The Luo Down - Fall Issue, September 2006
"A Special Vessel of Communication Between Channels"
Southwest Acupuncture College
Santa Fe & Albuquerque, New Mexico
Boulder, Colorado

In this issue:

College Assessment Project Brings Welcome Changes

The View from Boulder

Boulder Welcomes A New Teacher

Southwest Acupuncture College Students Respond to Tragedy

Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Clinic Begins in Boulder

Acupuncture College Annual Clinic Census

Fish Stories

Valuable Lessons

New Format of NCCAOM Exams

Albuquerque Campus News

Book Review by Giovanni Maciocia: “Taming the Tiger: Advanced Techniques in Oriental Medicine”

Alumni Outreach

Continuing Education Corner

College Assessment Project Brings Welcome Changes
by Valerie Hobbs, Boulder Campus Director and Project Leader

In January 2005, the college began a two-year Assessment Project. The project is the culmination of the college's continued participation in the work of the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, our national institutional professional organization and the work of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, our accrediting agency, as well as the commitment of the President, Executive Director and administrators and faculty at all three campuses.

The language of education is filled with terms that are at first as foreign to acupuncturists as were the terms we first learned about Chinese medicine. They seem like jargon at times. But these terms bring a more precise articulation of what we see as our educational mission and goals, how we intend to deliver it to our students, what our students can expect to gain from completing the program, and finally how we can measure that students really did learn what we set out to teach.

The Assessment Project set out to ask some basic questions:

- What do we need to teach?
- How do we need to teach it?
- How do we know that we have
taught it?
- How do we know that students
have learned it?
- How has that learning changed
the way a student acts profes-
sionally?
- What new values has the stu-
dent gained?

Over more than an eighteen-month period, all class content, learning objectives, student assessments (exams, projects, papers and the like), and evaluation of both class and student have been examined. Our learning objectives were examined in light of our educational goals and compared to the competencies that are set by both national and state accrediting agencies. We have now produced new class evaluations, new learning objectives, new clinical evaluations, and revised our Technical Standards for Admission, Promotion and Graduation.

We now have a set of Technical Standards that reflect both the educational goals of the college and the competencies set by our accreditors. Each student receives a learning objective listing that outlines for each class what we expect a student to know, what we expect them to do, and how this knowledge and skill should impact the values they demonstrate as a practitioner. Each student has clear expectations to meet to be successful in class and each instructor knows clearly how to promote excellence in the classroom. All of the knowledge, skills, and values gained in class are also now integrated into the assessment of clinical skills, that part of the education that has always been the life-blood of Southwest Acupuncture College's program. New assessments for clinic are based on both the Technical Standards and the class learning objectives. A student must actively demonstrate each clinical skill, which not only includes techniques, but also includes the critical thinking we expect of an independent healthcare practitioner.

What we have done in large part is to articulate long-standing practice. Our end goal is and always has been to provide excellence in education and to have that excellence reflected in the quality of our graduate practitioners.

Our larger goal is the betterment of the profession for the benefit of the patients who will come under the care of the practitioners we develop. We are part of a growing national trend towards maturity not only in our medicine, but also in our educational institutions. We hope the end result will be to instill an ethic for quality in practice in all our students.

Many faculty members at all campuses provided expertise in the process. I wish to especially recognize Boulder Faculty members Ted Hall, Jeffrey Chapman, and Laurel Lewis for their help in articulating the learning objectives. Boulder Academic Dean, Melanie Crane, lent her expertise in Higher Education. Boulder faculty member Debby Shapiro was instrumental in developing the clinical evaluations. Albuquerque Dean Bingzeng Zou and Albuquerque Campus Director Denise LaRosa as well as Santa Fe Dean Li Xu have all contributed. Finally, the project represents years of support by President Anthony Abbate and Executive Director Skya Abbate, not only during the final project, but also in their continued commitment for growth both in our campuses and nationally.

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The View from Boulder
by Valerie Hobbs, Boulder Campus Director

Boulder Clinic, photo courtesy of Keith Economidis

I get to, at times, sit on top of a really wonderful world. By that I mean, I have a unique opportunity to see and hear so many extraordinary things. Being around people who are becoming caregivers is just never dull, and often inspiring. I have begun as a teacher to expect students to be able to integrate material, and by golly, they do. And they are so smart about it. I see connections because of them that I could never grasp alone. I see an active clinic practice, with people of all ages, in all stages of living and, yes, some dying, that are aided and comforted and even indelibly changed. I see students who in the morning are struggling with being tested for the gazillionth time become absolute beacons of sweetness and concern for someone other than himself or herself by afternoon clinic. I recently walked by a student who so warmly greeted their patient that the entire clinic got a little brighter. Our faculty are absolutely driven people who give far beyond any semblance of their job description.

