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No Surprise Billing in the Acupuncture Setting

 

So today’s program is going to hit a chord. I think for many of you, because you’ve probably heard a lot about this and you aren’t yet. Does it apply to me? Does it not apply? Does it really matter? And of course it does. But we have to make sure that we don’t create something where we’re creating too much emphasis on one thing and not understanding the big picture.

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi everyone. This is Sam Collins, your coding and billing expert for acupuncture, the American Acupuncture Council Network and the American Acupuncture Council malpractice carrier. With another episode of, to the point to make sure your practice continues to grow and thrive and understand what’s changing and updating to make sure you’re always having the best success that you can have.

So today’s program is going to hit a chord. I think for many of you, because you’ve probably heard a lot about this and you aren’t yet. Does it apply to me? Does it not apply? Does it really matter? And of course it does. But we have to make sure that we don’t create something where we’re creating too much emphasis on one thing and not understanding the big picture.

And that of course is the no surprises act. So please let’s go to the slides. Everyone. Let’s take a look at what’s going on with this no surprises act. This has actually been something that’s been out for a while. It just became implemented January 1st. And really what it’s intended to do is to protect patients from an unexpected or undisclosed medical bills.

And I want you to think of the big picture. Think of how many times you’ve heard of this. That’s gone to a hospital when they’re there. Maybe they get a surgery and it turns out the anesthesiologist is not in their network. And lo and behold, now they get this bill out of network for thousands of dollars.

They had no idea. That’s really the onus behind this. So again, I always report to you to take a look. There’s my name, there’s our website and my email to make sure you’ve got all the right information. But here’s what I want bust. The hyperbole, you’ve all been exposed to this. And if you’re using Dr.

Google, you’ve probably been exposed to it. People love to put out stuff and not really understand it. Think of all the different things you’ve heard about vaccines that turned out to not be true as far as mandate. The other thing about this is the same thing with the no surprises act. And I always say be careful, gave away the exaggerations of a hyperbole.

And I would say use something that’s called Aquaman’s re. If you’ve never heard of that concept that often says that there are very complex questions and often the best answer is the simplest. And I’ll say, this is no different. So starting January 1st, this no surprises act was designed to protect individuals from very high out of network bills or just high bills without them being aware of it.

That’s all this is about. So you have to think from an acupuncture standpoint, aren’t you probably doing all this. Chances are you are cause aren’t you already doing some type of financial agreement with your patient. So this is essentially the design, these big bills. The law requires that providers give a good faith estimate.

You’ll hear this term. It’s an estimate. I probably don’t think in some cases you’re going to be able to give an exact, but at least a range, by the way, that range could be within $400. So you can imagine how many of you have a visit? That’s 400. So I don’t think it’s going to really fall outside of that, but I want to think of just what’s better for us is to make sure patients understand what’s going on.

Obviously, there’s going to be two things that are a barrier or a patient coming for care. Number one, they don’t know about what you do or afraid of it. Unknowing. Isn’t going to work, but number two is cost. And so the better we are at aligning what our costs are in the patient, understand that the better off we’re going to be.

So if you think of it, aren’t you already doing a financial agreement, making the patients aware of what your charges are and what their out of network or excuse me, out of pocket costs might be whether you’re in or out of network. So what I’ll say to most of you. Chances are you are already doing all the things you need to do for the no surprises act albeit maybe a little bit differently, but for the most part already accomplishing that.

So who has to do this? The, who is people with health insurance, many of your patients, whether they use insurance or not, or pay cash, we have to make them aware. So if they’re using your health insurance for. Or not, it’s simply making sure a patient’s aware of what are the expectations of costs. And this is where things can get a little tricky because if you’re in network or out of network, that’s certainly can make a big difference.

So here’s what I, to suspect that you’re doing at our hope you’re doing how about some simple language in a financial agreement that something like. Many insurance policies do cover acupuncture care, but this office makes no representation that yours does. We’re never promising think of a medical office.

They never tell you, we guarantee your insurance is going to cover, or that we take it. They’re saying that we will take some or offer it. And it says here insurance policies may vary greatly in terms of deductible and percentage of coverage. You’ve seen. Yeah, the plan says it pays 80%, but of course, 80% of what, not necessarily what you’ve built.

So here’s what we tell them because of the variance from one insurance policy to another, we require that you, the patient be personally responsible for the payment of your deductibles, as well as any unpaid balances in this office. And we’ll do our best to verify your insurance and bill in a timely manner.

But ultimately let’s always remember who is the contract, really with an insurance it’s between the patient. And the insurance company. Not necessarily the doctor and Lusher and network. So you want to be very clear if you’re out of network, we want to be clear as to what your charges are because the insurance is going to pay.

Some of it. Patient pays the rest. When you’re in network may be a little easier, but obviously you’re getting less money. What if you have a $10 copay? That would be pretty strictly. So we have to do it for the patients, give them information, but who else? Us as providers, we give that information and we have to make sure we understand our differences.

When we are in network, it’s mostly a fixed co-pay and we’re going to write off by example, let’s say you’re billing an American specialty health plan, and maybe the patient has a $20 deductible, or excuse me, a $20 copay. That’s automatically what they’re going to pay. Other stuff is written off. You remember, regardless of what you do, right?

You could do lots of services, but they’re going to include just that fixed per diem price. So it’s very, in fact, straightforward. This is what the patient will pay. This is what we get now, conversely, where it gets a little bit more complicated though, is what about out of network? And this is what I want to warn you is that so many offices do this improperly.

You’re probably setting yourself up for something that they would consider anti-kickback or a kickback as well as a false claim when you’re out of network and building insured. The patient has to pay what the insurance didn’t pay. We often use the term co-insurance because co-pay, we generally mean a fixed amount.

Co-insurance we mean, what is leftover? So here there’s no contractual write-off so let’s take an example. We build an in-network plan, a hundred dollars, but because we’re in network, that patient has a $10 copay and the insurance pays $40. So we collect 50 with $50 being written off because we have a contract with that.

Now let’s take another patient. We’re out of network. We build the same $100. The plan let’s say still pays $40. Great. It pays 40, but now because we build a hundred we’re to collect $60 and I know many of you go no, I don’t collect that. I’ll write it off. There’s the kickback you’re giving the patient again.

Of $60. They didn’t pay. Cause why are they not paying what others have to pay? So in other words, you can’t have it just because your insurance is not as good. You pay less unless you’re in network. So if no contractual, write-offs kind of what you, bill is what you have to collect. So be careful of that being a kickback, like by example, if you just told a patient, oh, you have a deductible, no big deal.

I won’t collect it. That’s a gift. And we can’t give gifts for a patient for, to become a patient with us. So I will always come back to say, if you’re willing to build it, you have to be willing to collect it. So be careful of setting your fees off of your best paying insurance or your worse, because if you have one insurance paying that much, what about the patients that doesn’t, they have to pay the difference, which means for many of you, if you’re doing that, you might as well join and be in that.

Because you’re writing it off anyway, you might as well do it legal. So here’s the difference. We have to make the patients aware of that. So as the provider, we have to do to make sure they’re aware of what those amounts are. Don’t overcomplicate it, but it’s really just the out of network of the patient.

Now, if you’re in network fairly simple, because you just telling them what that price is, and I’ll give you some examples of what these forms might look like. But what I want you to keep in mind is what you’re charging. You have to be able to make sure patients understand those. Maybe what their insurance might pay at least a portion, and then they’re going to pay the balance.

So if I’m billing $400 per visit, I can’t guarantee what the insurance is going to cover. Do I have to make the patient aware they could be liable for $400? They couldn’t be. So again, be careful don’t set your fees off of your highest. Now who else has to deal with this? It’s not just us or the patient, but the insurance company, the payer, and here’s some really good rules that they have to follow that I’m sure some of you have run into problems with.

They have to verify who’s in and out of network. How many times have you seen someone coming to your office to say, oh, I found your name on my network and it’s something you dropped out of months ago or years ago. So now they have a duty to make sure that list is updated every 90 days. And it has to be updated within two days of notice, which means many of you are going to get an additional request from insurance companies very regularly, probably every three months to make sure you’re still willing to be in network because those lists have to be up to date because if the insurance company improperly puts your name on that list and that patient comes in the patient, won’t be liable to you.

But, That insurance company, because your name was on the list. They misinformed the patient. So it puts a lot back onto that insurance company, which I liked because how often are we left on the side when we’ve dropped out or we’re not part of it. And yet they try to say that we are, it also emphasizes this, that insurance companies have to be more transparent as the amount that they’re going to allow her pay.

How frustrating is it? You bill 75, 1 insurance pays 41 pays 30, maybe one pays the full 75. How do we know that? Partly once you, bill, you can obviously keep a log of what different plans pay, but otherwise the first time [00:10:00] out, how would you know? And so this is where you have to warn the patient, that I cannot guarantee what your insurance is going to cover.

You can certainly estimate it, but you’re not guaranteed. So potentially they can, oh, the entire amount. Now insurance companies should be more transparent to give that information. There should be more access to online portals or information about what they allow. I would even in fact, have the patient call and say, what do you allow for acupuncture blue cross blue shield of Illinois through their Availity platform.

