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Sho Mi
Volume 3, Issue 2
Sum m er 2 00 6
T O S HED LI GHT O N EXP ER IE NCES
President’s Report
We began a new year for the AAM at our
annual convention held in Columbia, MO
on June 3rd and 4th. Several useful workshops offered participants 12 CEUs and
gave us new ideas and insights to take
home to our individual practices. This
newsletter includes excerpts from several
of the presentations. See Chris Powell's
article on treating cancer with Oriental
medicine, Brandon Perry's helpful tips on
building a successful
practice, Kathleen Coleton's notes on a new
treatment for macular
degeneration, Greg
Boyle's explanation of
Dr. Tan's Balance
Method, and Jan Ste.
Germaine's ideas for getting started with patent
herbs. Sue McComb
also spoke about insurance coding for acupuncture.
Several new committees have been
formed to strengthen our organization and
productivity in the year ahead. During the
Convention, members gathered in various
committees to brainstorm ideas for events
and activities that will increase our effectiveness in recruiting new members, raising funds, and becoming pro-active in pursuing our legislative goals. Much work
has been done in the past year to create
systems to streamline the function of the
organization so that more can be accomplished with less effort for 2006-2007.
We owe many thanks to Past President
Afua Bromley for her hard work, including production of a Policies and Procedures Manual, the development of membership recruitment packets for new licensees, and the creation of new committees. These committees enjoy the support
and experience of several Past Presidents
of the AAM.
A new Board was elected by members in
attendance at the Convention. As president, I am joined by three
eager and energetic new
members to the AAM:
Shannon McWilliams of
Kansas City, comes to us
to serve as vice president
having recently added RN
to her acupuncture license
and will be working in a
hospital setting where she
will eventually be offering
acupuncture;
John
Schmieder, new to St.
Louis, brings a wealth of professional experience in the financial field to his new
post as treasurer; and Michael Finnell, in
Kansas City, brings his enthusiasm as he
completes his boards in acupuncture and
herbs this summer.
I look forward to a productive year that
will build our membership and strengthen
our legislative goals of maintaining the
current requirements for licensure as the
standard for practice within the state of
Missouri.
Inside this Issue:
Newsletter
Information
2
Contact
2
Membership
Information
2
Cancer Workshop
3
Executive Board Info
3
Age Related Macular
Degeneration
5
Growing your Business
6
Dr. Tan’s Balance
Method
10
Kansas City CEU
11
Getting Started with
Patent Herbs
12
SHO MI: (Japanese) There
are many ways to translate
SHO MI: bright soul, various
hearts, first experience, correct
heart (soul) (body), beginning
person and shedding light on
experiences. Japanese words
such as Kyo, Jitsu, Gogio, Te
A Te do not translate adequately. Sometimes the sound
is enough. Perhaps there is no
need to translate; just know
that when you hear “Show
Me,” they are talking about our
work-to shed light.
VO LU ME 3 , IS S U E 2
PAGE 2
Acupuncture Association of
Missouri (AAM)
President, Lynn Maloney
Sho Mi is a quarterly newsletter with circulation to licensed
acupuncturists in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee,
Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. We welcome articles, letters,
book reviews and artwork.
Sponsorships
Full Page………………………………………….$125.00
Half Page…………………………………………..$80.00
Classified (up to 30 words)………………………….$25.00
(573) 424-6108
[email protected]
Vice-President, Shannon McWilliams
(816) 833-4405 ▪ [email protected]
Secretary, Michael Finnell
(816) 665-5226 ▪ [email protected]
Treasurer, John Schmieder
(314) 361-0991 ▪ [email protected]
Acupuncture Day, Bryan Wagner
(314) 361-0991 ▪ [email protected]
Convention, Shannon McWilliams
The Sho Mi newsletter is published in June, September, December and March. All articles and sponsorships must be received three weeks prior to the month of publication. Articles
should be submitted in Microsoft Word and sponsorships in
Jpeg format. For more information please contact Jill Hancock
at (573) 635-6044 or [email protected].
Please remember that sponsors in our newsletter support
(816) 833-4405 ▪ [email protected]
our organization . Thank them for their support by taking
Insurance, Sue McComb
advantage of their products and services.