In the space of over eight years here, I have witnessed some remarkable souls pass through our doors. One of them will not be passing through, at least physically, and it is with regret that I inform our college community of the passing of Stacey Reiss, a December 2001 graduate, from a drug overdose. Stacey's family and co-graduates Martin Eisele and Deidre Julian graciously donated many of Stacey's books and his meticulous notes to our college library. Stacey's path was not a usual path, and he is remembered for his uniqueness. He loved the medicine and was quite an artist. His wire sculpture of an anatomical figure showing points and channels was one of the most amazing ways to really learn points ever seen.

On the other side of the world, James Heinritz, from our first graduating class in July 2000, married a woman from China, and is the managing director of a business concern in Beijing. During a visit earlier this year, James brought us an article from China Daily Magazine that details his new venture as the Development Director for the Dzogchen Brilliant Gem Philanthropic Hospital. The hospital is located in a valley 4,000 meters above sea level in Dzogchen, in far west Sichuan Province. The lamas at the Dzogchen Monastery built the hospital. Due to the high altitude and often harsh weather, the hospital is open only in the summer, and James is spear-heading the effort to bring western, Chinese and Tibetan doctors to provide integrative care, including dental and eye care. They were open briefly in August 2006 for initial set up and then expect to treat 700-800 patients from July to September 2007 and then extend to June to November in 2008.

We hear sporadic news of other graduates. James Shinol and Milard Roper, both 2003 graduates, are faculty members at the New York College of Health Professions. Deborah Skelton, also an alum from that year, has joined our staff in Boulder. Charlotte Rafter (Lavrinets) is happy and busy in Oregon. Marie Fossaceca has two children and is in Rhode Island. Lisa Lowe and Karen Marks have started a community clinic in Aurora. And so we are engaged in our lives and in our work. For some, the path was way too short, for some, extending beyond our most imaginative dreams. In all things I am left with a sense of amazement at the wonder of it all.

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Boulder Welcomes A New Teacher
Deborah Skelton, Dipl. Ac., Dipl. C.H., L.Ac., RN, Instructor

Deborah attained an Associate's degree in Nursing from Arapahoe Community College in 1987 and earned a Nursing Certification in Reproductive Endocrinology in 1993. She graduated from Southwest Acupuncture College with a Master in Science in Oriental Medicine in 2003. She has thirteen years experience in nursing including a surgical assistantship and as an In Vitro Reproductive Coordinator. She became a Reiki Master teacher in 2000. Deborah maintains a Reiki and acupuncture practice in Boulder, Colorado. She teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology 200 A/B and Reiki electives.

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Southwest Acupuncture College Students Respond to Tragedy
by Valerie Hobb, Boulder Campus Director

The mission of Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) has captured the imagination of Boulder students, and a fundraiser to assist the important work of this organization is underway!

AWB, formed in response to the urgent needs that arose after Hurricane Katrina struck, is an organization that speaks to the hearts of acupuncturists across the country, and to the Boulder student body of fledgling acupuncturists. As we pursue our basic foundational material to become professionals, we are inspired by the generous nature of those who've come before us in this amazing healing field. The acupuncturists who donate their time to AWB projects sacrifice their earning power in their home clinics and get themselves to the site(s) for a period of time as needed. From what I learned during a AWB presentation, hundreds of practitioners donated their time and services in the months following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, assisting thousands of residents, first responders, fire fighters, police, government and medical workers. Acupuncturists treated insomnia, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders with the NADA auricular protocol, and used additional body points to also work on many other health issues of physical, emotional and spiritual nature. AWB is going back to New Orleans to help the many people still feeling the effects of the tragedy, and is starting a new project to work with veterans returning from the Iraq war. This good work has inspired our student body to attempt a modest fundraiser in mid-September. We are securing two bands to perform, finalizing a venue, gathering donation items we can use for silent auction and door prizes, and food to share with people who attend our first-ever foray into fundraising while earning a master's degree! Our committee is dedicated and pushing hard until the first week of August, when we must focus back whole-heartedly on finals, graduation and break. After Labor Day, when we return to school, we will complete planning and gathering for the event, and hopefully raise a significant amount of cash to fund the purchase of supplies and other necessities that will help support the projects of AWB.

We would love to see the Santa Fe and Albuquerque campuses get involved in this effort, and respectfully suggest placing donation cans at your clinics so patients, students and staff can toss money and support into the fundraising effort. Any donations can go right to the AWB offices, which are located in Santa Fe. And no one in Boulder would say you were copying us if you decided to host a fundraising event at either or both of the campuses!