And I’m sure others are going to follow the same thing. There’s a tool available. If you’re a network you can plug in your codes and your. They’ll tell you what they allow that way. There’s going to be no guessing. What’s there now. Bear in mind. If you go back to ELBs, you’ve received, it’s probably easy to figure out what’s been paid, but it’d be nice to really more real world information about what they’re allowing get rid of that mystery.

Why is there always a mystery of what they’re willing to do all. For the payers, there’s going to be a way to dispute. So it says here out of network physicians, [00:11:00] clinicians, and facilities, wherever process, available to challenge inadequate out of network payment. So you ever seen this ridiculousness, you are billing a fee that everyone pays you and all of a sudden this insurance says, oh no, the usual customary for your.

Is 50% below that. Wait a minute. What means that they can do that? If they’re charging, what is fair and reasonable now, again, if you’re in network, they can make that provision, but out of network, no. So there’s going to be an independent dispute resolution and independent body that will oversee that.

And I think is going to make this a little bit more reasonable that these companies can’t come out and just say this is what we’re going to pay. Take it over. Unless you’re a network. So it gives a little more power for us and the patients to push back on some of these ridiculous low fees that they allow.

So in summary, here’s what I want you to do. Establish a fair and reasonable fees schedule. I did a program about, oh, just right before December, about how to use RV use, but I’m going to. Hire me as an expert, we have a service called the network at the American acupuncture council network, where I [00:12:00] help you just with that to make sure your fees are in line out guarantee.

Most of you have 50% of your codes that are probably not correct. So let’s establish a fair and. Clarify who you are or not in network with them. When people come in, you can be upfront with them. I don’t belong to Aetna, but I do belong to blue cross. Maybe in addition, disclose your fees. Now, what you can do is you can put a big list of all your codes and fees, but that doesn’t really help because that’s not what the patient is getting.

So you want to do something that identifies with this patient is receiving so they know what they’re paying. Can you imagine if you just went to a hospital? And they had a big charge list of everything they might do. How would you figure out what you’re getting done? So you want to be more specific? So the patient has a good choice to know.

Oh, okay, great. I’m going to get this care because I know I can afford it or I will pay for it or here’s what I would rather do. I would rather not treat someone and not get paid, then treat them and not get them. You get my point. That’s happened to all of us at some time, be clear with their [00:13:00] out-of-pockets eight or out of network with a financial understanding or agreement that way.

No, one’s had a mystery and you’re thinking we’ll see them. This no surprise act is what I’ve already done is try to give a patient information about what their costs are. That’s exactly what. What I will say, avoid the hyperbole of when people get all excited, you gotta do new forms. You gotta do this and that.

No, don’t post it on your website. You don’t know what they’re coming in for. Wait until they’re there and use something like this. So you notice this is a simple form that just goes into the same thing. I said, many insurance policies do cover acupuncture, but take a look at where the blue arrow is. It says our services may not be covered by insurance.

Our office and providers are not in network with any insurance. And do not accept insurance assignments, meaning we’re expecting you to pay up bill your own insurance, or you wait for the check. You will be billed the cost for your care and will be responsible for that amount and any difference that the insurance pays great, but that’s not going to be on.

We then indicated in red that the patient says, I [00:14:00] understand, and I will have the financial responsibility applicable to healthcare services provided by an out of network provider. Remember, don’t make them think that you’re in network when you’re out. And then a breakdown here are the services that are going to provide.

Now you notice I made a little spreadsheet here of common services. You might just have something you just fill in the. Of what you’re doing and the fee is, so that way they could know and notice I put an estimated payment. Yep. But is that something you’re going to absolutely guarantee?

No, it’s an estimate. And remember you have a $400 threshold, so it’s pretty easy for us. So the big picture for me is I want a person to be comfortable with their care that they can afford it and remember affording it is not always as complicated. Think of this. How many times have you seen a car that they advertise on TV?

Do they ever tell you the total price of the car? They never do. They always say, oh, it’s 4 99 a month. So here, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to tell them what the total fee is. And if that’s something that kind of rebuffs them, then you can talk to them about, Hey, no problem. We work out payment schedules for you.

We’ll debit your card. [00:15:00] Anything to just make it more palatable, but at least this way, no, one’s going to be surprised by how much. So this would be a good way of dealing with when you’re out of network, which frankly, I recommend now, what if you are in network though, here’s a different. It says here the same thing at the top, we’re going to bill, but notice it says our office and providers are in network with your insurance and put the client name.

We then talk about balance billing, which there’s none. So that’s why in the red section, you’ll notice it specifically talks about copay, which is fixed and maybe what’s excluded by example, many of you who belong to American specialty health, you understand that they do not cover massage or manual therapy.

So as a consequence, you can inform the patient that’s not a covered by. And they would be liable for those amounts, but you have to tell them beforehand. So do be conscientious of making sure when you’re making these types of estimates, that patients are clearly aware of what they’re going to pay.

That’s all there is to it. Is that really that complicated? I don’t think so. It’s just a matter of thinking just like yourself as a. What would you want [00:16:00] to know what the costs are that way, how you can afford it? And if you feel it’s unaffordable, now we, as providers can work out something for them to do that.

Now, if you’ve never noticed, if you go to our website, the American acupuncture council network, you’ll notice we have a new section. Have you ever been there? Have you seen all the information about. We’re putting out information on vaccine mandates, whether it is or isn’t no, it’s different a little bit for each state, not ma not nationally, but notice about four weeks ago, we put things up on the no surprise billing.

So one of the ways you can always get engaged and we’re here to help is by just going to our news. Our goal is to make sure you have a practice that is thriving, that’s doing better. How do you do that by having the correct information to make sure you’re getting paid? That’s our ultimate goal. So if you really want some day to day help, we offer a service, we call our network or hotline where literally you hire me as part of your staff or part of your.

And then you work with me directly by phone fax, email, even zoom, all types of issues, anything coding, billing, [00:17:00] documentation. We’re always here to help you. The American acupuncture council network. Here’s our site and our phone number. If you have any questions or concerns that never be afraid to reach out to us, we are your teammate and we want to make sure you’re doing well.

So I wish you all the best now coming up next week for the live program will be Jeff Grossman. I look forward to seeing you all at a future seminar until. Be well, take care of yourself. Take care of your family. Thank you everyone. Okay.

 

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Preventing and Treating Alzheimer’s Disease Naturally

 

 

to speak to everybody today and to give them information related to my latest book, Natural Eye, Natural Brain Support – Your Guide to Preventing and Treating Alzheimer’s and Dementia and Other Related Diseases.

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hello there. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Edson. I am a licensed acupuncturist practicing over 20 years in presence of natural eyecare. And you see the website, naturaleyecare.com. I like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to speak to everybody today and to give them information related to my latest book, Natural Eye, Natural Brain Support – Your Guide to Preventing and Treating Alzheimer’s and Dementia and Other Related Diseases.

I am a filling in for Virginia Duran today. And I’m excited to speak with you. The book. Is was the reason I wrote the book for a number of reasons. One, because I have had relatives with Alzheimer’s who are passed away from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. And one of the main book from natural eye care that Dr.

Grossman and I co-wrote he’s my partner is natural. I K you got to healthy vision in here. That book is an 800 page book and goes into how to treat eye disease naturally. And while doing a lot of the research for the book, what was really amazing to me was that the nutrients that actually support the retina and the rest of the eyes and the optic nerve when I was doing, looking at the research I kept on coming with.

Additional research related to the fact that they, these nutrients, of course, the blood brain barrier. And we’ll talk more about the blood brain barrier shortly, but it went to the brain and the brain uses these nutrients to keep the brain healthy. And the critical for preventing Alzheimer’s preventing dementia reducing brain fog and just keeping a healthy cognitive.

So I started collecting all that research and gathering it. I’m sorry. I have to find my pen here. Okay. And gathering it and accumulated over 3,200 peer reviewed research references related to how to keep the brain healthy and in the book. And we’ll go into more detail. I cover over four 50 nutrient.

And those nutrients, it gets complicated because a lot of nutrients have many different functions within the brain. So there’s a chart with over 19 19 categories of what different ways that these nutrients can help the brain. And I have an X mark in each category for each nutrient, and we’re going to go into many essential nutrients during this conversation.

Okay. I think we can start with. All right. So that is the name of the book. You’ll see. That is fruit and vegetables during critical to keeping healthy. Okay.

All right. The brain is really an amazing organ. It’s the most physiological active part of the body. As you can see it only 2% of the body rate represents 25% of the nutrients. With a hundred billion brain cells and sinaps seven to 10 synopsis per second. And we’ll talk about what a synopses in tobacco with seven to 10,000 cells a second.

We’re talking about trillions of interactions per second, and it’s really, if you think about that, how is this even possible? So there’s a lot of chemical activities that go on between neurotransmitters and hormones and. Interactions between the brain cells. But the only way that I can think of, and this is theoretical is that it’s some form of light.

Cause that’s the only thing that could travel that quickly, that can do so many transactions. And so that leads me to we’ll talk about chill all the time. So maybe that is what also what she is, and that travels that quickly in the body to help promote these types of choices or transactions that go on in.

