At MAS, we know that acupuncture only works when people have access to it. As part of the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture (POCA) our mission is to make acupuncture affordable and accessible to as many people as possible.
That is why we are happy to know New Hampshire now offers tiered-licensing for providers of acupuncture. Lay practitioners such as recovery coaches, peer counselors, and other health professionals can now be certified as Acupuncture Detoxification Specialists, providing a very helpful and specific ear acupuncture point combination.
Last week, the Governor's Recovery Task Force voted unanimously to support this expansion of access to ear acupuncture. You can read more about it here.
This fascinating new research courtesy of the journal Nature.
It seems to have been determined by gene-engineering zebrafish (naturally), the cellular mechanisms responsible for DNA repair are moving twice as much during sleep as when awake.
Sleep, this suggests, is the time when animals prioritize putting ourselves back together.
(edit: good timing, as this is National Sleep Week, according to those who know things like this!)
We're grateful for all folks who come and rest their bones in MAS clinic recliners; who surrender to the mysterious movements of acupuncture treatments.
Thank you for your company and your contribution in making the treatment rooms a venerable space. We all make it so, this we know.
Three more meditations on gratitude...
"If there is gratitude in your heart, then there will be tremendous sweetness in your eyes." - Sri Chinmoy
"Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul." – Henry Ward Beecher
"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." – Willie Nelson
Black History Month is observed internationally in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. during the month of February each year.
In the spirit of joining the celebration, we'd like to highlight the large role that a group of community-minded African-American men and women played in widening access to acupuncture in their communities.
Our friend Greg Jones from St. Pete Community Acupuncture has put together an excellent, brief informational flier about the use of acupuncture at a pivotal time in US history within an influential group of African-American providers in New York City during the 1970's, among others. See below.
(If you'd like to read a more in-depth version of Greg's 'zine, email us using the Contact Us form. We'd be happy to forward over a copy to you, with Greg's blessing. It's simply too large to post here.)
Acupuncture's a curious technology. The number of ways it can prove a useful tool has remained wide and deep for a very long time.
At the same time, there remain a smaller armful of illnesses that, under almost any circumstance acupuncture should, in our opinion, be used right away as its utility is without reproach. (Check question #3B in our little book). Among them include a common cardiac-related issue.
It remains surprising to most folks for whom acupuncture is unfamiliar, that a variety of heart-related issues can be treated and/or managed quite well through the parasympathetic response acupuncture almost universally offers in the form of an uncanny and deep rest. It is common in our experience to work alongside people who are using acupuncture to better manage palpitations, various arrhythmias or high blood pressure, as frequent examples seen in clinic on a daily basis.
In order to emphasize this point, we'd like to share the following:
Preliminary studies show that acupuncture can reduce blood pressure. According to one study by Dr. John Longhurst, professor of medicine at University of California Irvine. Longhurst says that "a substantial number of our patients have responded with significant reductions in blood pressure."
He says that cells "quiet down" after acupuncture, leading to blood vessels becoming less rigid.
Read more about Longhurst's study.
