Evidence and Expert Opinions: Dry Needling versus Acupuncture (Ⅲ) —The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016

Source: Evidence and Expert Opinions: Dry Needling versus Acupuncture (Ⅲ) —The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016

Evidence and Expert Opinions: Dry Needling versus Acupuncture (Ⅲ) —The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016

FAN Arthur Yin1,2, XU Jun1,3, and LI Yong-ming1,3. Evidence and Expert Opinions: Dry Needling versus Acupuncture (Ⅲ) —The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016. Chin J Integr Med 2017 Mar;23(3):163-165

©The Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017
1. American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety,Greenwich, Connecticut (06878), U.S.A.; 2. American Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, Vienna, Virginia (22182), U.S.A.; 3. American Acupuncture Association of Greater New York, New York, (10016), U.S.A.
Correspondence to: Dr. FAN Arthur Yin, Tel: 1-703-499-4428, E-mail: ArthurFan@ChineseMedicineDoctor.US   DOI: 10.1007/s11655-017-2542-x
Dry Needling Facts AAPAS White Paper (3) In the United States and other Western countries, dry needling (DN) has been a disputed topic in academic and legal fields. This White Paper is to provide the authoritative information that DN is acupuncture to academic scholars, healthcare professionals, administrators, policymakers, and the general public by demonstrating the authoritative evidence and expertise regarding critical issues of DN and reaching a consensus. We conclude that DN is not merely a technique but a medical therapy and a form of acupuncture practice. It is a form of over-simplified acupuncture, an invasive procedure, and is not in the practice scope of physical therapists (PTs). DN has been “developed” simply by replacing acupuncture terms and promoted by acupuncturists, medical doctors, and researchers, and it was not initiated by PTs. In order to promote DN theory and business, some commercial DN educators have recruited a large number of non-acupuncturists, including in PTs, as students and customers in recent years. The national organizations of PT profession, such as American Physical Therapy
Association (APTA) and Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT), started to support the practice of DN by PTs around 2010. Currently, there are probably more PTs involved DN practice and teaching than any other specialties. In most states, licensed acupuncturists are required to attain an average of 3,000 educational hours via an accredited school or program before they can apply for a license. The physician or medical acupuncturists are required to get a minimum of an additional 300 educational hours in a board-approved acupuncture training institution and have 500 cases of clinical acupuncture treatments in order to be certified in medical acupuncture. However, a
typical DN education course run only 20–30 h, often one weekend, and the participants may receive “DN certificate” without any examination. For patients’ safety and professional integrity, we strongly suggest that all DN practitioners and educators should have met the minimal standards required for licensed acupuncturists or physicians.
KEYWORDS dry needling, acupuncture, physical therapist, rebrand, education, regulation, evidence, expertise, consensus

Reporting Error Revealed in Knee Pain Acupuncture Study, Catastrophe Avoided

June 2016 | by Jonathan Gilbert

http://thegilbertclinic.com/reporting-error-revealed-in-knee-pain-acupuncture-study

On October 1st, 2014, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study entitled “Acupuncture for Chronic Knee Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial”[1]. It was a major study whose results stated that neither acupuncture nor laser acupuncture was useful to patients aged 50 and older with moderate-to-severe knee pain. Enter Dr. Arthur Fan…

In March of 2016 Dr. Fan and associates published a reevaluation of this study. It found serious flaws in its methodology and analysis. Not only that, but when properly evaluated, it appears that the study actually showed significant improvement in patients undergoing acupuncture and laser acupuncture in the clinical trial.

Dr. Fan is a consultant and long term researcher in Traditional Chinese Medicine who has been published in many of the world’s foremost medical journals. He has received numerous awards and commendations including a letter of thanks from the President himself. And thanks to him a grave reporting error was averted and an catastrophe avoided.

What is of interest to this writer is how such a mistake could have been made by one of the most respected, peer reviewed, medical publications in the world? I leave that, along with the link to Dr. Fan’s paper, “Acupuncture is Effective for Chronic Knee Pain: A Reanalysis of the Australian Acupuncture Trial”[2] to your discerning minds. Be well. ♥

AAPAS White Paper 2016: Dry Needling is Acupuncture (II)

FAN Arthur Yin (1,2), XU Jun (1,3), and LI Yong-ming (1,3)
©The Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017

1. The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety, Greenwich, Connecticut (06878), USA; 2. American Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, Vienna, Virginia (22182), USA; 3. American Acupuncture Association of Greater New York, New
York (10016), USA
Correspondence to: Dr. FAN Arthur Yin, Tel: 1-703-499-4428, E-mail: ArthurFan@ChineseMedicineDoctor.US
DOI: 10.1007/s11655-017-2800-6