Which is quite remarkable. And I talked about the eyes and the relationship to the eyes and the brain, the optic nerve is actually brain tissue. So it makes sense that what affects the optic nerve affects the brain. What affects the brain affects the optic nerve. The retina was created in the womb and the womb from from brain cell from brain cells.

So this correlation between. Healthy efficient and healthy brain function is very strong. As a matter of fact, from an eye exam that can often seen, they can also see early signs of Alzheimer’s, which is the beta amyloid buildup in the retina before it’s ever diagnosed as Alzheimer’s not withstanding multiple sclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, and many other conditions.

Appear on the retina often before, before it becomes obvious that it’s a health condition

it’s Alzheimer’s disease epidemic. And particularly related to the fact that people live in LA. And it’s for the most part nature related disease. In my opinion, there is a genetic aspect that we’ll talk about for sure that usually appears more people who are maybe 40, 60 years old. But the reason that these types of diseases are happening as they get older is the underlying causes of what can cause or contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.

Now, withstanding poor circulation. Inflammatory conditions, auto immune conditions, poor digestion. We don’t produce it many times in our system to break down the food. People become more sedentary. Maybe the emotional balance is not, they’re not, don’t feel as engaged in society. All these things play a part in both vision and brain health.

As you see that of 6 million people today. And it’s growing dramatically every year. It’s really an epidemic. Okay.

It’s a multi, multi neuro neurodegenerative disease, which means that there’s many parts that take place that cause dementia and Alzheimer’s and other types of improv, consents, and other types of brain illnesses. And it really needs to be looked at that. Because you can’t, it’s not a single issue problem, even though beta amyloid builds up in the brain and you also have something called tap protein in February and fibers that cause brain damage.

Why is that happening? And in order to really deal with Alzheimer’s and dementia and prevention, you have to look at the underlying visas, why that’s happening. And I mentioned a few here. Let me mention a few before, which is chronic inflammation. Blood-brain barrier, compromised blood brain barrier is what prevents unwanted materials from reaching the brain.

And that would include pathogens and metals and other types of materials that you don’t want to get to the brain. And when that gets compromised, then materials are getting to the brain that are causing brain damage as well. I mentioned nor epinephrin here, cause it’s one of those.

Hormones, essential hormones that acts as a neurotransmitter, the brain neuro-transmitters what passes information from brain cell to brain cell. And so neuro-transmitters are really critical. We’re going to go into more of that and it did mention that bit amyloid, neurofibrillary, tangles. HyperCat protein.

I was, what’s seen in the brain through MRIs when they see Alzheimer’s disease cow protein in a normal balance helps keep the micro structures of the cells to have that gets effected than the self structure start. The weekend. Beta amyloid in normal amounts is very important for motor transmission and brain function.

But when it builds. It starts damaging brain cells, also affecting mitochondrial function. And I know all of, what mitochondria is, it’s the energy cell of the body. It’s the battery of ourselves that keep the battery at the end of the cells functioning and energized. So my mitochondrial function, I was supposed to be looked at by.

And in the book I go into the nutrients that support the mitochondria support, the blood brain barrier, reduce inflammation also help reduce beta amyloid plaque and hyper phosphorylated tau protein and neural or tangles. These can be done through diet and exercise. The 40, the 3,200 plus studies in the book that are all in the, and the neuro neurological Magazines.

And then the research is in there. So it’s not, it’s medically proven, but it’s not really followed by the medical community.

Let’s start with diet and lifestyle. Cause obviously these are really critical. Eating a healthy diet is essential. What is a healthy diet? What like what the best diets having. Is to have lots of fruits and vegetables. Green leafy vegetables are really great. It’s very low in refined carbohydrates.

Obviously you’re avoiding fried foods and unhealthy oils, and we’re going to go into the fried foods and what not the foods to avoid. So you want to keep a low carbohydrate diet particularly all the white foods. What do you have? White rice, white pasta, white bread all the refined carbohydrates.

You want to keep a low sugar diet? Stevia is a good alternative if you want to sweeten something up. So there are different diets. The Mediterranean diet is good. The south street diet is good, but again, the common thing is a low refined, very low refined carbohydrates sugars. And. Some people like meat, I say eating meat, it should be as best as possible grass fed organic needs.

And and then foods to avoid avoid diabetes is, is an epidemic in society. And I think the numbers are up to 70% of people that have diabetes or have. So high sugar is one of the really severe detriments to, to the brain. What happens when we have excess sugar in the diet, the brain actually produces along with the pancreas its own insulin.

That’s how important insulin is to energy production within the brain. So when this excess sugar, that means the brain has to produce more insulin to break down the show. Insulin also keeps beta amyloid in check. So if you’re not having the insulin available to keep the in check it’s one of the reasons beta amyloid can increase and stop causing brain damage.

Insulin is also critical for other functions of the brain related to cognitive function. So avoid all sugary drinks, even juices to limit a very high in sugar aspartame and artificial sweeteners. They’re toxic to the brain. They produce as pertain produces a Spotify acid and methanol, which is toxic to brain cells.

And And it causes also hyperactivity in the brain. So you want to avoid those at all costs. Again, Stevie is a good alternative avoid generally foods that are in aluminum cans. Okay. So cause aluminum producers aldehydes and aldehydes prevent the breakdown or. Cause increases in production of protein in the brain.

And that is that would, could include amyloid plaque and tau protein and diminishes the body. The protein analysis is the body’s the brain’s ability to break down protein. It restricts the body’s ability to do that. Keep meat down to a minimum. The studies have been clear that diets, high meat.

The likelihood of the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. So meats are not withstanding, but with the hormones and the pesticides that are added and void fry foods. So five foods cause damage to the brain toxic to the brain and they also they. They increase ROS reactive oxygen species, which is a very aggressive form of free radicals that put down healthy cells.

So we all know that free radicals have a, have an extra electron at the end, and they will Quip that electron from a healthy cell causing it to be unhealthy and die. And that’s why the antioxidant is just because the antioxidants provide the extra electron to neutralize the free radicals. And we’re going to go into antioxidants and essential nutrients such as gludethyon which is a master antioxidant.

This is one of the few along with superoxide dismutase that can neutralize the full spectrum of free radicals in the body. And it’s the, actually the antioxidant. And the greatest quantity in the brain and the studies have shown that people with Alzheimer’s are significantly deficient include a thigh on the brain.

So you wonder why the doctors are telling people to minimally supplement with glutathione, but that’s only one of the many ones that are deficient, while I’m on the topic. The other ones that are deficient B complex is between. Vitamin T3. Some of the minerals such as magnesium, selenium sink these are all critical and when deficient, they can cause a brain damage because the free, radical, the cause of the free radical activity.

But also what’s really fascinating is that deficiency in somebody in these nutrients can actually mimic Alzheimer’s dementia. So in fact, for people that are that have a diminishment of. They may look like the habit and they may be being treated for it by the doctors for Alzheimer’s.

But yet, if the efficiency is just because of the nutrient deficiency, that could be the underlying cause. And not that they actually have dementia Alzheimer’s exercise cuts across all. I mentioned 19 categories. I mentioned that I have in the book, it cuts across all 19 categories. By the way curcumin does as well.

Ashwagandha’s really good. They basically a thigh on these do cut of course, most, if not all the categories of what they help to help with the brain stress. We live in a society, highest stress. We know it. And I was looking at a study this morning that said 3.2% of people in the United States are suffering with PTSD.

And that could be the trauma that can be due to the chronic stress associated work relationships, money, and stress can actually reduce the size of parts of the brain, including the Mignola, which among many other things, processes our emotional memory. Stress is important to keep that under control meditation, yoga, Qigong.

These are all taking regular walks in the words. These are all really important breathing. Remember to breathe. When we get stressed out, when we get upset, we stopped breathing. Stop, take some nice long breasts, calm down, get everything going again. Emotional balance. We know that the five elements of Chinese medicine, wood fire, earth, metal, and water.

That keeping emotions in balance are really important. Being angry and stressful cake is excess cortisol production in the brain and cortisol and causes excess hyper excitability. And that can actually be as a point of cortisone is for neurotransmission can cause destruction in brain cells as well when it’s, when there’s too much in the brain.

The colon archaic system is essential for brain functioning. And for neurotransmission is the communication between cell, the cell the brain cells a set of colon. I mentioned because that’s one of the critical, among many actually born into critical neuro-transmitters in the. Coleen is one of the underlying precursors, the acetylcholine.

And what’s interesting about set of Coleen is that’s one of the main treatments that the drugs try and address is the imbalance of a set of calling through a set of colon. Esterase so set of colon esterase and shed a calling, keep each other in balance. So what the does. Is it helps reduce acetylcholine, acetylcholine esterase to try and keep the set of calling up.

But the drugs don’t work. My, my relatives got the drugs. They just continually get worse because they’re not looking at the wider picture of what the underlying causes of the imbalances are and addressing the underlying causes which can be again, stomach them inflammation chronic stress.

Metal exposure to environmental exposures. The inability to interference with neurogenesis is the body’s ability to produce new brain cells. And we can do that up until the 1990s. I didn’t think that they thought that the brain cells that we were born with were the ones that we would die with.

