Description

Acupuncture is inserting small needles into specific points in the body based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles. These principles have evolved over thousands of years and are widely accepted as a viable medical approach that prevents, diagnoses, and treats medical conditions. An acupoint prescription is a group of selected points to address the patient’s medical condition.

Medical Acupuncture, or Dry Needling, is applied by clinicians unwilling to accept TCM concepts. Instead, they insert the needles solely based on the concepts of the neurological system. Unfortunately, this needling approach limits the clinician to treating medical conditions involving pain, such as painful joints, muscles, tendons, or trigger points.

However, a few acupuncture points, known as” empirical points,” can be used in isolation to manage a surprisingly wide range of specific medical symptoms, including nausea, anxiety, fever, and general pain. We will discuss ten commonly used acupuncture points, their clinical indications, and their locations. This information will be particularly beneficial for non-acupuncturists who have access to lasers or are open to experimenting with and applying acupuncture or acupressure for their patients.

Learning Objectives

• Briefly discuss the basic concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Briefly discuss the concepts of acupuncture points and channels.
• Discuss acupuncture contraindications and safety protocols.
• Discuss basic needling techniques.
• Discuss the clinical indications of ten commonly used acupuncture points.
• Discuss and describe the locations of the ten acupoints.