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

Arthur Yin Fan1,2 , Jun Xu1,3, and Yong-ming Li1,3

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

The original white paper was published in Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine:   [AAPAS White Paper on Dry Needling(I-III) Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM]

1. Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM. Evidence and expert opinions: Dry needling versus acupuncture (I) : -The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016. Chin J Integr Med. 2017 Jan;23(1):3-9. doi: 10.1007/s11655-016-2630-y.
2. Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM. Evidence and expert opinions: Dry needling versus acupuncture (II) : -The American Alliance for Professional Acupuncture Safety (AAPAS) White Paper 2016. Chin J Integr Med. 2017 Feb;23(2):83-90. doi: 10.1007/s11655-017-2800-6
3. Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM. 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; (3):163-165. doi: 10.1007/s11655-017-2542-x.

The white paper includes in 7 topics:
1. What Is Dry Needling? [page3]
2. Who First Used Dry Needling in the West? [page5]
3. Has Dry Needling Been Used in China? [page7]
4. Does Dry Needling Use Acupuncture Points? [page9]
5. What Is New About Dry Needling Points (Trigger Points)? [page13]
6. Is Dry Needling a Manual Therapy? [page16]
7. Summary of Dry Needling [page17]
(1) Academic perspective [page17]
(2) The Problems Dry Needling caused [page18]
(3) Our Position [page20]

Summary[AAPAS White Paper on Dry Needling(I-III) Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM]
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 professionals, 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.

We conclude that DN is the use of dry needles alone, either solid filiform acupuncture needles or hollowcore 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, TrP acupuncture, TrP DN, myofascial TrP DN, or biomedical acupuncture. In Western countries, DN is an over-simplified acupuncture using biomedical language in treating myofascial pain, a contemporary development of a
portion of Ashi point (Ah-yes point, or tender point) acupuncture from traditional Chinese acupuncture. As developed by Travell & Simons, C. Chan Gunn and Peter Baldry, et al, it seeks to redefine Acupuncture by re-translating reframing its theoretical principles in a Western manner. It reflects the effort of de-acupoint, and de-theory of Chinese medicine by some healthcare professionals and researchers. DN with filiform needles have been widely used in Chinese acupuncture practice over the past 2,000 years, and with hypodermic needles as Dr. Travell described has been used in China in acupuncture practice for at least 72 years. In Eastern countries, such as China, since 1800s or earlier, DN is a common name of acupuncture among acupuncturists and the general public, which has been used 2000 years, and its indications, is not limited to treating and preventing musculoskeletal disorders or illness including so called the myofascial pain.
Medical doctors Travell, Gunn, 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. 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. 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.
DN is not merely a technique but a medical therapy and a form of acupuncture practice. As a form of acupuncture, an invasive practice, it is not in the practice scope of physical therapists (PTs). DN has been “developed” simply by replacing 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 amount of non-acupuncturists, including in PTs, as students and
customers in recent years. The national organizations of PT profession, such as APTA and FSBPT, started to support the practice of DN by PTs around 2010. Currently, there are probably more PTs involving 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 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 get certified in medical acupuncture. However, a typical DN course run only 20-30 hours, 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 basic standards required for licensed acupuncturists or physicians.
KEYWORDS dry needling, acupuncture, biomedical acupuncture, authoritative evidence, experts’ opinions, consensus

Click to access AAPAS%20White%20Paper%20on%20Dry%20Needling.pdf

AAPAS White Paper on Dry Needling(I-III) Fan AY, Xu J, Li YM

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

dry-needling-facts-aapas-white-paper-2-010517

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

Oppose ‘Dry Needling’ by Physical Therapists ,by Dr. Mark Seem

A comment paper on dry Needling to Board of Physical Therapy, Virginia, From: http://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/viewcomments.cfm?commentid=47915

Commenter: Mark Seem, PhD, LAc *                                                     12/28/15