(816) 931-3131 ▪ [email protected]
Legislative, Shannon McWilliams
(816) 833-4405 ▪ [email protected]
Membership, Michael Finnell
(816) 665-5226 ▪ [email protected]
Newsletter, Michael Finnell
(816) 665-5226 ▪ [email protected]
Public Relations, Afua Bromley
SHO MI encourages members to submit articles, letters,
book reviews and articles.
Please submit to [email protected].
(314) 821-9642 ▪ [email protected]
Acupuncture Advisory Committee
(573) 336-1555
The information and opinions expressed in Sho Mi are
NCCAOM
those of the Acupuncture Association of Missouri
those of the authors and do not necessarily represent
(AAM).
(703) 548-9004
AAM Membership Benefits
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SHO MI
Cancer Workshop
According to the World Health
Organization, more than ten million people are diagnosed with
cancer each year, and more than
six million will die from cancer.
It is projected in the next twenty
years these numbers will increase
by 50%.
Cancer diagnosis is the first step
in management of this disease.
This process can include a multitude of tests and studies, many
times at the expense of the patient’s mental and physical
health. In our discussion at the
AAM convention we discussed
the primary objectives of cancer
PAGE 3
treatment to be: cure, prolongation of life, and improvement in
the quality of life. Treatment
with Western medicine most
often includes chemotherapy,
radiation, and surgery. A complete understanding of the
mechanisms of cell initiation, cell
growth, cell proliferation, tumor
growth, and the topics of apoptosis and necrosis were discussed
in detail. A thorough understanding of these biological
mechanisms aids us as practitioners in understanding how to
combine Western and Chinese
medicine in this fight.
motherapy present a major problem in clinical practice. Some
patients have to suspend their
respective treatments because of
those side-effects. These can
include: lung fibrosis, radiation
pneumonitis, anorexia, extreme
fatigue, nausea and vomiting, low
blood counts, bone marrow suppression, and constipation.
Therefore, an effective way to
minimize such reactions while
maintaining the treatment is an
urgent issue for practitioners.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and
herbal therapy have produced
extremely promising results in
The adverse side-effects produced by radiotherapy and che-
(Continued on Page 9)
(Picture to the Left)
Newly Elected 2006-2007 AAM Executive Board
Michael Finnell, Secretary; Shannon McWilliams,
Vice-President; John Schmieder, Treasurer; Lynn
Maloney, President
(Picture to the Right)
Outgoing 2005-2006 AAM Executive Board
Tom Riordan, Treasurer; Lynn Maloney, VicePresident; Afua Bromley, President
P AGE 4
VO LU ME 3 , IS S U E 2
PAGE 5
SHO MI
Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)
Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a degenerative eye
condition seen in 18 million people and is seen most commonly
in people 74 years and older.
This degenerative eye condition
has no cure and will always cause
blindness eventually.
The Macula in the eye begins to
lose normal functioning. The
patient begins to notice a dimming of colors and points of
blindness (Black or White) spots
in the center of their field of vision. AMD is naturally occurring
age related eye degeneration, but
can also be caused by surgical
anthetics in 2-3% of the cases,
eye strain and stress.
Patients with AMD can’t see
straight ahead, but can see peripherally. “You can see the paper clip on the floor, but you
can’t pick it up.”
The distress of not being able to
see faces of friends and family
members, not driving, not reading and knowing that they are
going blind increases the stress
felt by AMD sufferers.
This condition can be verified by
taking the VF 14 test and by de-
scribing what they see when
looking at an AMSLER grid.
Usually the patient will already
have a diagnosis of AMD before
seeing an acupuncturist.
All AMD starts as dry type. Patients may have bouts of wet type
where new blood vessels grow
and leak into the eye. Wet can
return to dry. Wet episodes
cause more profound vision loss.
The 100 grams of ATP in the eye
gets reused over our lifetime. In
AMD the ATP reduce and normal cell functioning is reduced.
Drusen (waste material) is not
sufficiently washed out of the eye
ball. All this causes deterioration
of the retina of the eye.
During the presentation vitamin
protocol was discussed. Acupuncture points around the eye
were reviewed, needling techniques were described and distal
body points for the eye were reviewed. Two Auricular Acupuncture protocol were presented.
fore the distal acupuncture
points. Three acupuncturist attendees volunteered to experience the micro current.