The concept of service is intrinsic to our medicine. As students, over-extended and tired as we are, anything we can do to support the service work of people in our profession is excellent practice for the work we will lovingly embrace in the future. Thank you for considering involvement in this service we at Boulder have undertaken.

(For more information email: colleenragan@hotmail.com).

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Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Clinic Begins in Boulder
By Michael Young, L.Ac., Boulder Campus

In May of 2006 the Boulder Southwest Acupuncture College Clinic began its first PTSD Clinic. Interns in the clinic were trained in treatment protocols for this disorder that I have developed based on an integration of Chinese medicine principles, auriculotherapy, relatively recent discoveries in neuroanatomy, and my clinical experience treating this often challenging condition for over the last 10 years.

As defined by the National Institute of Mental Health, PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Current estimates from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) are that “PTSD affects about 7.7 million American adults, but it can occur at any age, including childhood. PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to the exposure to combat experienced by war veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic events. Violent assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, child abuse, car accidents, muggings, and rapes are among the most common in our patients. PTSD can occur in the person who was harmed or experienced the threat of harm as well as loved ones of the victim (from witnessing or learning of the trauma) and even in strangers who witnessed the harmful event. Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men, and there is some evidence that susceptibility to the disorder may run in families. PTSD is often accompanied by depression, substance abuse, or one or more of the other anxiety disorders.

There are several major issues of relevance for the licensed acupuncturists in relation to PTSD. These include being able to recognize its warning signs and understand its role in mind/body illness patterns, knowing when a referral to therapists who specialize in PTSD treatment is in the best interest of the patient, and understanding the potential for acupuncture and herbal medicine to serve as an adjunctive therapy for this disorder.

The attacks of 9/11, the increased awareness of the threat of terrorist acts, and the U.S. led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have all led to increased prevalence and awareness of PTSD. About 30 percent of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD. Despite the large number of veterans that are returning home with this disorder, the most likely trigger of PTSD is still rape.This is complicated by the fact that for women only seven percent of all rapes are reported to police [Koss, Woodruff, and Koss, 1990. Statistics on Sexual violence Against Women: A Criminological Study] and patients will often not disclose the trauma to anyone, including their acupuncturist. For licensed acupuncturists recognizing the warning signs of this often disabling condition and being able to make appropriate referrals can have an enormous impact on patient outcomes. While it is not within the scope of practice for Colorado and New Mexico acupuncturists to diagnose this condition, because of the nature of our medicine, we often end up taking more thorough histories than other care providers, and as a result we are in a unique vantage point to recognize the symptoms of PTSD and know when a referral is appropriate to either confirm and treat it or rule it out. It is not necessary to know the specific trauma that triggered the PTSD in order to either treat it or refer out, and“pointed” questioning about the trauma(s) can easily trigger a recurrence of symptoms. On the other hand, through building trust and rapport with the patient and skillful use of open ended discussions, the patient will often use the opportunity to disclose the nature of their trauma with you when the timing is right for them, and this can be very therapeutic (several studies show that those who are able to disclose traumas to another person fare better than those who tell no one).

Recognizing PTSD in Our Patients
People with PTSD may startle easily, become emotionally numb (especially in relation to people with whom they used to be close), lose interest in things they used to enjoy, have trouble feeling affectionate, be irritable, become more aggressive, or even become violent. They avoid situations that remind them of the original incident, and anniversaries of the incident are often very difficult. PTSD symptoms seem to be worse if the event that triggered them was deliberately initiated by another person, as in a mugging or a kidnapping. Most people with PTSD repeatedly relive the trauma in their thoughts during the day and in nightmares when they sleep. These can include flashbacks and intrusive thoughts or images. Despite all of the emphasis on avoidance that is common with PTSD, there can also be manifestations of “compulsions to repeat the elements of the traumatic experience,” which Freud explored in depth in hisbook “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920). Appreciating the complexity of the disorder, and respecting the challenge that our patients with it face, is essential when working with those with a history of emotional or physical abuse who will, for example, often choose to stay in an abusive relationship despite “knowing” it is not healthy for them.

Treatment Protocol
The best results for PTSD patients occur when a team of practitioners is formed which includes a therapist who specializes in this disorder. While psychodynamic “talk therapies” are generally recognized as being limited outside of playing the role of education and support, several body-based therapies have emerged that are often reported to be helpful. These include (but are not limited to) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Experiencing, and Hakomi therapy. Of these, EMDR has been listed as an effective treatment by the American Psychiatric Association, Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, and numerous other agencies.