ABSTRACT In the United States and other Western countries, dry needling has been a topic in academic and legal fifi elds. This White Paper is to provide the authoritative information of dry needling versus acupuncture to academic scholars, healthcare professionals, administrators, policymakers, and the general public by providing
the authoritative evidence and expertise regarding critical issues of dry needling and reaching a consensus. We conclude that Dr. Travell, Dr. Gunn, Dr. Baldry and others who have promoted dry needling by simply rebranding (1) acupuncture as dry needling and (2) acupuncture points as trigger points (dry needling points). Dry needling simply using English biomedical terms (especially using “fascia” hypothesis) in replace of their
equivalent Chinese medical terms. Dry needling is an over-simplified version of acupuncture derived from traditional Chinese acupuncture except for emphasis on biomedical language when treating neuromuscularskeletal pain (dry needling promoters redefifi ned it as “myofascial pain”). Trigger points belong to the category of Ashi acupuncture points in traditional Chinese acupuncture, and they are not a new discovery. By applying acupuncture points, dry needling is actually trigger point acupuncture, an invasive therapy (a surgical procedure) instead of manual therapy. Dr. Travell admitted to the general public that dry needling is acupuncture, and acupuncture professionals practice dry needling as acupuncture therapy and there are several criteria in
acupuncture profession to locate trigger points as acupuncture points. Among acupuncture schools, dry needling practitioners emphasize acupuncture’s local responses while other acupuncturists pay attention to the responses of both local, distal, and whole body responses. For patients’ safety, dry needling practitioners should meet standards required for licensed acupuncturists and physicians.
KEYWORDS dry needling, acupuncture, trigger points, acupuncture points, invasive therapy, evidence, expertise, consensus

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AAPAS White Paper 2016: Dry Needling is Acupuncture (I)

FAN Arthur Yin (1,2), XU Jun (1,3), and LI Yong-ming (1,3)
©The Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
1. American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety, Greenwich, Connecticut (06878), U.S.A.; 2. American Traditional Chinese Medicine Association, Vienna, Virginia (22182), U.S.A.;
3. American Acupuncture Association of Greater New York, New York (10016), U.S.A
Correspondence to: Dr. FAN Arthur Yin, Tel: 1-703-499-4428, E-mail: ArthurFan@ChineseMedicineDoctor.US
DOI: 10.1007/s11655-016-2630-y

ABSTRACT In the last twenty years, in the United States and other Western countries, dry needling (DN) became a hot and debatable topic, not only in academic but also in legal fields. This White Paper is to provide the authoritative information of DN versus acupuncture to academic scholars, healthcare professional administrators, lawmakers, and the general public through providing the authoritative evidence and experts’ opinions regarding critical issues of DN versus acupuncture, and then reach consensus. DN is the use of dry needles alone, either solid filiform acupuncture needles or hollow-core hypodermic needles, to insert into the body for the treatment of muscle pain and related myofascial pain syndrome. DN is sometimes also known as intramuscular stimulation, trigger points (TrP) acupuncture, TrP DN, myofascial TrP DN, or biomedical acupuncture. In Western countries, DN is a form of simplififi ed acupuncture using biomedical language in treating myofascial pain, a contemporary development of a portion of Ashi point acupuncture from Chinese acupuncture. It seeks to redefifi ne acupuncture by reframing its theoretical principles in a Western manner. DN-like needling with fifi liform needles have been widely used in Chinese acupuncture practice over the past 2,000 years, and
with hypodermic needles has been used in China in acupuncture practice for at least 72 years. In Eastern countries, such as China, since late of 1800s or earlier, DN is a common name of acupuncture among acupuncturists and the general public, which has a broader scope of indications, not limited to treating the myofascial pain.
KEYWORDS dry needling, acupuncture, biomedical acupuncture, authoritative evidence, experts’ opinions, consensus

dry-needling-facts-aapas-white-paper-1-online-122016

Guanyuan Jin’s interview on Dry Needling–It is a style of Acupuncture

Liu Jun San helps the condition of dysphonia

From: 
To: “Arthur Yin Fan,CMD,PhD,LAc” <arthurfan@chinesemedicinedoctor.us>
Sent: Friday, August 26, 2016 3:36 PM
Subject: please let me know how is everything’s going?

Hi, Dr. Fan,

I’m pretty well stocked for now- I’ve only had to take 6 capsules a day for a while now, coupled with once a week acupuncture, nd my conversational speech has been pretty near perfect (a few challenging moments here and there, but for the most part I forget I have the condition- Recording booth/broadcasting is still difficult, but I get by there too).

Thanks!

Take care,

E

Oct 12 at 12:43 PM

To Arthur Yin Fan,CMD,PhD,LAc

Dear Dr. Fan,

Yes, doing really well. Still broadcasting twice a week, and this week I noticed a marked improvement and was able to finish my shift more quickly than usual, with good articulation for the reports. Conversational speech is for the most part good- Very few instances where I’m feeling symptomatic.

Herbs, those, coupled with acupuncture once a week, seem to be doing the trick for me.

Thanks again!

E