The brain produces to produce new brain cells all through life until we die. And then a lot of nutrients, including ashwagandha and many others actually promote neurogenesis, new brain cells epigenetic. Epigenetics underlying is the thought that again, they thought that genetics, the way we were born, not only was the way we looked, but we were controlled the diseases we got later on, but, and they thanked the fact that epigenetics is environmentally also causes cells to turn on.

So that how well we were nurtured us children and fed and how well we take care of ourselves through our lives, actually prevent, can prevent not all time, but many of the times, certain cell genes that we don’t want turned on or turned on. mentioned some of the food sources for Coleen. The book talks about food source for different antioxidants as well.

I mentioned the culinary system is related to Alzheimer’s practices, hunting. And many other psychiatric disorders as well.

We did talk about mitochondria as being critical, to relate to all these diseases I missed. I looked this year and when beta amyloid builds up as associated with Alzheimer’s, it actually can create this function within mitochondria and quiz, a cycle effect. So the more mitochondrial dysfunction, the less energy is available for the cells to function properly in a more self-study.

As well as oxidative stress, we talked about the free radicals that need to be neutralized with with antioxidants essential antioxidants. I mentioned some of the nutrients in here that support mitochondria alpha-lipoic acid cocuten some of the B vitamins resveratrol, and this is all in the book, Shandra.

Magnesium by the way is also very important for managing and breaking down a beta amyloid plaque. So create division beta amyloid plaque. That’s another reason why you can get an increase in bid on what plaque as well. So I’m really talking about a whole body Prototron health story. That’s a whole body approach act function for doing that for 3000 years.

And in order to deal with Alzheimer’s and prevention, you have to take a step back, who is this person related to this disease and what are the underlying causes of it that may be related to that. And then dealing with that, because the drugs I mentioned Donepezil and another one Mateen which has to do with reducing GABA.

So that That it helps balance out the corner metric system and GABA can be increased through foods as well. So again, whole body approach, the body’s meant to be meant to heal is trying to heal. What can we do to help that along?

I mentioned the blood brain barrier critical it’s mentioned things here that, that caused a breakdown in the blood brain barrier. Astrocytes. Cells in the body that are cells in the brain in relative high amounts, the part of the glial system and the critical also for keeping the blood brain barrier healthier.

I mentioned aspartame and artificial sweetness. They also break down astrocytes it also prevents the excess glucose from reaching the. Some, I mentioned the vitamin, a vitamin C that help keep the blood-brain barrier already healthy. A B6 B12 baseline is in robot, obviously in resveratrol.

We already talked about this and we talk about a number of the nutrients. There’s quite a few of them that can help keep everything in balance. We talk about yin and yang. And part of it is really keeping everything in balance in the body. And a way to do that is through food diet, exercise, Chinese medicine, even I bet a medicine yolk, which Yukon gut-brain connection, very powerful. The gut represents 70% of our immune system. There’s a very strong connection in your gut, in the brain to the gut and actually produces on neurotransmitters and hormones. And communicates with the brain all the time through the Vegas nerve. It’s a big problem within society that there are gut imbalances that can lead to candidiasis and leaky gut syndrome.

And these can be caused tremendous inflammation can also cause a breakdown in the blood brain barrier and neurogenesis the diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s so walking causes. My microbiome microbiota break down, excess sugar, poor diet, excess dressed emotional balances medications obviously excess use of antibiotics.

So we really need to focus on that. If there’s a whole community of doctors right now called functional medicine doctors, that really start with the gut as being the basis of where disease starts from gut imbalances. Okay.

Central nutrients are making these already. That tend to be deficient. I also add here cookie 10, taurine, DHA. These all are critical for brain functioning for Alzheimer’s dementia and other, and Parkinson’s as well.

Chinese medicine practitioners out there pretty much. I understand that’s what the organization is. So the kidney Meridian overrules the the, our hormone production and endocrine system. So the home, we have a lot of hormones that reach the brain that are in the brain and act as essential.

Neuro-transmitters among. Function. So that’s willing to look at the hot Meridian. Obviously we know it has to do with spirit and Chen and all circulation, but also long-term memory. The spleen Meridian has to do with short-term memory, as well as analysis and concentration, the dual Meridian overalls, all neurological activity.

So we’re obviously looking at older meridians, but these are the four key ones. I just mentioned a couple of PA patent formulas, but there are many more out there. The Buena Juan brain tonic, or the GN now on oh, good ones to look at. But when you do your intake, we’ll figure out where you want to go with with which herbal formulas might be most helpful for your patients.

It’s different complimentary medicines. I didn’t talk much about essential oils, but they play a big role. In terms of helping support concentration reducing common symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s is poor sleep, anxiety, poor social skills pound community paranoia poor concentration, poor ability to make decisions, analytical functioning.

So essential. Either applied directly or in an ad, Mr. Fire can do a long way and really balancing out those imbalances associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

So stem cell research is still in progress. We don’t, I think it’s got a ways to go. If this account, my contact information, you can order the book from natural eye care.com, even from Amazon. If you want to reach me, have any questions, I’m here to answer those. You have my email address as well as my phone number.

And I thank everybody for the patients to listen to my rapid discussion today. But there’s a lot of material to cover. I want to give you a sense that we can do a lot to help people and the doctors are not doing it

and also join us next week. Bring that back up again for on Friday. Yair Maimon will be here giving a presentation as well. Thank you so much.

 

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Acupuncture in the Treatment of Cognitive Impairment Outstanding Evidence in Cancer Patients

 

 

So today we’ll talk about a very interesting topic, which is the TCM ability to treat Cognition in Cancer.

Click here to download the transcript.  Click here to download the slides.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hello, everybody. Good to see you. I don’t see you, I always feel that I talked to people and first of all, I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council to putting up this show and providing this information. So today we’ll talk about a very interesting topic, which is the TCM ability to treat Cognition in Cancer.

So let’s start with the slideshow and it’s quite an eutopic and in the same time, it’s all topic. I would like to follow more the research, but also to speak about the TCM diagnosis of cognition and the specialty of cognition of treating cancer patient because cancer related cognitive impairment is.

Quite as specific topic, which is relate most to the cancer and very much of the different treatments starting from chemotherapy. Everyone now knows the chemo brain which people sometimes suffer for years or definitely months, the difficulty in concentrating differently in doing the cognitive things that they were able to do before they would feel.

Head is foggy. No, he’s like foggy and they find it really difficult to do the tasks that they were able to do before, even just read newspaper or to do mathematics, et cetera. So it’s a, quite the debilitating aspects of cancer and cancer care and cancer related cognitive impairment is huge topic in breast cancer.

Three out of four survivors was suffering for some degree. Of cognitive impairment. So we’re talking about quite a large numbers of cancer patients. So especially chemotherapy is the one that is effecting the cognition. And I would like to start with a recent research. Or a few research that has been coming up on that topic.

And I must say from an Chinese medicine point of view, cognition is very specific. It relates added to deficiencies, and we’ll talk about spleen and kidney deficiency, spleen more for the short term and kidney more for the longterm, but there is other, also other deficiencies like blood or cheat and chemotherapy can create this deficient.

There’s also access and access will usually relates to dampness and phlegm, but a lot of time to toxins. And that means that many of the drugs that are using captains are more related to the toxins part and they’re causing this kind of problems in cognition. So there are some more type of access. And the last things is more to consider the heart, the Shen and.

And I’ll come to this topic of the diagnosis and treatment. When we look at the research. So this is a research that looked at the effect of acupuncture in treating cognitive impairment in cancer patients. And what is interesting about this research? They actually monitored the effect of the research through some questionnaires about also BDNF, the Saron brain derived.

No Tropic factor. And so they evaluated both the cognition as you do, like in different tests, but they also look at biomarkers in the ceremony, this patient to see if there is a difference. So this study and gain, there were like 39 and 36 people in the real group and the treatment. And they look evaluated the difference between the two groups.

This is the point the use. And here we are coming back to the diagnosis. Some studies, especially research, we’ll go deeper into the Chinese medicine diagnosis and some research is more like symptomatic. I’ve I have a lot of interest in cancer care both in treating cancer, patient producing research.

Really teaching worldwide acupuncture and especially oncology acupuncture help in then I’ll talk a little bit more about teaching. So if you look at this research, what they, if you look at it poisoned, they choose. So they choose do 20. So this is more related to the. The city St. John, this is four points around two 20, so also relates to the Shen, relates to the mind, do 24 chanting.

This one, especially relate to the Shen, but also other points to strengthen the cheeky, like stomach that is six, the strengths and the kidney three, kidney four and gallbladder 39. Interesting point because it works on their domain, but more on them. Because it’s the viewpoint for marrow. So you sees a kind of interestingly designed combination that treats all the different facets and aspects of.

Cognitive impairment in patients. We are more focusing on the cancer patient that obviously some of these ideas are relevant to other people who have cognitive impairment. So in this research, they did the whole battery of questions, and this is like the different questions to. The cognition of the patients and they check the BDNF in the serum of this patients perceive the difference between the real droop grid group and the control group of this cancer patient BDNF by itself is very interesting factor because it’s it is secreted by the narrows and it is a significant component in the synaptic pluses.