Research has shown that PTSD clearly alters a number of fundamental brain mechanisms and chemicals that mediate coping behavior, learning, and memory. Recent brain imaging studies have detected altered metabolism and blood flow as well as anatomical changes in people with PTSD (see NMHA website).

Acupuncture has become one of the most rapidly growing professions of the holistic or mind/body therapies in the U.S. While early research into its mechanisms of actions focused on its role in releasing neurotransmitters involved in pain perception, more recent research through the use of modern brain imaging done by Zang Hee Cho and others has shown that acupuncture has a regulatory effect on brain function that clearly transcends our previous models. The research to date indicates that at least part of the reason for the efficacy of acupuncture is through activating regulatory mechanisms that address the deep limbic system, or “emotional brain.” Dr. David Servan Schreiber lists acupuncture as one of his 7 healing methods for treating imbalances in the emotional brain, which have recently been recognized as having enormous outcome on all chronic illness. The hypothesis that acupuncture can be a powerful therapy for the limbic system is strongly supported by the rapid growth of auriculotherapy for treatment of drug and alcohol addiction (over 250 treatment centers in the US and UK have emerged within the last 25 years).

The protocol that I have been using to treat patients with PTSD with success is as follows:

1. Regulate Stagnant qi through the Du Mai, BL, and GB channels through either needling and/or Tui Na/Shiatsu.
2. Eight Extraordinary Vessel (EV) Treatment (based on extraordinary vessel diagnosis).
3. Japanese “Extra” EV Treatment (HT 5 with KI 6, PC 6 with LR 4) - most commonly the upper body points are sedated and lower body points tonified, but Akabane testing can be used to confirm.
4. Extrapooint Si Shen Cong, often in conjunction with DU 20.
5. Auriculotherapy points - The following commonly test as active; amygdala, hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal, Chinese heart point, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus, basal ganglia, master point 7, insomnia 1 & 2, shen men, as well as points on the posterior lobe (phase 4 for the brain in the French system). I generally select the most active points bilaterally from among these.
6. Once the needles are in place I will often then inject one ampoule of Traumeel into LI 11 and GB 21 (.5 cc dose for each point). It is then important for the patient to be able to rest with the needle in place, usually for at least 20 minutes.

Cautions/contraindications

Several cautions and contraindications are in order before using this protocol:

1. I essentially stumbled upon this protocol by integrating acupuncture and auricular therapy protocols of Dr. Miki Shima, modifying thembased upon my study of the correlates of the neuro-anatomical changes that occur with PTSD, and adding in the injectable homeopathic Traumeel
2. There appears to be a significant synergistic effect when the homeopathic Traumeel is injected after these body points have been placed. In some cases, patients have reported experiencing brief physical (and emotional) symptoms that are associated with the trauma. In the best-case scenarios this results in a discharge of the stress pattern; however, in some cases, this can trigger a reactivation of the trauma.
3. As part of this discovery process, while I have seen it help many people, I have also seen this protocol bring up unconscious contents including memories of previous traumas that had been long forgotten that can significantly exacerbate the patients condition if they do not have the adequate support mechanisms to absorb the information/experience. It is the practitioner's responsibility to do their best to make sure the timing is right for the patient, and in my opinion, at the minimum, a verbal informed consent is needed, especially before using the full protocol. Patients who have a reasonable level of stability in their life, good support mechanisms, etc. are more likely to be able to handle it successfully if something does emerge that is overwhelming.
4. Often it is better to start with only a portion of the protocol and then gradually build up to the full protocol if the patient responds well.
5. I do not recommend that this protocol be done on patients in the initial phases of recovery from alcohol or other addictions unless it is done in close cooperation with their therapist and sponsor. Like other forms of insight-oriented therapies, it can trigger relapses.

Resources:
National Institute of Mental Health Website (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/HealthInformation/ptsdmenu.cfm)
Deeper Pathways of the Web (Video Series), Miki Shima
Treating Psychological Trauma and PTSD by Wilson et. al.

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Southwest Acupuncture College Annual Clinic Census

In the 2005-2006 year, June - June, students at the three locations of Southwest Acupuncture College treated over 18,000 patients at the college clinics. As always, pain of the shoulder, back, neck, legs, knee and sciatica are major reasons for treatment. Stress, anxiety and fatigue continue to be treated as well. Clinics are booked 79% of the time in Boulder, 85% in Albuquerque and 95% in Santa Fe.

