a tour of what’s going on in YOUR profession! 

Portland Moxibustion Project Ignites City’s Imagination

Inspired by the Portland Acupuncture Project, local artist Timothy Smith is using another modality within Chinese Medicine to also explore “the interface between art, regional planning, traditional Chinese medicine and the health of a city”: moxibustion.As the Portland Acupuncture Project has hoisted several 35-foot needles around greater Portland to achieve this aim, Smith has used larger than life displays of moxibustion, creating an effect he claims to be “mesmerizing and intoxicating”.Without the fundraising abilities of the Portland Acupuncture Project, Smith uses a more “DIY” style that relies on locating existing structures such as houses and basically setting them on fire.

Smith is partial to the Japanese “rice-cone” style of moxibustion, in which rolled mugwart is directly applied to the skin.  And by creating this effect using standing houses, his blazes have reached as high as 100 feet in some instances, dwarfing the needles seen around Portland.In a statement on his website(which was pulled down by authorities earlier this week) Smith wrote, “Setting residences ablaze is the best way that I know how to both pay homage to Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, as well as to use art to really make an impact on peoples lives.”

The Portland Police Department is currently searching for Smith and urges anyone with information regarding his whereabouts to contact them immediately.

AAAOM Surveys Former NADA Clients on FPD

The AAAOM has released a new survey that shows strong support for the FPD amongst former users of NADA detoxification acupuncture.In a poll of 156 former clients, 96% supported the ACAOM’s decision to move the first-professional doctorate process forward and reconvene the FPD Task Force to develop standards for the FPD.AAAOM members scoured the alleyways and street corners, under bridges and atop park benches within walking distance from behavioral health clinics and homeless shelters for veterans of the NADA program in several major urban centers in the US.When former NADA clients were located by AAAOM pollsters, they were asked the question “Do you support the ACAOM decision to move the FPD forward and would you like me to buy you a drink?” 150 people answered “Yes”, 3 answered “No”, 2 were non-responsiveand 1 threw up.AAAOM is citing the report as evidence of consensus amongst an all too often unheard from patient population that makes support for the FPD near unanimous.

AAAOM Publishes Promising Acupuncture Figures in AT

In other news from the AAAOM, representatives from the organization rebuked a widely circulated article concerning the safety of the acupuncture in the June issue of Acupuncture Today.In a well researched and highly sourced piece, the team of Michael Jabbour, William Morris and Steven Schram take the article in question to task, soundly making their case for acupuncture safety and putting the public’s mind at ease.

However, a set of statistics that were not cited by Jabbour et al regarding the relative safety of acupuncture are cause for celebration for all current and future practitioners of AOM.The article states in a matter of fact kind of way, “There are currently 30,000 acupuncturists and 8,000 acupuncture students in the U.S. Each sees an average of 50 patients per week. This equates to roughly 1.5 million treatments per week and 78 million acupuncture treatments per year.”The news that all practitioners and students now treat on average 50 patients a week was cause for celebration throughout the country.Most licensed acupuncturists did not know that they were seeing an average of 50 patients a week, so this was welcome news to many that are struggling in their practice.Students were equally stunned and were looking forward to a student clinic that resmbles a busy practice after graduation.  As a result of this decree from Jabbour and company, future students can now be assured not only that all practitioners treat 50 patients a week on average, but they will able to calculate their future income with reasonable accuracy and ease.For simplicity, the AAAOM Income formula has been included here:

Your Desired Fee For Service X 50 = Your Weekly Income

Your Weekly Income(Previous Calculation) X 52 = Your Yearly Income

These statistics are the first of their kind in the statistic-adverse realm of practitioner success and patient volume in AOM, which is why they are so appreciated.Jabbour, Morris and Schram have done the profession and its future members a great service and should be congratulated for releasing these statistics.It should not matter that they are not sourced.The rest of the article makes them look official enough.

Author: The Zang Fool

<p> This is a satirical blog post by a practitioner that is serious in his attempts to both increase acupunctures accessibility to the public and challenge practitioners preconceived notions of what acupuncture is and how it functions in society. It may make you laugh, but that is just a means to an end. That end is thought and ultimately positive change. This is what all good satire does: prick, prod and provoke thought and positive change within a community. </p> <p> Satire has long been a part of muckraking and this profession is teeming with muck.  So, in the wake of the nonsense spewed from the foul anus of the Acupuncture-Industrial Complex come my musings on life, love and the proposed doctoral program. </p>