Here’s a common question/lingering fear/excuse for berating my profession: CAN ACUPUNCTURE KILL ME? And that’s completely legit. You should be asking that question. After all, we are dealing with the combination of needles and skin. Still, I have seen the “dangers” of acupuncture presented so far out of proportion that there is a common school […]

The n-word; it seems to turn a lot of people off.  In another one of my casual polls, needles come up as the number one reason people who have considered acupuncture haven’t tried it. Acupuncturists themselves often skirt the issue, avoiding the word altogether, or preceding it with the quantifier “hair thin.” But, the ugly truth is, […]

A couple of times a year, I have someone come up to me and say “I don’t believe in acupuncture.” Conversely, and with equal frequency, I also have people say to me “I believe in acupuncture.” Either way, the science-based part of my brain cringes. The word “believe” has all sorts of metaphysical and religious […]

This post will not explain how acupuncture works. Fooled you with that title, didn’t I? I mean, I’m going to try to start to explain, but I am not going to succeed. Why? Because I can’t just boil it down for you using some diagrams of the nervous system and facial planes and show you […]

Everyone, including acupuncturists, kind of wants to know HOW acupuncture works. Okay, maybe not everyone, but if you start really thinking about the idea of someone sticking needles in your skin and making you “better” you are likely to conclude that it doesn’t work or that it’s magical. Scientifically minded individuals, however, may prefer to […]

By now, even if you’ve been ignoring my blog, you’ve probably heard of acupuncture. It’s that thing where people stick needles in your face, right?  But, according to a poll I conducted that really used too small a sample size to be considered “research,” although people have heard of acupuncture, they have never actually had […]

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been at a party/bar/other generic social gathering where the knowledge that I am in acupuncture school attracts the question: “So, does acupuncture really work?” To save you, dear reader, from making this same mistake, or if you have already been guilty of perpetrating this crime, let me […]

There is somewhat of a mystique around dubbing oneself “an acupuncture student.” At parties it makes you interesting and different. In intellectual settings it makes you have to work 10 times harder to convince someone that you know how to use your brain. In general, it makes you party to a bevy of questions: So […]

As an acupuncture student, I’ve found myself acting as a liaison, of sorts, between the often esoteric, misunderstood world of Chinese medicine and… well… real life. After eight semesters of full-on immersion in a world where having acupuncture meridians and points drawn all over your body is a right of passage, telling someone you have liver qi stagnation […]