At the numerous off-campus externships in the communities in which all the colleges are located, several thousand patients are treated with much more chronic and serious diseases (see March 2006 issue of the Luo Down). Stress and post-traumatic stress, stroke, sequel to stroke and conditions secondary to acute trauma and surgery, such as hip and knee replacement surgery, are treated foremost, followed by pain, especially musculoskeletal pain as in the college clinics. All externships provide free treatments to patients through the auspices of the college.

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Fish Stories
by Dr. Skya Abbate, Executive Director

As I floated in the backyard pool and looked up at the damask blue sky, two puffy white clouds, enlarged a gillion times, frolicked in front of me, pale vestiges of my glorious betta fish. Behind me they rested to the right of the Sacred Heart, in a shallow grave marked by a pale red moss rock stone, Guardian Angel and Tahiti, united in life and death.

After over a year as companions in their shared but separate aquarium, having died one week apart from each other, my moody blues, as I sometime called my magnificent, gorgeous blue bettas, suffered no more but still play and dance in my head.

“Tahiti” named after a favorite vacation, and “Guardian Angel,” (everyone has one), even and maybe especially fish, were my loving pets who brought endless hours of joy to my life as I learned how to open my heart and care for these small magical creatures.

Perhaps that's why I loved them; they needed me and yet they didn't and I loved the life expressed in their gracious, excessive fins that flared in the exuberance of rituals when as males they teased and attacked and evoked life in each other.

Bought on a rare rainy day in Santa Fe when I was feeling a little down and walked into a pet store, never did I think I would emerge with two cornflower blue betta splendens that would change my life and enamor me of aquatic creatures.

Maybe it was the graceful flaring of their fins as they gazed at one another behind the fluted screen that necessarily separated them, lest they annihilate each other, or their casual acceptance yet indifference to their fluid habitat that seduced me, but morning coffee would never be the same. Conversation of dreams and the day ahead with my husband were now less important than how the bettas were doing as we relaxed in their sinewy trance and reluctantly tore ourselves away from their languid environment to go to meet the stresses and challenges of the day while they were left to flare and fight, feed and flirt acrobatically all day long.

I was a slave to their every whim and what began as a spontaneous purchase of $3.49 each escalated from bowls to tanks to aquariums, from gravel to real plants to silk ones, from shells to pagodas, from fish flakes, to pellets to brine shrimp, from stress coat, to declorinator to ph adjuster, to microorganism seeding and aquarium salt. Nets, isolation tanks, purified water containers, measuring cups and spoons, and volumes of fish care manuals took over my pristine granite kitchen as their paraphernalia proliferated. They required a lot of things and a lot of time and observation to learn their needs, habits and pathology and ultimately their life cycle.

After about six months, disease and algae slowly began to set in. Algae was easy to deal with as was the appropriately named ick (for ichthyophityrius), but as gill disease, mouth fungus, and frayed fins took their toll, appropriate aggressiveness and bubble nests decreased and the bettas retired to their Chinese pagodas flanked by the four stoic foo dogs. Now it was time to learn more about fish pathology and what happens when two beauteous creatures live in a small enclosure, subject to temperature changes, preferred eating habits and really just the life cycle itself.

Maracide, Maracyn, Maracyn-Two, Maracyn Plus, Tri-sulfa, Tetracyclaline, Amoxicillin, Metaflex, Betta-Fix - all these medications miraculously multiplied weekly and took over my one simple medicine shelf of Chinese herbs for sore throat, common cold and abdominal cramps.

Appropriately used, the disorders disappeared as quickly as they became visible. Fish pathology was challenging because the finicky fish couldn't verbally talk and so observation and study, study and observation, increased daily.
By Christmas, dropping temperatures and a pet sitter who lacked their trust led to their apathy and immune defense decline. When I retrieved them after my Christmas vacation they were only shadows of their former selves, shy and secretive, gasping for air, and murmuring lip to lip, mouth to mouth, “Help me, be with me, save me.” And it was always the Guardian Angel, bigger and more stable from the beginning, who kept watch over the delicate Tahiti.
Nirvana and Nervosa, I sometimes called them. Tahiti, Nervosa, though smaller, was high strung and aggressive, but the true beauty. Nirvana, bigger, calmer, with fins that followed him like a royal cape of angel wings, was ever on the lookout for his roommate.

With water changes, a tank heater, antibiotics and loving care, tears and prayers, they recovered to their natural glorious state. They still wanted to eat voraciously, greeting me every morning in the corner that had become associated with feeding. And they played and danced, exercised and wrestled through the grate in the morning hours after feeding and in the final half hour before I turned their lights off.