So it’s secreted, eh, primarily in the brain, but also in other areas. And it’s been very, a recognized biomarker to show cognition and the higher the numbers. The more you can find in this. The better the condition is, and the whole idea of checking biomarkers, I’ll discuss also, it’s very interesting to monitor the effect of acupuncture.

And this is just to do as BDNF. It’s been evaluated in the huge range. Disease from depression, outsider, Parkinson, and think tone disease. And again, as they say, the higher, the BDNF level, it shows the better cognitive function, even in also bipolar disorders and others. So there’s a lot of reference to the relationship of the BDNF levels in the serum.

And. So in this study, they had this two groups, the control and the real group, and this were the results. Very interesting and promising cause they look both on the questionnaires and they show that they could commit cognitive functions were ameliorated in the acupuncture. They also showed that the serum BDNF level was elevated.

And if you compare it before and after treatment, and there was a very strong correlation between both. So people who scored more on the test also had a higher BDNF level. So you can see, again, the relationship between somebody is scoring well on tests and the BDNF. And this was compared to the control group.

The 10, no. Before treatment and after if you compare it to the acupuncture group. So the conclusion was that acupuncture is effective therapy in the treatment of cancer related cognitive impairment. And this was in breast cancer patient. And the mechanism may be related to this release of BDNF for activating neurons in the brain.

I was quite surprised to see more and more studies related. Yes, acupuncture studies related to biomarkers. And here’s specifically when we talk about cognition related to BDNF, this is like a hard core, very promising evidence. It’s not subjective, it’s not objective biomarker that you can also monitor it later on after even few months or a year.

Here is another study that was done with a bigger, eh, number of participants, 160 participants. It wasn’t just not just focused on cognition, but also on sleep problems. And it was a comparison between the insomnia comparison between as psychological intervention. And acupuncture and randomized trials.

So very good trial and again, published in cancer. And again, there was acupuncture was significantly increasing the BDNF level and had a positive effect on cognition. Recently, there’s going a big trial. Then you can see the clinical trial. Golf a registry on the effect of acupuncture and cancer related cognitive difficulties.

And so I believe in few years we will see a larger tries and focusing on different aspects, both biomarkers and other aspects to show the effect. And it’s a very promising effect of acupuncture on this very serious condition. And it goes far more than effecting cancer patient. It also talks to. People who have other disease, like Alzheimer’s et cetera, that have a commissioning permit and that is study.

And I’m just going through the studies, not just to talk about this topic, but to show also where research is going. And and I think this is what will happen in the next few years. We’ll see more and more stuff. On specific topics and at the studies will be very rounded with checking different aspects, including different biomarkers.

They chose the efficacy of acupuncture and also the sustainable efficacy from some studies, biomarkers I’ve been following followed for few months, half year and sometimes longer. And there’s a difference between groups not in cognitive and other studies in. This is a very small study to real pilot study of gynecological cancer survivors that demonstrated a lower neurocognitive performance and lower structure.

Also a connective compared to healthy controls. The reason I’m showing this study is just really to give the idea of where the breakthrough new acupuncture research is going. So this was a pilot study, but they look at more aspects, both on biomarkers. They looked at what people like different questionnaires, so like a subjective subjective objective measurement, but also even the structure in the brain.

So in this respect, it’s a kind of very innovative study because they also look at the structure itself. If acupuncture can affect this. The led the occupant trees use different points, as you can see, all of them are in the head. In my opinion as an acupuncturist, we are missing the diagnose, the part, we don’t look anymore in the efficiency’s access.

We don’t look at the, do my, we don’t look at the way acupuncture can affect the marrow, the brain. We’re more looking at the points that potentially can increase cognition or brain function, but still the points are selected that are known. So again, we have cecinct and

like the four points around do 20 we have in tongue and young points on the head. We have a gallbladder eight, so we have gallbladder points too, that can have an effect and can increase. How would they like what to just go bloody nine personally? But gallbladder 15 gallbladder, 20 blood AGV, 20 stomach eight.

So they let the acupuncturist choose a point. According to their preferences, to the patient. As a it’s a pilot study, that’s very few people in each group. They did it twice a week for 30 days. And they followed that they did from four to six kind of cycles of treatments and then seconds per patient, 10 sessions per patients.

So as I said, very small group, eventually three in each group. So it’s a pilot of pilot, but the results are interesting because they also look at three different li. Parts of checking the difference in the patients between the treated one and the control group. So they look at the, again, neurocognitive tests and they look at the multimodal MRIs.

So it was more in MRI checking there, especially changes in the structure of the brain and they look here at the different BioMarin then. And they, the NAA, which is a game then kind of neural marker that have a correlation to a neuron density neuron function. And it’s a lot of the markers that can be checked also for cognition.

And when they looked alone in this very pilot study, they said that there is a different in the intimate, micro, structural, white matter in the brain. It was lower than in the healthy control group. When they look at the NAA, the, again, it’s specifically the left hyper Calamus. We won’t go into areas in the brain.

They compare and see that there is a again, results in difference between. Healthy controls. He was the controls were healthy to the cancer patients. This is what they’re looking at, the micro structure and really the reason I brought this very pilot studies to show that they’re trying to compare.

Acupuncture and the effect of acupuncture in disrespect on cancer patients compared to the healthy patient, also assessing cognitive function and looking at structural of the white matter in the brain and to look at different kinds of biomarkers and property. It was the NAA before the BDNF. So this is a very interesting way to assess acupuncture and I believe we will see more and more.

Future studies that have different aspects of checking the efficacy of acupuncture and. And I think this will be a great breakthrough, especially for the skeptics, because if you affect biomarkers or if you affect structure, it tends to an impact which is much greater than any subjective effect.

And especially in areas where Western medicine is very little to offer. For cognitive factors, There’s merely nothing that Western medicine can offer. So it’s, I’ve seen really by now hundreds of constipation, and I know the effect and sometime the effect is almost immediate. People will come up after our acupuncture treatment, constipation was saying, oh my head is not fogging anymore.

I can concentrate. I can read. I came from the treatment and I started reading books, which I’ve read for the last few months. So it’s also very fulfilling for us as an acupuncturist. And I think research especially this type of kind of innovative research will be very Supportive and will strengthen the effect of sending people for acupuncture, especially cancer patients.

As I say before, I’ve been heavily involved over the last years in both treating cancer patients, doing a lot of research publishing more in herbal medicine but also teaching oncology acupuncture Luckily through the zoom I can sell around the world. It was also before, but I have to travel more.

Now we have really people from four continent graduating from this course and having a lot of huge international companies. More than 500 people who can just share their experience. And as we know for cancer, there’s no borders. And also for acupuncture and teaching, there is no bones. If you’ll be interested in the program like this, you’re welcome to check it out.

And and I hope any way that you will find this information in ideas, very useful, as I say, because they’re go beyond just treating constipation, but any other patient.

I would like to thank you very much for watching this show. I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for putting up this show. Next week there is a Sam Collins, so we are welcomed to watch it, and I wish you all the best of health and healing. Thank you very much

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Astrology as a Branch of Chinese Medicine

 

 

I don’t know if you knew this as a practitioner, that astrology is a branch of Chinese medicine. Oftentimes we think about Chinese medicine as just being acupuncture…

Click here to download the transcript.  Click here to learn your Chinese Zodiac!

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hello and welcome. My name is Tsao-Lin Moy. I am a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with a brick and mortar office in Union Square in New York city. I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for putting these Facebook lives on for your education and for your. Today we will be talking about astrology as a form of Chinese medicine and I hope you’re going to find it very interesting.

I find it very interesting and it’s a great way to talk about Chinese medicine that people also get very interested in. And okay. So we’re going to go to the first spot. I don’t know if you knew this as a practitioner, that astrology is a branch of Chinese medicine. Oftentimes we think about Chinese medicine as just being acupuncture, herbs TuiNa or bodywork.

Food lifestyles, some cheat gong, meditation but also something like functions way is also the art and science of placement. And we look at cosmology. And so here we have a quote, heaven is covered with constellations earth, with waterways and man with channels. And this comes from the yellow emperors classic, the Suez nudging.

And we know that was somewhere 300. BC or older. And so please if you are interested in this, definitely make comments, ask some questions. Okay. And next, okay. So let’s do a movement of cheap. So for over 3000 years, the Chinese Zodiac calendar has been used to predict the future to influence businesses, marriages, wage wars.

Predict how good the crops were the health and the prosperity and the ancient times, right? Even older than probably 3000 years. And still today, it is a very popular looking at astrology, looking at the celestial movements. And this is because they offer insight. And another view of these forces from heaven, from.

Outside of the earth outside of us. And that actually influence us as we’re going through life. And w as a full moon can actually change the levels of the seas and also bring out intense emotions and transformation. We even have a full moon. There’s certain flowers that bloom only in the full moon.

So you also may know when this is going on, you might not feel like yourself. Sometimes I call this like werewolf people feel that way aggressive and Anxious. And we can forget also mercury retrograde, which is something that we’re actually in right now where it creates a lot of chaos with communication.