Oppose ‘Dry Needling’ by Physical Therapists

I am a licensed Acupuncturist in the States of New York and Maryland for the past three decades and more. I developed a classical Chinese acupuncture approach to integrating acupuncture needling of myofascial pain and related disorders, where release of tight knotted muscles, often called ‘trigger points’ after the work of Dr. Janet Travell. I shared this classical acupuncture technique with her by treating a complex old whiplash syndrome for her Myotherapy traveling companion and friend who was an expert at acupressure to release such trigger points, when Travell taught with Maryland neurologist Robert Gerwin, MD in 1990, who had never seen acupuncture needling of trigger points before, nor had Dr. Travell. He wondered what he was doing lecturing to a group of half acupuncturists, and I asked contrariwise how he felt comfortable teaching physical therapists, who had no required training in the use of such solid filiform needles in their entry-level programs there. He was not able to make the demonstration I did that night for Dr.Travell and her trigger-point bodywork expert colleague as he had a dinner to go to. Whenever I successfully needled in classical Chinese style muscle channel shallow technique, with a 1 inch needle inserted half way into the soft tissue that I had compressed with my non-needling hand as the Japanese often do, easing up now and again to give the deeper muscle room to react, it would twitch often dramatically that was visible to Dr. Travel and me and very palpably experienced by her colleague who even remarked that it felt just like deep trigger point injections done by Dr. Gerwin who directed the training in the Travell  Seminar Series when elderly Dr. Travell was no longer able. Myotherapists ran the parallel training for physical therapists in the manual therapy technique sections of that course, where physicians taught the trigger point  injection techniques. Physical therapists, according to Travell’s instructions, who are licensed to practice ischemic compression that can be almost as effective as trigger point injections, and much less risky than using thick 3-5 inch long syringes, were very pleased with these powerful manual techniques hey are licensed to practice based on the same manuals. Medicare and Medicaid standards for coding for trigger point injections call for coding for a few, or multiple, trigger point injection sites; as well as coding for what medication filled the syringe – usually lidocaine or even cortisone as the case may be, and sometimes homeopathic solutions that medical doctors and their ‘physician extenders’ use as well.

Travell and Simons’ 2 volume seminal text on this practice always provide manual therapy ‘ischemic compression’ technique options, so there is no reason for any well trained physical therapist who takes such a 50-75 hour program practicing on peers to ever need to learn needling techniques, which Travell did not favor ever being taught to other than medical doctors, dentists and osteopathic physicians given the danger of hitting nerves and also important organs when needling over the torso on the front, back or side.

After Dr. Gerwin heard Dr. Travell and her colleague report on the similarity in efficacy of my one acupuncture session to trigger point injection, and he saw the thin short Japanese Serein needles I gave him to check out, he looked for externs and found an osteopathic resident trained in such acupuncture release of trigger points. Subsequently he met and partnered eventually with a physical therapist who claims to have learned such needling with acupuncture needles in the Netherlands where he is from. I taught that technique to physical therapists in the Netherlands who were the main licensed providers, along with physicians in my classical acupuncture seminars for the Anglo-Dutch Institute comprehensive acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine program, as well as to physical therapists and physicians in rehabilitative medicine in the UK, and they all concurred no one should do acupuncture treatment of such myofascial conditions without proper acupuncture training. They also agreed that ‘dry needling’, which is to say the use of an empty syringe with no medication was nonsensical, even though Dr. Hong, an acupuncturist who like Dr. Gunn went on to become a physical and rehabilitation medicine physician, dropping any reference to that earlier acupuncture training as Dr. Baldrey in the UK, and Dr. Ma in Colorado have done, to cover up their original comprehensive acupuncture training. Hong’s research study had 3 options – actual trigger point injections of lidocaine into myofascial trigger points; injection of saline solution instead; and dry needling with no fluid injected. While no insurance company would ever provide coverage for such dry-needling, Hong was able to show that all 3 techniques worked equally well, with post-injection soreness the mildest as expected in those who received lidocaine, an anesthetic, and greater for those who were injected with cortisone, and the greatest with those injected with a ‘dry’ syringe.

Travell and Simons had already come to the conclusion that the twitching evoked in acute myofascial trigger point conditions was the actual therapeutic mechanism, as the twitching stretched the tight contracted muscle fibers [trigger points] within the sorest part of such muscles, and so stretching created by the injection, accompanied by some soothing fluid, even saline solution, with lidocaine seeming to make that stretching release last the longest, explained the mechanism for such often dramatic relief.