About a year later, illness invaded Tahiti. As his abdominal swelling increased and his deformity altered his body previously streamlined for swimming, his indomitable spirit lingered on. He wobbled and swayed; somersaulted and twisted, as he sought out air, food and companionship. He taught me so much about how a disease, even when it is terminal or alters the physical body, is just a disguise for the spirit. And so my tears for him shed nightly for his disfigurement, which was a sign of his suffering, increased, and yet, I could not love his beautiful spirit less.

Towards the end, as he grew larger and stopped eating for a month, it was clear in my stubborn head, that his demise was just a question of time. So I put the bettas together one last time. Previously, I had done this on two occasions during which they attacked each other with instinctual vigor. But this time, hoping to spark life, I observed unselfish love as Guardian Angel enveloped Tahiti who was shrinking in size as he starved due to encroaching tumors. For hours as I cooked supper and sang and talked to my beloved fish, Guardian Angel held Tahiti in his once majestic fins. After their aquarium water had been changed and balanced, I returned them to their palatial homes, with no gate evermore separating them. Guardian Angel rightly so went to Tahiti's pagoda and sheltered him.

Eating and dancing, anticipation of food and response to my beckoning ceased. Shortly after, Guardian Angel, who had now started to swell too, I found mouth agape and face uplifted to heaven outside Tahiti's home. His eventual, inevitable death stunned me in the morning. Exactly a week later, the nervous, vivacious, swollen and solitary Tahiti permanently emerged from the safety of his pagoda. His swelling had decreased. He no longer floated horizontally on the surface as he had for days following the Angel's death. Although still not eating, which at the point was not a good sign, he responded to voice, and with courage, persisted throughout the day and interminable night, waiting to be freed from his disfigured body, as he blinked his sad suffering eyes at me.

On the morning of his death, he jumped and contorted before us, no longer crooked and horizontal, just a smaller version of himself. We laughed at his nosedives into the gravel, hoping against hope he would miraculously recover. But
his final nosedive, forever etched in my brain, was his last, as he plunged his mouth into the gravel, his delicate, lacy gills rested, and his luxurious plumage raised upright and rigid in the tank like praying hands in surrender.

My grief over my pets still smarts, but I am comforted by the cessation of their suffering and the way in which their mischievousness made me care about life in it's simplest manifestation through sickness and in health.

I vowed I'd never get another betta but their graciousness was too magical and life changing for me. Their tiny spirits triumphed over my soul. So, two days later, I bought two magnificent ruby betta males, liquid fire in water, two halves of my broken beating heart. Smaller and younger than their blue cousins, and less than a week later, we are interminably bonded. I know more about fish pathology and aquarium chemistry now and that the eye of the heart can be opened, through joy, pain and suffering, and yearns to continue to do so.

As one wise philosopher said, “The heart is an organ of fire.” It is a fire we need to keep burning, despite the grief and the work of keeping it going. It is that inexhaustible fire that keeps us warm and alive and connected to the thread of life that weaves inextricably through the universe and connects all of life in its exotic, slippery, elemental and sacramental expression.

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Valuable Lessons
By Dr. Li Xu, Academic Dean and Clinic Director, Santa Fe Campus

“I treated FIVE patients in the Indian Hospital today!” a very excited student told me the other day. The “Indian Hospital” here is one of the externship clinics in Santa Fe - Santa Fe Indian Hospital Pain Clinic.

There are five externship clinics currently available at the Santa Fe campus. Community Health Clinic is held at Women's Health Center; Pediatric Externship Clinic is held at Reach Children School; Santa Fe Indian Hospital Pain clinic; St. Vincent Hospital Clinic; and the Santa Fe Care Center externship, which is a nursing home.

After summarizing the externship survey that I did couple of days ago, I found out most of the students appreciated the opportunity of being exposed to “the real life,” “the different clinical environment” and “the wider variety of patients.”
“Now I know how powerful auricular acupuncture is! I just put one needle in Shen Men on the woman who was waiting for the first interview in our clinic because we have so many patients to treat. She felt much better emotionally and smiled, and even fell asleep later on in the chair, which she had not done for a long time! I would never imagine this point was this powerful if I was not in this clinic.”

All students think the patient load in the externship clinic is ideal. “I usually have 3-4 patients to treat. I am happy to be busy and learn a lot.”

There is another question on the survey: What is the most helpful thing that you learned in your externship clinic? Here is an answer from a student who is currently in pediatric clinic. “It is a whole different world treating children, from pulse taking to the amount of pressure to use, how children dictate a treatment much more than the practitioner, to how quickly they respond. It seems to me that one has to almost be more present treating children just for the fact that it is easier to over-treat them.” I am so glad this student had a chance to realize this because this is an accurate observation. This is the goal of our education, isn't it?