So if you’ve been finding, I don’t know, your Instagram got hacked like myself or a messages aren’t getting through, or all kinds of interruptions of this is in part to mercury in retrograde, at least that makes you feel better that, it’s going to pass. So it is the stars above us govern our conditions, this quote from Shakespeare from king Lear and we’re looking at the 16th century.

So even then in the west, there was this association of what is going on in the stars that is actually affecting us.

And this is actually a small video that has a chose moving. It might not be moving here. But it’s actually, as the earth is turning, we’re looking also outside in the cosmos Things are shifting all the time. And we love to look to the stars for all different kinds of answers. And, we’ve got the Hubble, we’ve got all of these huge telescopes looking for life on other planets.

And of course we are continuously moving through space as a galaxy.

There we go. Awesome. This is where we’re looking at a strong enemy versus astrology. So the definition of astronomy is the scientific learning of planets and other celestial objects to study their origins, interrelationships and future movements. Who knows why we’re doing, but why we want to know all this information, if it’s not going to affect us.

Astrology is also the astrology. Different is considered a pseudoscience that’s in the west, and that uses the scientific movement of the planets and stars to divine, meaning and significance in people’s lives. And the question that I have is does this mean that natural science. Has little meaning or significance in our life?

I don’t think so. I think we, we already know that we have issues with climate change. We’re concerned about solar flares what that is going to do for us and how that is going to affect us. We can say that it’s, I don’t think it’s superstition. I think that’s actually really called scientific.

And it affects us.

So a little bit about the Chinese. Okay. Great. So this is an intro. You might know some of this the Chinese Zodiac is part of Chinese medicine is composed of 12 animals, Zodiacs that are paired with one of five elements. That’s the earth metal water, fire, and wood. And these, we know in Chinese medicine as the five elements, as we’re looking at in terms of diagnostics, The 12 Zodiac animals, the rat, the ox, the tiger, which we’re in, we’re going into the tiger rabbit.

In some other Asian cultures might be considered a cat, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep slash goat monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. So the Chinese Zodiac is based on a lunar calendar. Each lunar year, we’ll also have an elemental cycle that rotates. So the 12 year cycle actually follows Jupiter’s orbit around the sun, which takes about 11.8 years.

And this is why we’re always moving when the new year is. And this difference differs from the Western astrology, which follows a approximately four weeks. 4.2 week cycle. And most people, when they think of astrology or Zodiacs, they’re really thinking about, things like a Libra or a Scorpio or a Capricorn.

So there are also fixed elements in the five elements that are associated with the Zodiac sign and those represent in terms of meaning young character. And as we know in Chinese medicine or it’s really, or. Looking at the balance of union young, we always look for that dynamic force and how that plays out in terms of character and personality traits.

In addition, each year is going to have an element, one of the five elements that changes, therefore the year has a Zodiac sign and an elemental site. And there are 12 five cycles of 12, which means you go through 60 years before you returned back to the original Zodiac and elemental. Now Zodiac signs are an indication of the planetary energies you were born under, but not only born under, but also we’re influencing your development in the womb, right?

Because you’re floating in water. And this is considered that prenatal G not just what you were getting from your parents, but also as you were developing, there were actually a cosmic forces at play.

Okay. So this year is the lunar year also known as coming up as the spring fence festival in Chinese medicine. Over 2 billion people actually celebrate Chinese new year or this spring festival. And that’s 25% of the world population. Now the new year is going to be starting on February 1st. And for those that are born after February 1st, it will be the year of the tiger and the element is going to be.

So here are the two parts make up the Zodiac need to be, they need to find harmony and balance and understanding the nature that these forces help will help you navigate. For a prosperous new year. There will be, the year of this year is the year of the water tiger. So the water element will have a powerful influence on all of the Zodiacs and also then the year of the tiger characteristics.

Okay. Health and wellness and abundance and the tiger year. So here, we’re going to look at first the water element because of that is going to be in, in my opinion. And what I’m sensing also is that the water is going to have a huge impact more so than previous years. It is the element of. And the water properties allow it to be solid liquid and gas, meaning that it can transform, adapt and move.

It is a powerful force that can also be very destructive. As we’ve seen with floods and tidal waves. But it is also necessary for life. 71% of the earth surface is covered by water and the human body is over 60% water. So water is actually part of our physical and biological makeup. And water also, as it’s representing the yin, the dark, the cool and the feminine, the stillness water element in Chinese medicine is also related to the bladder and kidney.

In Oregon’s and meridians, I’m going to put like more Meridian, Oregon for the new year. The theme be like water, go with the flow. Don’t fight against the current because they can drain your energy and life force. Excuse me. And in this case, we’re talking about the GI and referring to the kidney essence.

And in Chinese medicine, draining that kidney essence, the DJing is really akin to the adrenals and those that those actually sit on top of the kidneys. So really we got to look at not burning ourselves out.

So the next is the next part of the Zodiac is the tiger Zodiac. And that is young and natures. So here we’ve got yang. The character is very courageous, very bold action-oriented they tigers are independent thinkers and can be very impatient waiting to leap in and to take control of a situation.

They have a straightforward nature and are able to really focus on a goal, very tenaciously once they sink their teeth in and claws, there’s really no turning back. And this will be important to really balance that impetuous nature. And the young energy of the tiger when making big decisions about life and career.

So you need to like, look before you leap into a turbulence. See, now we actually can see in some like a tiger mom, that’s always used a tiger mom. Really will fight for her children, push them for perfection. And on the one hand, That’s really good to, to have that support. And then on the other hand, if it’s too much, then it has a very destructive nature.

And then the tiger Zodiac, as I talked about earlier, has a fixed connection to an element. And that is actually the wood element and that embodies those characteristics of beyond that very strong, upward kind of movement that springtime movement.

So looking at the health forecast for 2022. So if we can look at the Zodiac as a. Ancient personality test, Chinese medicine. And here I’m going to is often met with skepticism and even called something like a pseudoscience, because it includes a lot of practices that might be considered spiritual.

We’re looking at the whole, we’re looking at the entirety of your health and also the forces that may be influencing it beyond what we can see in this more physical realm. As an aside, it’s our job to educate the public on how this can benefit them. And speaking to your patients or anybody who’s really interested this could be a very nice introduction into Chinese medicine.

And we also have to educate ourselves as practitioners to not think of just treating and helping people as a. Again earlier, oh, it’s acupuncture or to just herbs. And to not think that we’re separate from the environment or even the celestial movements that are at play. So we need to really check our own prejudices and superstitions around these practices that are considered outside a monotheistic idea.

And I actually, so this is something I created a quiz. And later on, if you want the transcript of, for this talk, there’s going to be a link to it. You just need to text needle 7 1 4 3 3 2 6 9 2 6. It’ll be later. And I’ll repeat that after too. So if you want to take the quiz that I made, there’s going to be a link to it.

So both young and young are part of the Zodiac and are actually are divided into the yin and yang dominance. So I made the list. The young, the more young, predominantly young signs are the monkey, the tiger, the rat, the horse, the dragon, and the dog. They also have yen in them. The in signs are more rooster rabbit, pig, snake, ox, and go.

Acupuncture chow channels as celestial maps. So earlier in the first slide, there was that quote from the sew-in aging that was talking about, how the channels are there maps on humans and, We didn’t really touch on this. When I was in school, it was glazed over somehow missed the aspect of the the cosmology or the astrology aspect of Chinese medicine.

And so this is, part of what. Mentioning earlier that in our education, there’s all of this idea of like things being separate. And then we have to make those links. The links are already there. So the challenge, the channels, the Meridian channels are actually named according to their degree of yin and yang.

So we go back to yin and young we’re we’re back to the time claw. So as we know, there is the Ty young zone or the meridians called Thai young shall young Ming. And then we’re looking at tie in, shall she weigh in? And all of these terms actually describe phases and positions of the sun.

So we’ve been using these meridians and strategies with maybe not making a connection to, what the larger picture is, the universe picture of actually our health and this is also the clock describes our circadian biology, biological clock that relates to day and night and also seasonal.

So of like how we are in a different seasons, which has to do with the Earth’s orbit around the sun. And so we already know we, we treat preventatively in the summertime for, so that will be strong or it will have really strong lungs in the fall when that is going to be more of the time of the metal element and more susceptible to like cough and cold.

You’ve already been doing it and you didn’t even know it. So here I created a chart that like looks at what the Zodiac sign actually is correlated with the different meridians. So for instance, the tiger is associated with the law and that’s the metal element. And according to the time clock, this is the more yin, even though tiger is set itself is young, but in terms of it gets very confusing, right?

It can be, there’s always the yin and the yang aspect of it. So this chart is going to be available in the transcript. So I’m not going to read through. To read through it, but I think you’ll understand how this is how this works right. As a practitioner. And then you can look into it a little bit.

And then here is the chart of the five elements where we look at the wood, the fire, the earth, the metal and the water. And what is coordinated with the different planets. We’re looking at Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and mercury. When you, the points that are considered from the DJing points to the hussy points, they are also known as the antique points.