The patient uses a Velcro band to
hold electrical leads on the eye
lids. The micro current is turned
up until the patient “sees light
flashes”. This is an indication that
the optic nerve is being stimulated.
The beauty of this treatment protocol is that the patient can take
the machine home (They can buy
or rent the machine from you)
and treat themselves for 5 minutes twice daily.
Each time the acupuncturist
treats the patients, they record
any changes of sight (i.e.
20/100), AMSLER grid and the
VF 14 results. In most cases, the
AMD deterioration will stop or
have some minor improvement.
Even though AMD is not curable,
patients are very grateful if you
can stop the progression of this
disease.
The highlight of the presentation
was a demonstration of micro
current protocol to be used be-
Kathleen Coleton
AAM MEMBERS
Check your listing on the AAM website at www.missouriacupuncture.org.
Send corrections or additional information to
[email protected].
PAGE 6
V O LU ME 3, IS S U E 2
Growing your Business: Marketing & Selling Strategies
Would you classify your practice
as a successful business? Are you
seeing the number of patients
you’d like to see? Is the number
of patients you see increasing at
the rate you want to? If so, congratulations, you’ve probably
developed a system to get you
where you are. If not, there is no
time like the present. Remember 80% of small businesses fail
within the first five years, 15%
are merely surviving and only 5%
are growing and thriving.
Business development coaches
readily note that you can plan to
succeed or plan to fail by failing
to plan. This article will give you
some general parameters and
suggestions on how develop your
business and ensure that you continue to grow. Your path will be
comprised of several stages: 1)
creating a goal; 2) developing
strategies and tactics to achieve
those goals 3) creating a metric
to evaluate how well your strategies and tactics are helping you
achieve your goal; 4) tweaking or
reassessing the goal or strategy.
Step 1: Creating a Goal
This goal can be as simple as
wanting to focus your practice on
what you like to treat, increasing
your clientele to a certain number of patients per week, or
wanting to focus on a particular
demographic. The key is to
make sure it is feasible.
Step 2: Developing Strategies
and Tactics
A strategy determines what you
are going to accomplish. A tactic
tells you how you are going to
get it done. You must do both.
For example, if your goal is to
focus your practice on pain management, you wouldn’t turn
away new business from a patient
who is suffering from something
else, but you would gear your
marketing towards individuals
who are likely to be suffering
from pain. Where do you find
these people? Where are there
the greatest concentrations of
pain sufferers who might be potential clients? Some possibilities
might be individuals in industries
with heavy labor – factory workers, construction workers, sports
enthusiasts, cleaning staff, fire
fighters, etc. Other individuals
might be office workers who sit
and type a lot (carpal tunnel syndrome, cervical myofascitis).
From that point, you can strategize how to maximize your exposure to those groups. Maybe you
do free workshops at gyms, speak
to a union representing laborers,
approach an engine house about
setting up onsite treatment times
at the fire house or offering discounts to firefighters or other
similar employees. Maybe you
approach Human Resources at a
large company with a lot of office
staff and offer seminars (paid or
unpaid – that is up to you) on
how to achieve and maintain
wellness, avoid workplace injuries (like carpal tunnel and cervical issues). Decide what you are
going to do and breakdown it
down into smaller steps so you
will be able to reproduce it if
necessary. I.e. a) Call 10 gyms
or community centers in your
target geographic area b) speak
with manager or activity director
about setting up a workshop for
members c) determine if the
manager/center will advertise
the event or if you are responsible for advertising d) Create a
“script” for your target audience
and come prepared with your
information; this script would be
an expansion of your “30 second
commercial” (how to explain
what you do and the value you
bring in 30 seconds or less).
Step 3: Evaluation Metrics
Now you need to develop a metric for assessing how successful
your action step was. How many
people attended your event?
How many people eventually
became patients? Your time is
precious and you should treat it
as such. If an event/ workshop/
speaking engagement does not
produce the results you want it
to, you may need to eliminate it
or reassess the reasons why you
are doing it.