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New Format of NCCAOM Exams
By Dr. Bingzeng Zou, Academic Dean, Albuquerque Campus

Effective June 2006 all NCCAOM testing must be taken via computer at Pearson VUE Professional Testing Centers. With more than 200 sites in the United States, candidates will have more flexibility in determining when and where they would like to test. A complete list of test sites is available on www.nccaom.org website. You now have the choice to schedule your exam(s) by selecting date(s) within a two-week time frame. You have the flexibility of either spreading out your examinations over a period of one or two weeks or taking your exams all at once. The content of the exams are the same as listed in the NCCAOM examination outlines for each examination module, as found in the NCCAOM Candidate Handbook, or on their website.

All candidates must be approved to register for testing by submitting all appropriate documentation (application, transcripts, etc.) to NCCAOM by the deadline. About one month prior to examination registration, a detailed letter will be sent to all eligible candidates that contain detailed test registration information from the NCCAOM.

All candidates must register with Pearson VUE. When registering, you will select the date(s), and time(s) for testing. Examination fees will be paid directly to Pearson VUE. You MUST pay using a credit card. After you have made your appointment, you will receive a confirmation letter containing your appointment date(s), time(s), and location(s). An appointment may be rescheduled or cancelled at least one business day prior to the previously scheduled appointment.

Your absences from classes or clinics for taking NCCAOM exams will be excused only if you make a copy of the confirmation letter to your teacher to show the time and date at the same slot of the class or clinic time, and will only be excused once.

Plan to arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled time. When you arrive at the testing center, you must have two forms of identification, and your registration letter sent to you by NCCAOM. Electronic fingerprints, signatures and photographs will be taken at the testing center. This is a standard procedure at all Pearson VUE Professional Testing Centers. You will be videoed and audio-taped during the examination.

You will be provided with an erasable white board to make notes. Prior to starting the exam, you will be asked to read and accept the terms of the non-disclosure agreement. You will have 5 minutes to accept the conditions. If you do not accept the terms within the allotted time, your session will end and cannot be restarted. You should try not to write down anything on your erasable white board (five shu point list, or other refreshing notes) during this time. Within five minutes, you MUST hit the agree button, otherwise you will not be allowed to take the exam.

All modules are multiple-choice. One question will appear on the screen at a time. Each question must be answered before you can move to the next question. You will not be able to skip questions. However, you will be able to review and change answers at the end of the test. Each question has a box in the upper left corner that can be checked indicating that you wish to review it at the end. At the end of the examination, you will have the option of reviewing only the questions you marked for review or all of the questions.

Next Exam Dates:

NCCAOM Exams		October 2-14, 2006
New Mexico State Board Exam		October 7-8, 2006
California State Board Exam		January 17, 2007

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Albuquerque Campus News
By Denise LaRosa, Campus and Clinic Director

The Albuquerque Campus news is one of growth and lots of activity. In becoming a very busy campus, classrooms are filled to the brim and clinics were booked six weeks ahead. The summer semester was packed with lots of studying for National exams, midterms and Clean Needle Technique. Of course, all work and no play would be dull and stagnant - so we had a couple of outside activities (Memorial Day picnic & bowling party) that gave much laughter and relaxation to all.

Also, during the summer semester, we experienced our sixth annual Vendor Fair event for our students which provided lots of free samples and valuable information for their future practices. We also had a very successful Open House that gave presentations and tours to over 25 interested prospective students with two of them applying that day.

Our amazing medicine is truly being noticed among many facets of our community - patients receiving valuable treatments, healthcare workers seeing the results of acupuncture treatments, as well as curious individuals seeking alternative methods of healthcare. It's a wonderful time to be involved in our medicine and creating such a healing atmosphere for ourselves as well as our community.

The summer ended with an exciting and well-attended graduation ceremony at the beautiful new Sandia Resort.

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Book Review by Giovanni Maciocia:
“Taming the Tiger: Advanced Techniques in Oriental Medicine”
By Skya Abbate, MA, DOM, Dipl Ac, Dipl CH

When comparing acupuncture to Chinese herbal medicine, it is often said that the latter is more difficult to learn and to practice. I tend to disagree. Acupuncture is probably more difficult to learn and to practice because it involves so many variables.

To give an effective treatment, there are certain steps that are common to both acupuncture and herbal medicine, i.e.:

• A correct diagnosis (whatever system or
  type of Oriental medicine is used.)
• A correct treatment principle
• A correct choice of treatment.

