Category: Acupuncture Articles

We’ve approached the one year mark of restrictions on our day to day lives due to COVID-19. What’s more, we’ve arrived at springtime: a time known to 5 Element Theory as an era for movement, growth, and change. All things considered, you wouldn’t be alone if you find yourself experiencing wide emotional swings from hope to frustration to despair and back to hope again.

If you’re feeling a little stuck, flustered, or bored, you may have what we Acupuncturists diagnose as “Qi Stagnation”. Qi stag, as its known shorthand, can show up as depression or irritability, pain or discomfort that comes and goes, a sense of bloating in the belly, PMS, or a stifled feeling in the chest or throat.

Luckily, you don’t need …

Today, on International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the legacy of Dr. Miriam Lee. She was a pioneer in the field of Acupuncture in the U.S., and helped legalize & popularize the practice. All California Acupuncturists owe her a great debt of gratitude & respect for our right to practice this medicine.

Good Trouble

Dr. Miriam Lee was a nurse, midwife, & acupuncturist in Asia before coming to the US. In her book Insights of Senior Acupuncturist she shares,

“When I first came to California acupuncture was illegal. I worked on an assembly line at Hewlett Packard and attended church, building a life for myself in this country where my medicine was against the law.”

Seeing the suffering of members of her community, she began to provide acupuncture …

AIMC’s Japanese Foundations

Since its founding in 1990 by the Meiji School of Oriental Medicine in Japan & its alumni, AIMC has always had a close relationship with Japanese styles of acupuncture & herbal therapy. Our Board Chair, Dr. Goto, is the president of our sister college, GOTO College of Medical Arts & Sciences in Tokyo. In addition to offering Japanese acupuncture electives & clinical supervision to our Master’s students, we have a continuing education Japanese Medicine certificate program that has been forged in relationship with some of the great teachers of Japanese Medicine in the U.S. and abroad. We regularly bring Japanese teachers to the U.S. for seminars, and we hope to reschedule our

AIMC Master’s candidate’s zine on racism in the health care system and how the Black Panther Party & other activists fought for public health initiatives. Keep reading to learn more!

What is acupuncture? What can it treat? Our guide goes through some of the history behind this ancient technique and what it is used for today.

AIMC student shares her experience with back shu points and how this form of acupuncture helped heal her digestive issues.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the opioid crisis “is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.” Every day millions of lives are affected and many are lost due to opioid addiction and overdose. While Doctors of Medicine (MDs) are doing their part to reduce the number of opioids available, we have to ask ourselves, as educators and practitioners in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine what we can do to end the epidemic.

Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College (AIMC) seeks to educate our students and our communities on what Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can do to help move our society toward an alternative answer.

Traditional Chinese Medicine …

Many people know that acupuncturists practice acupuncture, but few know what the day-to-day life looks like. Acupuncture is full of many different approaches, so no two days are the same. While each acupuncture practice may run differently, there are many job responsibilities that acupuncturists have in common:

Meet with patients
Review health information & discuss treatment options
Perform acupuncture & other treatments for patients
Update patient records
Manage practice, employees, and work space
And meet continuing education requirements

In the state of California, Acupuncturists can be licensed primary care providers. They can provide wraparound general healthcare including diagnosis & treatment. Acupuncturists diagnose patients from the lens of East Asian Medicine and prescribe treatments such as acupuncture, dietary & lifestyle changes, and herbal medicines.Here are some …

Learn about Japanese acupuncture and how it developed from Chinese acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Opioid addictions are on the rise in the United States. At one of our seminars, AIMC students learned from Dr. Itoh how trigger point acupuncture therapy can be used to combat the over-prescription culture in our country.