While a more time consuming technique, ischemic compression release which all entry-level physical therapists have learned, allows them to approximate the release from the more risky trigger point injections, at a fraction of the cost of such surgically coded injections. They can also use electro-stimulation techniques on such trigger points conditions with equally good results, and there are even ultra-sound, and laser devices hey are licensed to use.

The only reason physical therapists could possibly have for wanting to use acupuncture needles, then, since they are not at a loss for their own manual therapy techniques and FDA legal regulated devices, is to be able to tell their patients who ask if what they do is as effective as the ever more popular 2000 year old originally Chinese acupuncture, where no potentially harmful medications are ever ‘injected’, making it a primary nonpharmacological therapy among those physical and occupational therapists are licensed to practice, as appeared for pain management conditions in the accreditation manual update of the Joint Commission that accredits some 20,500 mainstream and integrative medicine hospital and integrative medicine outpatient facilities and programs, where acupuncture was also on that list, where physical therapy does not figure, for behavioral healthcare, mood and mental disorders, including psychosomatic and organ functional problems like IBS or Reflux that physical therapists are not trained to treat.

In short, unless the Board would consider it appropriate for licensed acupuncturists to be able to practice all of the licensed manual therapy techniques a trained physical therapist may practice, since we learn our own East Asian acupressure-related techniques, or the same licensed chiropractic and osteopathic manipulations those providers may practice, if we learn far simpler release techniques within our acupuncture scope of practice, without the same level of osteopathic or chiropractic training in their required entry-level well supervised training treating the public that the short trigger point [acupuncture] dry-needling courses may never provide for legal reasons, I submit that the approval for physical therapists to practice using FDA regulated medical devices known as acupuncture needles, for those licensed in acupuncture to use such needles or for licensed surgeons, is irresponsible in the extreme and opens the Pandora’s box for all licensed therapists to start using other licensed therapist’s FDA regulated techniques and devices.

Finally, the high likelihood that the 20,000 licensed acupuncturists in this country will have had enough, and will file a federal class-action suit with the FDA to penalize these poorly trained self-professed trigger point ‘dry-needlers’ [illegal acupuncturists] is high and poses a serious risk for the Board and for each physical therapist the state licenses, where the implicit final determination of entry-level competence in physical therapy does not include national or state training, standards or assessment of any level of competence in such lucrative CEU short courses that are only good for the course owners themselves.

I suspect that passing such a bill will leave licensed acupuncturists no choice but to mount a powerful full disclosure public relations attack on your Board and on any physical therapists who practice such shoddily learned acupuncture techniques without a license in acupuncture. And the door will be open for them to advertise that they practice physical therapy acupuncture and trigger point needling, beating the physical therapists at their own game while legally billing for what physical therapists must be illegally checking off as a manual [rather than intramuscular] therapy, which is another kind of fraud altogether that your Board would do well to investigate.

I thank you for considering these comments based on 38 years teaching, supervising and practicing licensed acupuncture, after what is now a master’s degree accredited 3 year program of some 1906 hours of training minimum, with 500 hours in the practice of acupuncture.

Sincerely,

Mark Seem, PhD, LAc.

Founder and Past President, Tri-State College of Acupuncture

Read Full Post »

LICENSED VS. CERTIFIED ACUPUNCTURISTS

Arthur Fan (edited from Kath Bartlett, MS, LAc artilcle in  http://www.bartlettacupuncture.com/acupuncture/licensed-vs-certified-acupuncturists/)

Your doctor, chiropractor, physician’s assistant or even physical therapist may say to you, “I do acupuncture”. What they really mean is that they do neuromodulation (referring to  the technique’s reputed ability to modulate, enhance or diminish, the effect ofneurotransmitters) or trigger point needling (needling local points of nerve pain in muscles). Often these practitioners will call what they do “medical acupuncture”.These practitioners have between 100-300 hours of training in acupuncture (often completed at UCLA seminar). They get a brief overview about acupuncture meridians, learn a few acupuncture points, and receive instruction about how to insert an acupuncture needle. While trigger point needling may have some benefit in pain relief, these practitioners have no training in, nor are they practicing Oriental medicine. They are using neuromodulation as an adjunctive therapy to their primary practice.

Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc), whose educational focus is in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, receive approximately 80% of their training exclusively in this field, and undergo an extensive clinical internship in Oriental medicine averaging three years.¹

COMPARISON OF LICENSED VS.CERTIFIED ACUPUNCTURISTS

 THE FACTS

Certified/Physician Acupuncturist Licensed Acupuncturist

• Certified physician, chiropractor or dentis t([medical) acupuncturists (CAc) with 100 – 300 hours of training
• Training which is often comprised of home study
  and video-taped lectures
• Minimal clinical experience in acupuncture or no
  actual patient treatments before certification
• Not required to complete the national
  certification examination to prove competency in
  acupuncture
• Not required to regularly complete continuing
  education courses

Licensed Acupuncturist

• Licensed acupuncturists (LAc) with an average of 2,700 hours of master’s-level training
• Master’s level, on-site training at a nationally accredited school or college of acupuncture
• Hundreds of hours of clinical experience and at least 250 actual patient treatments before licensure
• Required to pass the national certification exam in acupuncture in order to become licensed (NCCAOM board certification)
• Required to do regular continuing education to maintain national certification

Amount of Training in Acupuncture

1905-2000 hours in Acupuncture 2625-3500 hours in Oriental Medicine

• Licensed Acupuncturist
• Traditional Chinese Medicine Comprehensively-trained  Acupuncturist
• Oriental Medicine Practitioner
• Oriental Medical Acupuncture

Many Acupuncture and Oriental schools exceed 2000 hours. Colleges in California must meet a minimum required 3,000 hours in Oriental Medicine.

Oriental medicine includes acupuncture, Chinese herbology and dietary therapy, tui na massage, tai qi and qi gong meditative exercises.

---

Typically a Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc) or Registered Acupuncturist whose primary training is in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and has:

a) Obtained a 3-4 year master’s level degree or diploma from a school approved by ACAOM (Accreditation Commission for
Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine)*, and

b) Has been board certified in Acupuncture or Oriental Medicine (Diplomate: Dipl Ac or Dipl OM) upon successful examination by the
NCCAOM (National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine), the national standard for licensing in most states.

Uses diagnosis and treatment techniques based on Oriental medical theory to treat a broad range of health conditions, including
chronic disease, internal medicine, pain, and disease prevention.

300 Hours or Less

• Medical Acupuncture
• Neuromodulation
• Meridian Balancing/Therapy
• Chiropractic Acupuncture
• Naturopathic Acupuncture

---

Typically a medical doctor, osteopath,naturopath or chiropractor who uses acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that medical doctors have 200
hours of training to know when to refer to a more fully-trained Acupuncturist or Oriental Medicine practitioner.**

Commonly used for pain management

100 hours or less

• Medical Acupuncture
• Chiropractic Acupuncture
• Detox Tech
• Dry Needling, or Myofacial Trigger points Needling, Trigger Points Acupuncture

---

Typically  a chiropractor or Physical therapist dry needling

detoxification technician

Detox Techs must be under the supervision
of a Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc) and are
limited to 5 point on the ear.

Used for pain management or addiction &
detoxification through auricular acupuncture.

Read Full Post »

Evidence That Dry Needling Is the Intent to Bypass Regulation to Practice Acupuncture in the United States-A High Impact Article published on Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, in August 2016

Fan,Zheng,Yang-Evidence that dry needling the intention to practice acupuncture. JACM-2016 Last Version

Dry needling is a short form acupuncture, currently Physical Therapiests and other related professionals want to practice acupuncture under such a name with only 20-30 hours weekend training. This may cause big negative impact to public safety and acupuncture (both traditional and medical) profession.

We just published an article in a known SCI journal–Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (JACM),  which treated this article as a High Impact Article. Please read at(I also attached a copy of Manuscript):

Evidence That Dry Needling Is the Intent to Bypass Regulation to Practice Acupuncture in the United States
Arthur Yin Fan, Ling Zheng, Guanhu Yang  Read Now

Fan,Zheng,Yang-Evidence that dry needling the intention to practice acupuncture. JACM-2016 Last Version

