the use of prescriptive massage techniques such as Tui Na, acupressure, or shiatsu. These techniques usually involve stimulating the acupuncture points using specific movements that will achieve the best results. While bodywork may be used for any condition, it is especially effective for musculoskeletal conditions.
Dietary and lifestyle therapy
Practitioners of Oriental medicine believe that food is the same as medicine. Therefore, most practitioners will offer advice and guidelines about dietary choices. Dietary therapy may consist of ways to improve digestion and choosing easily digestible and nourishing foods, or they may prescribe foods that nourish a particular organ system or function in the body. In addition, lifestyle is thought of as having a big role in health and illness. Thus, a patient will often be given guidelines on stress reductions, exercise and sleep.
Qi gong
Qi gong is an umbrella term that describes breathing, posture and movements that balance energy flow in the body. There are many forms of qi gong practice, which include tai chi, other martial arts and meditation. Some are quite active and others more tranquil. Practitioners may teach qi gong to their patients to facilitate quicker healing or for health maintenance. It can be very relaxing and calming.
Brief examples of integrating AOM with other forms of care
- A person with osteoarthritis of the knee was able to improve pain control and function enough to postpone having knee replacement surgery after utilizing acupuncture.
- A person with chronic anxiety and depression who, after years of treatment with medication, reported a significant improvement in mood and calmness after treatment with acupuncture and herbs.
- A person suffering with arthritis in the cervical vertebra was able to control the pain level, improve sleep, and increase range of motion with acupuncture.
- A person who was being treated with tamoxifen after breast cancer surgery was able to control the resultant hot flashes.
- A person who had had irritable bowel syndrome for over 20 years was symptom free six weeks after being referred for treatment by her physician.
- A person who had chronic allergy symptoms in spite of using medication was symptom-free days after beginning treatment with acupuncture and herbs.
- A person with ulcerative colitis and intestinal bleeding didn't tolerate medication well. This person was able to stop the bleeding and nearly completely eradicate symptoms with acupuncture and herbs.
- A person with recurrent migraines that weren't controlled with medication was free of headaches after treatment.
- A person diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome was able to manage her pain levels and improve her dry mouth and eyes using acupuncture added to her medication.
- A person with chronically elevated blood pressure was able to reduce her readings to normal range without medication. This person was on a number of medications and the physician was hesitant to add another.
- A person with compression fractures in the back was not able to use medication due to other conditions. The pain was fully managed with acupuncture.
More Information
The websites listed below offer more information on integrating with acupuncture and Oriental medicine.