Those are all really correlated with different planets and planetary movement. This is an extremely in-depth. Study into, astrology the Zodiac and how you might use it with acupuncture points. As we know that some practices they’re going to treat the long at 3:00 AM, or, treating different times during the day or during the night and using certain points that’s not really so convenient in the way that we practice.

But and I don’t know if anybody still practices that way. But that is a thing. Maybe not so much used, but you never know, maybe we need to investigate it. Definitely. Okay. Hopefully you’re gonna be more interested. You can contact me. Maybe you want to do a study group. I find this is becoming more and more fascinating as how it relates to how we practice our medicine.

So here’s the question. Did you really know about these deep connections before? I really. I didn’t know as much as I know now, as I was studying and putting together something for mindbodygreen and writing about astrology and making it digestible. And how does it relate to Chinese medicine that we really need to make those connections?

So I want to learn much more and hopefully you do too.

So here’s a picture of the Milky way. And we are a thousand years ago, or 2000 years ago, the position of our galaxy was not the same. So we are always in a process of shifting and moving. If. One thing that I think about is like with science or astronomy, is the idea that we’re in a fixed point and the we’re looking at the stars from a fixed point.

And that is a really in a way, a very old way of thinking that during the middle ages was that they thought that the earth was at the center and the sun was rotating around. But the fact is that we are also at we’re constantly. In some orbit, a smaller orbit of a greater orbit, and we’re actually moving, moving through the universe.

And so there are so many more, forces at play. The only way we really. Can understand where we are is to look at our environment and observe the different changes that are happening and how does that relate to us? And so we’re always looking for something to be predictable. Which is not so easy, right.

But these ancient practices or really about observing and using them as a way for longevity, promoting health and wellness, and really being connected to more than just what was in front of us, but to our communities. So I hope you enjoyed the presentation and next week we’re going to have Virginia Doran.

She’s going to be hosting another interesting topic for you. And I’d like to thank again, the American acupuncture. If you’re interested in a transcript of this presentation, you just need to text needle. That’s N E D L E two, the number’s 7 1 4 3 3 2 6 9 2 6. And thank you for listening and please make comments and contact, and I hope that you’re going to go and take the quiz and give me some feedback how you liked the quiz.

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The State Of The Union Address For Marketing Your Practice In 2022

So today what I want to do is I’d like to talk about the state of the union of dress for marketing your practice in 2020. But before I move on, I want to remind you all of something very important.

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.  Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hi there folks. Jeffrey Grossman from Acupuncture Media Works, Acudownloads and Acuperfect websites. I am thrilled to be here in a new year and supporting. The knowledge, the education around growing your practice and marketing and busy building up your business savvy. Thank you AAC. For once again, inviting me back to provide some insights and inspiration for marketing your acupuncture practice.

So today what I want to do is I’d like to talk about the state of the union of dress for marketing your practice in 2020. But before I move on, I want to remind you all of something very important. The world needs you now more than ever. I’ve talked about this before I talk about this. Every time I come on and do a presentation for the AAC, because you are an incredible resource.

You’re professionally trained. You can heal a person’s body, their mind, and their spirit. You are literally. The epitome of what a natural healer is, all about immunity, about natural remedies, you know how to transform illness into vitality. You preach good health through good free flowing, balanced G.

And this. Medicine and you, the work that you do, the work that you provide is powerful, and you do all of this by activating the vital force of every patient. You come into contact with, that’s all natural drug-free solutions. People need you, they need what you’re offering. They’re looking for advice for your help and they need your services.

Many people don’t even know that you exist, let alone, that you can help with just about every element under the sun. But I want to help you change that. You can start to position yourself as the go-to acupuncturist in your community, but you need to understand four fundamental things about what you do.

Fundamental thing. Number one. You wear the hat of a healer. Awesome. You are great at that fundamental thing. Number two, you also wear the hat of an entrepreneur that my friends might not be the best hat that you wear because you weren’t really given the tools that you need to grow your practice when you’re an acupuncture school, but you were given all the tools to be the incredible healer that.

Fundamental thing. Number three, is that you also wear the hat of a superhero in your community and fundamental thing. Number four is that you are. The CEO of your business. And I’m gonna talk about that and prove that to you in a second, you take all the duties, all the responsibilities that any CEO does and you wear all the hats that any CEO does.

So I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. Let’s see how many of these questions actually pertain to you. Mark them on a piece of paper with each one of these. You resonate with, are you responsible for leading your practice and making major decisions for it? Are you the figurehead of your practice when communicating with any type of government entities or any insurance entities or even the general public, do you lead the development of your practices long and short-term strategies?

Do you manage overall operations and make major decisions affecting your practice? Do you manage your practices? Resources? Do you negotiate or approve agreements and contracts for your practice? If you’re like most acupuncturists that I’ve worked with over the years, you’ve probably checked off most, if not all of these traits and these traits, my friends are the traits that CEOs incorporate into their business.

So by that nature alone, I know that you signed up to become an acupuncturist, but you also now are the CEO of your own practice. So congratulations for your. Round of applause. But here’s where you are, right. You own a business, you make money and you have responsibilities. So that’s why it’s really important for you to think about these CEO questions and not to just think about them once a year.

It’s important to reflect on them, monthly, weekly, and even daily. So my hope for you is that you become prepared after today’s talk and you start thinking like a CEO, because you’re so good at thinking and behaving like a healer and that you embrace a new marketing mindset. And of course, That you continue to change this world.

One person, one needle at a time. Okay. So now let’s get into this state of the union address for marketing your practice in 2022. Like I said, a couple minutes. People need you. But the unfortunate part is that many people may not even know what you do, how you can help and even what you actually offer.

Okay. So here’s a little exercise that you can do today. When you get back into your clinic and ask your patients, this one question, patient, this is what you ask them. So if you were at a party and someone asked you what your acupuncturist does for you or what they could help. What would you say? And then sit back and wait for the answer.

You might be very surprised about what kind of answers you get it. If you get something like, I don’t know. I lay on the table, they rub some alcohol on my skin and Pokemon some needles and I leave there feeling. If that’s the answer that you get, you may not be doing enough to properly educate and prepare your patients to send referrals your way.

And the reason I’m illustrating this point is that you’ll know how good your patient education process is. Or are not. And the goal would be to have your patients answer a question like this in a convincing and compelling manner that can stimulate the wow factor with who they’re talking to and ultimately drive referrals into your practice.

Most likely more, your patients will miss this ability to really share what you do and what you offer and how you can help other people. So the thing I want to get across here is that patient education is key to creating a stable and long-term practice. And this is the exact reason why I founded acupuncture.

Media works in 2002. 20 years ago is because patient education is a key and it’s important for creating a foundations of your practice. But today patient education comes in many forms. It comes in email, it comes in tele-health, it comes in brochures. It comes in handouts. It comes in social media, it comes in text messaging and so on.

So every time. You are with your patient every time they step into your clinic, or when they see your profile on Facebook or Instagram, each of those times should be about furthering their knowledge about who you are, what you can treat and what’s in it for them. And this brings me into my first point of this state of the union for marketing, for acupuncturist, which is crafting a clear and concise message for what you do.

Is one of the foundations for your marketing moving forward. And what I mean by this is who are you? What do you offer your community through your work? What benefits will your patients receive? How will their lives be different after seeing you? What is your unique selling position that makes your stand, you stand out from your competition and why should a prospect choose your.

Over another. And these are all important questions to answer. Even though times have drastically changed over the last 24 months. These are still part of the core marketing and business concepts that any successful practice or business needs to connect with. So one of the first things I want to get across to you is that your core message.

It’s going to be the center of all of your marketing activities. And let me ask you this. Do you have answers to the questions that I just rattled off? If not, I suggest that you start thinking about them and filling in the blanks, or you can join me in my upcoming, create your core message workshop, and you can do that by reaching out to me after this at Jeffrey J E F R E Y at acupuncture, media works.com.

If you’re interested in learning more about. Create your core message workshop. And I’ll send you some information about that. So becoming on-point with your message will be the foundation, or rather should be the foundation of all of your marketing strategies moving forward. And if I were wager to bet, I’d have to say that most of you.

I don’t have answers to the questions that I just talked about. And that’s the first thing that needs to happen in this new year is to get clear and concise with crafting your message. And I don’t mean, hello, my name’s Jeffrey M and I’m an acupuncturist and I can help. What you need is something like one of these examples that when you’re talking with you about here’s example, number one, too many people struggle with pain and injuries.

We provide effective treatment that allows you to perform well in the. Sports and work without pills, surgery, and high costs, or this one we offer unique and individualized evaluations to treat injuries with cupping and acupuncture. So they, our that our practice members can go out when their next race and feel great.

Or this one, which is the acupuncture media works one-liner, which is most acupuncturists don’t like marketing and have no idea how to bring in new patients. We offer a riot, a wide range of business marketing and website solutions. Connect with more customers grow their practice and make the world better.

That is, these are clear and concise messaging of four different businesses. And I encourage you to get this done because you need this. You need a core message and the state of your practice depends on. The next thing that I want to get across to you, that’s important to do this year is finding clarity on who your target audience is and who your patient avatar is.

