After all this, he wondered. “If acupuncture already comes from vastly different traditions, and practitioners end up doing completely different things to their patients anyway, then he is unlikely to have one national standard, such as a national certification exam. Why would you want to make one?”
“If I didn’t know anything about Chinese medicine or acupuncture, what they’re using would be…a black box of jargon? But I’ve been studying and practicing for 15 years, so I understand. ” said the fan. “For me, it was really interesting how they got to those points or how they got to certain formulas,” he said. “None of it was consistent.”
Huang said the variations are a feature, not a bug. He explained that to him, acupuncture is similar to the slime his 8-year-old son used to play with.
“It … sticks to the soil, it sticks to Legos, it sticks to everything it touches,” he said. “Chinese medicine has a similar context in terms of culture. It is tied to many cultural practices, regulations, and other related medical practices.”
He said trying to create one standardized acupuncture trial in the United States would be like trying to turn slime into a solid, meaningless and serve no purpose.
Instead, schools should focus on teaching patient safety and the logistics of running a private practice, he said. Don’t focus too much on the specific type of acupuncture that the board has decided should be standard.
This idea is not common among some acupuncturists. They argue that standards are needed in this field because without standards, no one will take them seriously. Elaine Wolf Comarow, a licensed acupuncturist who has been practicing in Virginia since the 1990s, worked with state lawmakers to help pass the regulations.
“The establishment didn’t have confidence that we knew what we were doing,” she says.
Anyone can claim to be an expert in acupuncture, even if they don’t know what they’re doing. Although rare, adverse outcomes from acupuncture, such as bleeding, bruising, and nerve damage, can occur.
“I thought it was helpful to have an exam that I could designate as an independent exam that was not offered by the school and that I could give some level of recognition to,” Comarow said.
Mina Larson, CEO of the National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Certification Board, a national acupuncture board, said such standards could also mean that acupuncture would be covered by insurance. said.
Larson said having standards and regulations is key to expanding access to this treatment.
He also said the board reviews the standards every five years. And they are conducting extensive research in the field to ensure that their regulations can apply to different acupuncture traditions and reflect the diversity of the field. The purpose of the national exam is to ensure that those entering the field understand the basics of physiology and anatomy.
Emily Croatre, a law professor at the University of Kent in the UK, studies how governments regulate alternative medicine. She said there are always trade-offs when applying rules created for Western medicine to other forms of medicine. Pausing means patients may be risking expensive treatments that are less effective and less reliable. But creating regulations means organizations need to decide what acupuncture is considered to be and who can receive the procedure.
Different countries may reach very different conclusions. For example, in the UK, private acupuncturists do not need to register with a national authority to practice. However, across the English Channel in France, only medical professionals such as doctors and nurses can officially administer acupuncture to people.
Croatre adds that this balancing act applies not only to acupuncture, but also to other Western medical traditions that are outside the purview of Western biomedicine: Ayurveda, naturopathic medicine, and other types of alternative medicine. Ta.
“When we regulate these particular practices, by regulating them in line with the standards we are accustomed to in the West, we end up legitimizing only certain forms and rethinking what different traditions should be. There is always a risk of becoming
The delicate balance between setting standards, protecting patient health, and preserving the traditions that made these practices attractive in the first place is important.
