Distribution of licensed acupuncturists and educational institutions in the United States at the start of 2023, during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study was conducted to identify the number and density of active licensed acupuncturists (LAcs), as well as the number of accredited schools in acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM), as of January 1, 2023, in the United States (U.S.). The number of active LAcs as of January 1, 2023 was 34,524, potentially 33,364 after removing license duplication in multiple states, among which the largest three states were California (with 7317 LAcs [21.19% of the total]), New York (5024 [14.55%]) and Florida (2644 [7.66%]). The total number of LAcs decreased by 8.87% from 2018, and fell short of our projected number of LAcs in 2023 by 9037, or 20.75%. The overall LAc density in the U.S.-measured as the number of LAcs per 100,000 population-was 10.36, less than in 2018. There were 56 active, accredited AOM schools which offered a total of 147 programs (121 at the level necessary for licensing [entry-level], 12 for an advanced practicing degree [advanced-level], and 14 for certifications). Broken down further, offerings included 50 master's degrees in acupuncture, 40 master's degrees in Oriental medicine, 31 entry-level doctorate degrees (10 in acupuncture and 21 in acupuncture plus Chinese herbal medicine), and 12 advanced-level doctorate degrees in AOM. The certification programs included one in East-Asian Medical Bodywork and 13 in CHM. Among these schools in 2023, institutions in the West and East Coast states comprised 67.86% (decreased from 77.42% in 2018) of the national total. California, Florida and Illinois represented 39.29%. There were 48 jurisdictions with acupuncture practice laws in place. The data suggests that the acupuncture profession in the U.S. has been significantly impacted during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Please cite this article as: Fan AY, He DG, Sangraula A, Alemi SF, Matecki A. Distribution of licensed acupuncturists and educational institutions in the United States at the start of 2023, during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. J Integr Med. 2024; Epub ahead of print.

Questioning the Fundamentals of Jiao's Scalp Acupuncture: Point-positioning Based on the Hypothesis of the Cerebral Cortex's Functional Zone.

Context: Shunfa Jiao, the founder of the major school of scalp acupuncture (SA), and several other authors, have speculated that SA can effectively treat diseases or disorders through needling of the external scalp zones projected from the cerebral cortex's internal function zones that are directly underneath. Objective: The review intended to analyze and discuss the historical development of Jiao's SA system, the composition of Jiao's SA stimulation zones, and the projection of the cerebral cortex's function zones on the scalp, to correct the shortcomings and inaccuracies of Jiao's hypothesis and accelerate the development of SA and its clinical application based on solid evidence. Design: The research team performed a narrative review based on the literature currently available. The research team searched PubMed, Cochrane, Webscience, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), Wangfang, Google Scholar and Baidu Scholar databases. The search used the keywords: "Scalp acupuncture, head acupuncture, Jiao Shunfa, functional zone of cerebral cortex, history" in both English and Chinese. Setting: The study was conducted in Shanghai Bailing Tianshou Clinic of Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People's Republic of China, and McLean Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Vienna, VA, USA. Results: The nineteen stimulation zones in Jiao's SA system are actually a mixture of Jiao's speculation on SA and other authors' clinical experiences, and are confusing. The five zones on the forehead and the nasopharyngeal-mouth-tongue, madness control, spirit-emotional zones as well as the balance zone, chore-tremor control zone, and vascular movement center-more than 57% of the zones-aren't related to the projection on the scalp of the cerebral cortex's function zones directly underneath. Jiao didn't discover the five zones on the forehead through his findings of acupuncture-sensation transmission to organs, but rather Yunpeng Fang identified them in his study of SA. The nasopharyngeal-mouth-tongue, madness control, spirit-emotional zones are also others' finding. Jiao's projection of the cerebral cortex's function zones on the scalp was merely an adoption of a series of brain-surgery marks that surgeons draw before neurosurgery, which correlate external skull locations with underlying cortical areas. That Jiao believed that needling those lines could treat cerebrovascular diseases or disorders was an unfounded guess on his part. In fact, the effects of stimulating such functional zones to treat such diseases that Jiao found weren't ideal. Furthermore, Jiao's SA system has nothing to do with the integration of Chinese and Western medicine. Conclusion: Scientific evidence hasn't confirmed Jiao's hypothesis nor has that hypothesis followed from the development of neuroscience. Jiao insistence on his hypothesis seriously hindered the research and development of SA therapy. Clinical trials and experimental studies on acupuncture, especially using an fMRI, are warranted to evaluate SA's therapeutic value and to identify the functional changes of various parts of the brain that acupuncture on the scalp can cause.