Okay. And in marketing, focusing on defining your target audience and your patient avatar is essential for practice growth yet it’s often a fundamental step in branding that practitioners missed. Although many practitioners wish that they could just help everyone that walks in. And I totally understand that it’s essential to accept that you can’t help everyone.

There’s only so many hours in the day and you may already be on tight, a tie on tied up tight on time. And that’s why identifying your target audience as a practitioner is an incentive step in the development of a successful marketing strategy. Not knowing your target audience can end up costing you a lot of money and time and make, all of your marketing efforts seem really frustrating.

So here are three frequent marketing errors that are made as a result of. Just not having a clear idea on who your target audience is. So when you don’t have your target audience clearly defined, it can result in one of these following problems that you have a marketing plan that speaks to everyone’s linked.

But it really connects with nobody. You could be a practitioner who tries to appeal to everyone, but you end up appealing to nobody. Or you can be a practitioner who spends way over their budget in an attempt to reach everyone, but that you really reach your ideal customer. So getting clear on your target audience refers to a group of potential prospects that you want to provide products and services for.

And in healthcare industry practitioners aim is to bring in more patients and grow their practice. So marketing efforts that simply. To reach anyone anywhere are pretty unlikely to produce repeatable success so carefully and precisely identifying your target audience is essential so quickly. How do you define your target audience?

There’s a couple of different ways to describe and hone in on the target audience. When it comes to defining this audience specifically for health and wellness marketing, there’s four primary categories that you should focus. Geography demographics, psychographics, and behavior, but to be successful and to stand out in an extremely competitive field, it’s essential that you take your marketing a step further than just defining your target audience.

From the areas that we mentioned, that you will also need to define who your patient avatar is. Okay. When it comes to your target audience for your practice, it’s time to come up with also your avatar. In other words, it’s time to imagine who your dream patient is. As I call it who’s your a patient, right?

And this patient avatar is a detailed profile of your dream patient. It focuses on one person and outlines everything about them and goes into great detail in depth. So think of your avatar as. A patient and not just your average patient, for example, your advertiser or someone that you want to be involved in their healing journey.

They’re high spending, they’re loyal, and they often give you great referrals to their friends and family members. Hopefully, some of you can imagine who your eight patients are and begin there with identifying your ideal patient because identifying your ideal patient and your target audience go hand in hand together.

So let me take this one step further and asked you, who do you work? If you specialize, maybe you offer fertility or sports medicine, for instance. Now these are two very different and distinct individuals in these groups. So if you’re dealing with somebody in fertility and dealing with somebody in sports medicine, you’re going to be communicating to them very differently.

Okay. These people are gonna be seeking different outcomes, and they’re going to need to be communicating about their care plan or what to expect or not to expect. And they’re gonna, you’re going to need to talk to them in a different way. So when you get. On how you want your community to perceive your clinic and your brand through your messaging.

You need to get clear on who your ideal patient is and who your ideal customer profile is. When I go through this exercise with my students and my coaching clients, we dig deep into this deep enough for them to actually visualize who their ideal patient is, and even come up with a name for them. But there’s no time for that.

Now I’ve got a bunch more that I want to share with you. So far you have to get your messaging right in this new. So you can attract the right patients and then you also need to come up with who your ideal customer profile is and who your ideal patient is. Okay. So moving on, the next thing is that you need to have an actual plan.

Yes. An actual mapped out real marketing plan and strategy, which is a roadmap to how you’re going to get from point a. To point B, how are you going to go about bringing in new patients? How will you be posting? Where will you be posting? What will you be posting? What will you be networking with? And at the end of today’s training, I’ve got a little special free gift for you that you’ll be able to download and use as part of your posting strategies.

So hang on a minute there. What is the patient process? When a patient comes in from visit one through visit 12 or through visit 20, what is your communication strategies? What do you messaging? Do you want to get across to your patients as they come through your treatment? How will you motivate and encourage your patients to continue care or even refer others?

So you can’t just assume that all of this is going to happen by itself because that’s called hope marketing, right? You’re going to hope that you’re going to get a referral. You’re going to hope that you’re going to get a new patient this week. You’re gonna hope that you’re going to make a bigger profit this year and you can’t spend four or six years learning about this amazing medicine and then opening up your clinic doors.

I hope that your schedule will fill up and that you hope that you’ll have enough money to retire on. So for this year, you need to map out your plan, come up with a strategy and actually implement it. Okay. So I want to get across to the fact that. Last thing once I get across to you is that your online presence is imperative for success.

And this should not be taken lightly as in yeah, I got a website. It’s great. I’m good. So let me ask you this. When someone gives you a referral to go see a doctor or a therapist, what’s the first thing you most likely do when someone refers a good restaurant to you? What’s the first thing you’re most likely to do?

You’re going to go online and Google it and check it out. You’re going to check out their website. You’re going to see how many reviews they got, how many testimonials they have in. Then from that, you’re going to make a judgment call as to whether or not you want to work with them or eat at one restaurant over another.

So having a compelling website that immediately lets that person know exactly what you can do, how you get help them and what their next steps should be. This is important to set up. Don’t do this now, but later on, look at your website and when you land on your website, can people immediately understand.

What you can help with what conditions you can treat. Do they understand how they can get in touch with you? Or is your website compelling enough to make people take action? Is there a clear path that they take when they get on your website? Is there a link to a free download to a report? Can they schedule a with you immediately or can they request a complimentary exam or do you want them to watch this video?

Not this video, but the video on your website, but when someone hits your site, you’ve got just a few questions for them to say, yeah, I don’t want to see Jeffrey. I understand that he could help me. So part of this is that your website needs to be mobile ready and filled with eat content, right?

So eat content stands for expertise or third nativeness and trustworthiness. And this is vital to establish yourself and your brand as a trustworthy, reliable authority in your field. So you’ve gone to create content that positions you in that way, because. Like this eat content provides you with the authority that Google loves, and it helps you with your rankings.

So you can just set up your Google, my business. You need to have testimonials on your site. You need to have several calls to action. You need to have a clear, unique selling proposition that quickly and clearly sets you apart from the competition. Okay? So you are in the perfect position to change lives and this world in order to do that, People need to know that you exist and what you can offer them.

So today I hope that I helped elevate your business savvy and your CEO mindset and help position you for the state of what you need to do this year in order to achieve some of the practice accesses that you want. Make a real. Come up with a strategy that taps into your superpowers, create your message.

And you’ll be able to change the world. One person, one needle at a time. People need you. So I hope that you received Andrews and inspiration that you needed today. And I want to encourage you to reevaluate your plans. And if you need a fresh perspective, let’s start with a free 15 minute mentoring and discovery call.

You can if you’re interested in one of these mentoring calls, just shoot me an email that says, yes, I’m interested in a mentoring and discovery call. 15 minutes. Absolutely no charge. I’m not going to sell you anything. Send me an email, a Jeffrey, J E F R E Y at acupuncturemediaworks.

Also. I’ve got this free gift that I want to share with you. I want to put it up on the screen. It’s in time for the Chinese new year. We’ve put together a token of our appreciation for all. Congratulations. Yes, it’s the crowds that’s cheering for everyone. So we’ve created a social media bundle that you can use to post on Facebook, Instagram, or email, or even uses text messages.

Just go to www.accumedia.us tiger 2022. Then you can grab the free graphics bundle right there. All right. You are awesome. Stay strong, change the world. One person, one needle at a time. We need you. All right. Stay beautiful. Next week, Virginia Doran is going to be here sharing some of her insights and wisdom through the AAC.

And thank you for showing up and being here. Talk to you soon.

 

Malpractice Insurance For Acupuncturists – Choosing The Right Provider

We will never get tired of reminding you that companies that offer malpractice insurance for acupuncturists do not have the same level of qualifications. There is always one that is ahead of the pack. Therefore, your goal should be to find that one – the best among the rest.

So, why should you be careful when choosing malpractice insurance for acupuncturists? Note that you want to find one that can protect your professional reputation, facility, finances, and other items pertinent to your acupuncture business – a lot is at stake; your money should not go down the drain. With that, consider the following during your search:

Policy features – this is one of the areas you should give substantial attention to; you should factor this into your overall criteria for selection. For instance, does it offer dual coverage? Supposing you are a licensed acupuncturist and, at the same time, a licensed chiropractor, does the insurance company provide insurance coverage for both under one policy?

Insurance coverage types – several areas need insurance protection when running an acupuncture business. Of course, malpractice liability coverage should be on the checklist. However, you also need professional liability coverage, workers’ compensation. So, make sure that your insurance provider offers protection for these areas.

The insurance provider’s reputation – of course, you should not only look at the insurance product itself. Check the company’s reputation as a provider of malpractice insurance for acupuncturists as well. Read their reviews and find out what other people think about the company. If negative reviews litter the company’s name, you have the reason to take extra precautions.

Acupuncturists served – another good measure of how good (or not so good) an acupuncture insurance provider is. How many acupuncturists have they serviced in the past? How about the number of satisfied clients? The number reflects the quality of their product and service. So, make sure you do some research about the company. Do not forget to ask around – those who have tried them in particular.

Online looking for a reputable provider of malpractice insurance for acupuncturists? Contact American Acupuncture Council today at (800) 838-0383.