Step 4: Reassessing
Periodically, at a predetermined
time (quarterly or biannually),
do a complete assessment of your
strategy. Have you been utilizing
your strategies and tactics? Using
your metric in step 3, are you
reaching the goals you set out to
accomplish. If not, could you
tweak the system a bit or do you
need to scrap the plan and start
Continued on Page 8
SHO MI
P AGE 7
PAGE 8
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2
Growing Your Business Continued...
(Continued from Page 6)
over? If it has been successful,
have you been keeping a log of all
of your steps so you can continue
to duplicate it? Remember, you
never want to be complacent
about your growth strategies –
your long term growth is depending on it.
Some additional tools to help
you:
Example: 30 sec commercial
Hi, I’m a licensed acupuncturist
in __________. Did you know
that acupuncture can be used to
treat many injuries, addictions
and/or disease states? I specialize
in the following areas and I’ve
successfully treated patients suffering from ____________.
Practice for face to face meetings
or email to contacts at organizations or associations that you
have targeted.
If you prefer to make phone calls
rather than sending emails, have
your 30 second commercial
ready to deliver, at the start of
the conversation. Remember,
the 30 second commercial is a
simple statement or two that tells
the listener what you do and the
value that you bring, which
makes a compelling reason that
he or she should engage your services.
Sample e-mail for prospecting:
Although we’ve never been introduced, perhaps it might make
sense for us to get together. A
mutual contact suggested that it
might be good for you and I to
meet; OR after conducting preliminary research on the
________industry, (or on that
particular company, disease state
or injury) I understand that you
may have concerns regarding the
high healthcare costs impacting
your organization as a result.
When you combine the costs
with the issue of lost productivity
due to absenteeism or turnover,
you may very well be losing sleep
at night.
As a licensed acupuncturist, my
areas of specialty are in (the areas
that impact the organization the
most, such as high stress, back
pain, carpel tunnel,). Although
it is still relatively new to the US,
acupuncture has been practiced
in China and other cultures for
thousands of years. I would be
happy to stop by your office
sometime in the next 30 days or
so, to share more about the benefits of acupuncture, to learn
more about the healthcare issues
and costs that your organization
(or employees) is/are facing, and
to begin exploring how I can possibly help people and possibly
help reduce costs associated with
managing specific conditions.
Please let me know how your
schedule looks and maybe we can
get something on the calendar
soon. If it’s easier for you, feel
free to give me a call at the number below.
Best regards,
Mr./Ms. John/Jane Doe,LAc
123-456-7890 office
123-456-7890 mobile
Send at least 5-10 emails per
day as part of the tactics to
grow your practice.
Brandon Perry
AAM Member Candidate for NCCAOM National Board
After completing two interviews, one by telephone and the second video by web cam, Jan Ste. Germaine was accepted as a candidate to run as the ABT Practitioner Member for the NCCAOM
National Board.
Unlike DC, it’s a given that there won’t be any million-dollar earmarks for the AAM, but Jan still presumes to ask you to watch for her in the NCCAOM’s Summer Diplomate publication in the Elec-
tions section and vote for her.
SHO MI
PAGE 9
Cancer Workshop Continued...
(Continued from Page 3)
working with those patients experiencing adverse side-effects
and complications with chemo
and radiation. Chinese medicine
treats cancer by not only treating
the cancer, but also maintaining
the health of the whole body.
With the use of herbal formals,
the regulation of Yin and Yang
and treating the pattern will increase the body’s ability to fight
cancer and reduce side-effects.
Some tumors that are less responsive to treatment by Western medicine, such as liver, pan-
creatic, and lung cancers, do respond favorably to Chinese medicine. Acupuncture and herbal
formulas provide the ability to
enhance the immune system as
well as increasing the body’s ability to withstand the disease by
supporting Vital Qi and cultivating the Root. They also assist in
preventing, correcting, or reducing iatrogenic pain due to surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.
Statistics clearly demonstrate that
a combined approach of Western
and Chinese medicine improve
cure rates, survival times, and
most importantly quality of life.
Integration of both improves
long-term therapeutic effectiveness, especially for patients with
intermediate and late stage cancers by alleviating their suffering,
improving their quality of life,
and preventing metastasis
through the use of herbal formulas.
