“Quackupuncture” is out there, doing harm not good.   Some states are finally cracking down after collapsed lungs and other injuries have occurred from poorly trained practioners.  Don't let you or a family member be the next victim.

For years, I have been astonished at people asking me for a referral to “someone just like me” in Colorado, or New Hampshire, etc…. like I am a commodity not a person with very unusual extensive training and experience.  Kindly, practitioners are not toasters.  There is a very wide range of talent and expertise even in people with the exact same credentials.  Probably less than 10% of all credentialed practitioners are truly great at their craft even though they've chosen to specialize in it.

At a party last fall, I was speaking to a neighbor who was poised to go in for his 4^th back surgery.  It is hard for me to talk about my work socially without seeming like an ambulance chaser but since he had gotten steadily worse with each surgery I asked him what would be different with this surgery.  His wife came running over and saw where I was going.  She said: “We've already gone the holistic route, he had acupuncture and it didn't help him”.  I said: “who performed the acupuncture?”  She said: “a chiropractor, he was covered on our insurance”.  I thought to myself, I am pretty sure you got QUACKUPUNCTURE.

Though the masses do not realize it, politics runs alternative medicine just like it runs everything else. Insurance coverage of services has not one thing to do with efficacy.  It has to do with lobbyists and politics. 

Chiropractors have a powerful lobby affiliation.  They have been able in most states to practice acupuncture with little or no formal training.  16 hours for chiros versus 4,000 hours for licensed acupuncturists. Due to some serious safety mishaps, the state of Oregon has rescinded acupuncture practice for chiropractors.   After an exhaustive review, the court came to decide that acupuncture was not within the scope of practice for chiropractors.

Recently, Torin Yater-Wallace an Olympic freeskier was sidelined with a collapsed lung due to acupuncture being practiced by another health care provider who was not a trained acupuncturist. This injury resulted in much time lost in preparation of the Olympics.

While states may follow Oregon's lead and change the scope of practice laws due to injuries and even deaths, I am also concerned with people getting a false sense of acupuncture's power or lack thereof based on the questionable treatments of substandard practioners.

Reason people choose these practioners?  Money and insurance, period.  Problem is when you don't factor in number of office visits, copays, time off and length of time suffering it really just doesn't add up at all.

Who to choose?  An LAc preferably board certified by the AAOM or NCCAOM.

Kudos to the state of Oregon, and to all of you who have been committed to yourselves and quality care.