The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine FREE ACCESS through September 2, 2016. Read now: Into the Light: Reflections on Whole-Systems Research After a Case Series Finds Reversal of Alzheimer’s John Weeks  Read Now Putting the Cart Before the Horse: Toward the Appropriate Use of DNA Methods for Quality Assurance in the Herbal Supplement Industry Michael Tims  Read Now Evidence That Dry Needling Is the Intent to Bypass Regulation to Practice Acupuncture in the United States Arthur Yin Fan, Ling Zheng, Guanhu Yang  Read Now Reliability of Manual Pulse Diagnosis Methods in Traditional East Asian Medicine: A Systematic Narrative Literature Review Karen Bilton, Chris Zaslawski  Read Now   READ MORE FROM THE JOURNAL EMAIL TO A COLLEAGUE

© 2016 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. All Rights Reserved 140 Huguenot Street, 3rd Floor, New Rochelle, NY, 10801-5215, USA Refine your email preferences: My Liebert Connect You have received this email at johnweeks@theintegratorblog.com. Make sure you receive your requested Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. email alerts; add updates@liebertpubmail.com to your Address Book or Safe Senders List. Privacy Policy  |  Unsubscribe from Featured Articles

Read Full Post »

The history of acupuncture anesthesia for pneumonectomy in Shanghai during the 1960s, by Liu LG, Fan AY, Zhou H, Hu J.

The history of acupuncture anesthesia for pneumonectomy in Shanghai during the 1960s was published in May 2016 in Journal of Integrative Medicine.

In which, dry needling is mentioned in 1961 in China.

Liu LG, Fan AY, Zhou H, Hu J. The history of acupuncture anesthesia for pneumonectomy in Shanghai during the 1960s. J Integr Med. 2016; 14(4): 285–290.

http://www.jcimjournal.com/jim/FullText2.aspx?articleID=S2095-4964(16)60253-4

Liu LG, Fan AY, Zhou H, Hu J. Acupuncture Anesthesia in Shanghai during 1960s JIM 2016

ABSTRACT
The success of acupuncture anesthesia (AA) for pneumonectomy in Shanghai in 1960 was a key event for AA gaining practical clinical application. The effort was a close collaboration between the Shanghai First Tuberculosis Hospital and the Shanghai Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion. One of the most important factors of AA success was the great financial and political support provided by the Chinese central government and Shanghai local government. In December 1965 the State Science and Technology Commission of China issued a formal document acknowledging AA as an important first-level national achievement of the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, and a collaborative effort of the whole scientific community in China. AA was an important influential factor that helped acupuncture spread across the world.
Keywords: acupuncture anesthesia; pneumonectomy; Shanghai; history of medicine

Read Full Post »

Dry Needling Is One Type of Acupuncture

A new article was published by the Journal of Medical Acupuncture in (August 2016) Volume 28, Number 4, 2016.

Heming Zhu, Heidi Most. Dry Needling Is One Type of Acupuncture. Medical Acupuncture 2016; 28(4):1-10. DOI: 10.1089/acu.2016.1187

Zhu H, Most H. Dry Needling is one type of acupuncture. Med Acupunct 2016 28

ABSTRACT
Background: Acupuncture has been practiced in Western countries for more than 40 years. One type of needling therapy termed dry needling has gained popularity rapidly since 2000. However a strong debate and conflict exists between proponents of dry needling by physical therapists and proponents of acupuncture.
Objectives: This review explores similarities and differences between dry needling and acupuncture and provides suggestions for debate and solutions for conflict between nonphysician dry needling practitioners and acupuncturists.
Materials and Methods: This review selected four features of needling technique and explored the similarities and differences between dry needling and acupuncture. The four features were: (1) needles used; (2) target points; (3) action mechanisms; and 4) therapeutic effects. A PubMed search for articles on dry needling and acupuncture for the years spanning 1941 to 2015 was also used to determine how many articles were retrieved
for each topic and how levels of interest in each topic changed.
Results: It was observed that both dry needling and acupuncture shared needles, target points, action mechanisms, and therapeutic effects, and could be used to treat musculoskeletal disease effectively. However, because of a lack of adequate training and good regulation, acupuncturists question the safety of dry needling.
Conclusions: Acupuncture is more inclusive and dry needling is one type of acupuncture when acupuncture needles are used. Collaboration and integration should be strengthened between dry needling practitioners who are not physicians and acupuncturists so that the patients can receive safe and high-quality acupuncture treatment. Five suggestions were proposed for solutions to solve the conflict and debate between dry needling
and acupuncture.
Key Words: Dry Needling, Acupuncture, Trigger Points, Acupoints

Read Full Post »