Chris Powell
PAGE 10
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2
Dr. Tan’s Balance Method
This is an extraction from Greg
Boyle's presentation on Tan's
Balance Method, in which he
demonstrated the Method's 5
Systems style of treatment.
Richard Tan’s Balance System is
for acupuncturists who would
like a deeper understanding of
acupuncture.
We tell our patients that the balanced circulation of the life
force, qi, throughout the entire
energy meridian system is what
constitutes health; and that any
imbalance in that circulation
leads to pain, dysfunction, and
disease.
However, in orthodox TCM acupuncture balance is never mentioned. The actions of points are
described as though the points
were herbs. St 36 tonifies qi; Sp
9 eliminates damp; Sp 6 tonifies
yin. Neither ancient drawings
nor modern anatomy supports
the notion that there is something
under St. 36 that makes it any
different from St 37 or St 34 in
the way of a direct connection to
gastric secretions. Sp 9 is separated from Sp 6 by eight or ten
inches along the same muscle and
posterior to the same bone, yet
they are described as having opposite actions! How is that possible? Yet our experience using
these points demonstrates that
these descriptions are true.
Dr. Tan’s Balance System offers
us a simple means of creating
balance within the energy circulation system. Using the distal
treatment techniques of the Balance Method, pain is often eliminated spontaneously, using very
few needles. Almost serendipitously, understanding the theories behind the Balance System
gives us an explanation as to why
the descriptions of TCM point
actions are accurate.
Greg Boyle
PAGE 11
SHO MI
Kansas City CEU Event: August 6, 2006
Tom Riordan will be presenting
basics of Yoshio Manaka’s Japanese Acupuncture system in Kansas City on August 6th from 1:00
to 3:00 p.m. The CEU event
will be held at 1600 Genessee,
Suite 346. Tom will begin the
presentation with abdominal assessment using Dr Manaka’s diag-
nostic techniques. With the information gathered from the assessment, he will explore which
root treatment in Dr Manaka’s
system will release the abdominal
areas. Drawing on the action of
the extraordinary vessel acupoints he will demonstrate the
appropriate root treatment with
the ion pumping cords. Tom
will continue to refer to the abdomen to determine if there are
other areas that need releasing
treatment and release them with
corresponding distal points.
Jan Ste. Germaine
St. Louis Film Fundraiser
September 17, 2006 ▪ 2:00-5:00 p.m.
Wei Hong Seafood Restaurant
Showing of Gua Sha: The Treatment & Silent Auction
Contact Afua at [email protected] for additional information.
Calendar of Events
Getting Started with Patent Herbs
August 2006
In my session, “These Work 99% of the
Time”, I shared Chinese patents that
have produced repeated successes for
patients over the last ten years. In a
PowerPoint format, animated clip art
accompanied with short sound bites
jumped into colored placeholders to
enliven the discussion of eighty patents
that fell into sixteen TCM treatment
categories.
6
CEU Event
Kansas City
13
BBQ
Lee’s Summit
September 2006
17
Film Fundraiser
St. Louis
Among comments of members to me
after the session, I was most excited by
those who said that although they hadn’t
before, they now felt confident to begin
a relationship with acupuncture’s most
powerful ally in healing, Chinese herbs.
Jan Ste. Germaine
February 2007
21
Acupuncture Day
Jefferson City
AAM Past President, Afua
Bromley, Receives Award
April 2007
11
Afua Bromley receives award
recognizing her service as past
president to the Acupuncture
Advisory Committee from
12/17/1999-3/3/2006.
Acupuncture Day
Jefferson City
To Add an Event to the
Calendar, contact
[email protected].
Special Thanks to
2006 Convention Sponsors
Mayway Corporation,
Primary Sponsor
•
Far East Summit
•
Golden Flower
•
Health Concerns
•
Kan Herbs
•
Lhasa OMS
You’re Invited—Summer BBQ
Sunday, August 13th ▪ 3:00 p.m.
602 NE Main, Lee’s Summit
Home of Michael Finnell
RSVP: 816.665.5226
Please bring one covered dish; items you would like
grilled; and beverages (soft drinks provided).
2007 Acupuncture Days at the Capitol
February 21st ▪ April 11th
Contact Bryan Wagner at [email protected] or (314) 361-0991 to register.