White Paper On TCM
Why the New Mexico Healthcare System Needs
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Acupuncture is often thought of as simply a modality for treating pain, but in reality, New Mexico’s licensed acupuncturists– Doctors of Oriental Medicine– are a largely overlooked resource for primary care. In a time of physician and nursing shortages and budgetary challenges, we must use all our resources more efficiently, and DOMs are ready to serve.
According to state agency officials responding to questions at a recent Health Care Reform Leadership Team meeting, New Mexico’s healthcare organizations are not prepared for the predicted effects of the National Healthcare Reform Act. Doctors of Oriental Medicine can be an important part of the solution. Currently there are approximately 262 DOMs practicing within the state. Data from the 2008 Job Task Analysis done by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) shows that about 40% of the national acupuncture and Oriental medicine workforce has the ability to add new patients to their practices at a meaningful rate. This means that New Mexico DOMs are poised to help provide care for the more than 150,000 previously uninsured New Mexicans who, according to recent estimates, will qualify for health coverage under the nation’s new federal health care law.
The practice of acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM) in New Mexico is defined in state law as “a distinct system of primary health care” with the goal of “prevention, cure, or correction of any disease, illness, injury, pain or other physical or mental condition by controlling and regulating the flow and balance of energy and function to restore and maintain health.” Oriental medicine includes a wide range of traditional and modern diagnostic, prescriptive and therapeutic methods. In addition to acupuncture, herbal medicine, dietary therapies, therapeutic exercise, Qi Gong and Tai Chi, manual therapies, counseling, heat and cold, electrical stimulation, laser, and more may be used.
Acupuncture, perhaps the best known of these modalities, is the stimulation of specific points on the body by a variety of techniques, including the insertion of thin metal needles through the skin. Acupuncture stimulates body systems such as connective tissue and the nervous system to produce a variety of beneficial biological effects and restore and maintain health. Unlike many drugs, it is non-toxic, and adverse reactions are minimal. This is one of the chief reasons why it is so popular in the treatment of chronic pain in many countries. Acupuncture is comparable with opiate preparations in its effectiveness against chronic pain, but without the adverse effects of opiates, such as dependency.
Herbal medicine has been developed over thousands of years, and is another rich but underutilized resource. In New Mexico, where we have our own centuries-old herbal traditions, many people are accustomed to herbal treatment and understand its usefulness. Traditional Asian herbal medicines are currently being studied for their known clinical effectiveness in a wide variety of diseases, and in fact a number of these herbs are being developed as commercial crops in our state.
The AOM approach to patient care focuses first on prevention and then on the resolution of an illness as a basis for the treatment of disease. DOMs take a patient’s health history and conduct a physical exam incorporating both Oriental and Western medical assessment techniques, looking at the whole person rather than individual systems or symptoms.
AOM is widely used for acute and chronic pain, women’s health, headaches and migraines, digestive disorders, arthritis, dental pain, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, induction of labor, fertility issues, pediatric complaints, depression, addictions, PTSD, and more. For illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, where Western medicine has been unable to find effective treatments, AOM often shines.
In an official report, “Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials,” the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the following symptoms, diseases and conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture.
Musculoskeletal and Neurological
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Back Pain |
Traumatic and Sports Injuries |
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Neck Pain/Stiffness |
Tendinitis |
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Knee Pain |
Muscle Spasms |
|
Shoulder Pain |
Postoperative Pain |
|
Headaches/Migraines |
Facial Pain, including Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ) |
|
Arthritis/Joint Problems |
Sequelae of Stroke |
|
Sprains |
Dental Pain |
|
Sciatica |
|
Genitourinary and Reproductive
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Gynecological Disorders |
Correction of Malposition of Fetus |
|
Induction of Labor |
Morning Sickness |
Internal Medicine
|
Essential Hypertension |
Nausea and Vomiting |
|
Primary Hypotension |
Acute Dysentery |
|
Renal Colic |
Acute Stomach Pain |
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Leucopenia |
Peptic Ulcer |
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Adverse Reactions to Chemotherapy |
Acute and Chronic Gastritis |
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Biliary Colic |
|
Mental-Emotional
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Depression |
Insomnia |
Eyes-Ears-Nose-Throat
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Allergic Rhinitis/Hayfever |
Hayf |
In modern times, members of the AOM profession have effectively integrated this traditional modality within the Western medical model for a true integrative approach to health care. This approach positions DOMs to be incorporated into any new health care structure. Christus St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe and the UNM Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque already have successful integrative medicine centers, with acupuncture and Oriental medicine playing key roles in their service to New Mexicans. These examples could be emulated throughout the state.
Acupuncture treatment is very safe when performed properly by a well-trained practitioner, and training of DOMs and other licensed acupuncturists is rigorous. In 2009, there were over 64 AOM programs in the United States accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM). AOM programs require a minimum of 4 academic years of study that include at least 700 hours of clinical training and at least 510 hours of the study of biomedicine. Graduates from an accredited ACAOM program receive a Masters of Science in Oriental Medicine (MSOM).
Two branches of Southwest Acupuncture College, in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, provide training for DOMs in New Mexico. Their student clinics also provide AOM services for underserved patients at a minimal cost. At the Santa Fe branch of SWAC alone, the college’s practitioners perform 200-300 treatments per week; records show a total of about 3100 treatments provided for the 12-month period of May 2009 to May 2010. It can be seen that the demand for these treatments is substantial.
If the practice of AOM in New Mexico is not incorporated into the new Health Care Reform model, many citizens may find that services they have come to rely on are no longer accessible. For the health of individual New Mexicans and that of our healthcare organizations and agencies, we need to make the best possible use of our Doctors of Oriental Medicine.
References
National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), “Health information, Acupuncture: An Introduction,” Dec. 2007, available from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/introduction.htm; Internet: accessed 30 June 2010.
Adrian White and Editorial Board of Acupuncture in Medicine, “Western Medical Acupuncture: a definition.” Acupuncture in Medicine March 2009 Vol 27 No 1.
Bensoussan A, Talley NJ, Hing M, Menzies R, Guo A, Ngu M. “Treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with Chinese herbal medicine: a randomized controlled trial.” JAMA. 1998 Nov 11; 280(18):1585-9.
Grant SJ, Bensoussan A, Chang D, et al., “Chinese herbal medicines for people with impaired glucose tolerance or impaired fasting blood glucose.” Cocrain Database for Systemic Reviews 2009(4):CD00066690.
National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), “Therapeutic Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Food Allergy.” (FAHF-2) http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00602160
World Health Organization, Acupuncture: A Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Studies, 2003
New Mexico Society for Acupuncture and Asian Medicine
Copyright 2010
For more information please contact:
David Canzone, DOM dcanzone@comcast.net, 505-989-7418
Eric Raymond Buckley, DOM eric.buckley@stvin.org, 505-231-6234