Dry Needling: Is It Derived From Acupuncture? How Did Nonacupuncturists Start Using It?

CONTEXT: In the United States. and other Western countries, dry needling (DN) has been a disputed topic in both the academic and legal fields. OBJECTIVE: The research team intended to examine whether DN is a technique independent from acupuncture and also how nonacupuncturists, such as physical therapists (PTs), started practicing DN. DESIGN: The research team completed research, examined critical issues related to DN, and published a white paper in 2017 that discussed evidence and expert opinions from academic scholars, for health care professionals, administrators, policy makers, and the general public that demonstrate that DN is acupuncture. This article continues that endeavor. RESULTS: DN is not merely a technique but a medical therapy that is a simplified form of acupuncture practice. To promote DN theory and business, some commercial DN educators have recruited a large number of nonacupuncturists, including PTs, athletic trainers, and nurse practitioners, in recent years. PTs did not initiate the practice of DN and DN does not fit into the practice scope for PTs because it is an invasive practice. The national organizations of the PT profession, such as the American Physical Therapy Association and the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy, began to support the practice of DN by PTs in approximately 2010. Currently, more PTs are involved in DN practice and are teaching than any other specialty. CONCLUSIONS: Acupuncturists and physicians must complete extensive acupuncture training in accredited programs and pass national examinations to become licensed or certified to practice acupuncture. However, a typical DN course runs only 20-30 h, often in the course of 1 weekend, and the participants may receive a DN certificate without any national examination being required. For the safety of patients and professional integrity, the research team strongly suggests that all DN practitioners and educators should have to meet the same basic standards as those required for licensed acupuncturists or physicians.

Distribution of licensed acupuncturists and educational institutions in the United States at the start of 2018.

This study was conducted to identify the approximate number and density of actively licensed acupuncturists, as well as the number of schools in acupuncture and oriental medicine (AOM) by January 1, 2018 in the United States (U.S.). We contacted the appropriate department governing acupuncturists, such as the Board of Acupuncture or Board of Medicine, etc. in each state and U.S. territories, to collect the data. We also conducted online license information searches in order to collect the most accurate numbers of licensed acupuncturists, especially for those states in which a board could not be reached. We found that the number of actively licensed acupuncturists as of January 1, 2018 in the U.S. was 37,886. The ten states with the largest number of acupuncturists (28,452 or 75.09% of the U.S. total), in order by total, included California, New York, Florida, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Texas, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts. The number of practitioners was greater than 1000 for each of these states. Among them, the largest three were California (12,135; 32.03%), New York (4438; 11.71%) and Florida (2705; 7.13%). These three states accounted for more than half of the overall total. The number of total licensed acupuncturists has increased 257% since 1998. The overall acupuncturist density in the U.S. - measured as number of acupuncturists per 100,000 - was 11.63 (total number of licensed acupuncturists: 37,886, divided by the total population: 325,719,178 at the start of 2018). There were 20 states with an acupuncturist density of more than 10 per 100,000 population. Hawaii (52.82) was the highest, followed by Oregon (34.88), Vermont (30.79), California (30.69) and then New Mexico (30.27). There were 62 active, accredited AOM schools which altogether offered 100 programs: 32 master degrees in Acupuncture, 53 master degrees in Oriental medicine, 13 postgraduate doctorate degrees and 2 entry-level doctorate degrees. Among these active accredited schools, institutions in the West and East Coast states comprised 77.42% of the national total. California, Florida, and New York represented 41.94%. There were 48 jurisdictions (47 States and the District of Columbia) with acupuncture practice laws in place. States without acupuncture laws included Alabama, Oklahoma and South Dakota. The data suggests that acupuncture profession has steadily grown in the United States.