With herbal medicine, if the diagnosis and treatment principle are both correct, the prescription practically picks itself because of the close identification of treatment principle with categories of prescriptions. For example, when we say that the treatment principle is to clear heat and cool blood we mean that we need to clear heat at the blood level; this automatically corresponds to the category of cooling blood prescriptions. Similarly, when we say that we need to resolve toxic heat it means that we need to choose a formula from the category of prescriptions that resolve toxic heat.

With acupuncture, the correspondence between treatment principle and choice of treatment is not as rigid or unequivocal. For example, there are only a few points that specifically cool blood (e.g., PC 3 Qu ze). Therefore, cooling blood with acupuncture is achieved in a different way and without such a straightforward correspondence between treatment principle and categories of formulae as in Chinese herbal medicine.

The modality of working with acupuncture is profoundly different to that of Chinese herbal medicine. Chinese herbal medicine is based on the use of drugs of plant origin. These work in a different way too, and are intrinsically safer than drugs; however, they are drugs nevertheless. They contain active principles that affect the body's physiology in a similar way to drugs. For example, to resolve edema with Chinese herbal medicine we may choose the formula Wu Ling San, which contains herbs that are diuretic and resolve edema by stimulating urination.

Acupuncture works in a completely different way because it essentially works only by regulating qi. In contrast to herbal medicine, how can acupuncture resolve edema? How can we stimulate urination with acupuncture? Acupuncture can resolve edema only by regulating the ascending/descending and entering/exiting of qi in the water passages of the three burners.

When compared to herbal medicine, therefore, the acupuncture treatment is not rigidly determined by the treatment principle, and the choice of points is much more flexible.

Another important difference is that acupuncture is more subject to cosmic influences than herbal medicine. By that I mean that, being based on manipulation of a subtle energy such as qi, acupuncture is more subject to influences of the time of day, season, moon phase, the menstrual cycle in women, etc. For example, in an article in a Chinese medicine journal, Dr. Chen Ming treated 43 patients with asthma by giving them acupuncture during specific solar terms and compared the results to those in 24 patients treated not according to solar terms.*

The solar terms are 24 periods of 2 weeks each in a year, beginning from the first day of the Chinese New year (which would fall on a different date of the Western calendar each year). The solar terms during which the treatment was administered were:

• Spring Equinox (4th solar term)
• Summer Solstice (10th solar term)
• Autumn Equinox (16th solar term)
• Winter Solstice (22nd solar term)

The FEV (Forced Expiratory Volume) was measured in each patient in each group, and the patients treated according to the solar terms registered better improvement.

The fact that acupuncture is subject to cosmic cycles is probably the reason why a patient never reacts in the same way when we apply exactly the same treatment. For many years I have noticed over and over again that when a patient has a very positive reaction to a particular acupuncture treatment, the reaction is never the same when we repeat that treatment.

After deciding on a treatment principle, an acupuncture treatment is subject to many more variables than herbal medicine. In fact, after choosing a treatment principle, we still need to work out a suitable point combination that takes into account many factors, such as the actions of the points in relation to the pattern treated, the harmonious combination of points, the time of day, season, and even moon phase.

In fact, when choosing points for an acupuncture treatment, there are two different considerations:

• The selection of points according to their action
• The combination of points according to channel dynamics.

Acupuncture works via the channels, not just via isolated points, so that each point should not only be considered for its individual action but also for its place within the channel system. Even if we master the action of each individual point, this is still not enough to give an effective acupuncture treatment, as each point must be seen within the dynamics of the channel system so as to attain a harmonious combination of points.

The balance of the point combination is essential to the success of an acupuncture treatment. Indeed, a balanced point combination is as important to the therapeutic result as the needling technique. The latter is, of course, very important to the success of an acupuncture treatment but the harmonious combination of points is often overlooked: they are both important because they reflect two different viewpoints. In a way, the stress placed on needling technique is based on a point-centered view of acupuncture, while the stress placed on the combination of points is based on a channel-centered view of acupuncture. Both these viewpoints are important and both need to be taken into account.

When giving an acupuncture treatment, there are very many practical variables, such as a correct point location, correct needling direction and depth, correct obtaining of de qi, and correct needling manipulation. In addition, more variables are introduced when moxa is considered: Should we use moxa? On which point? Which type of moxibustion?

For all the above reasons, I think that acupuncture is very difficult to practice: it is indeed an art. There are comparatively few books that deal with the techniques of acupuncture in a detailed and practical way. Advanced Techniques in Oriental Medicine is such a book, which makes it so welcome to students and practitioners of acupuncture, whatever the style practiced. Dr. Skya Abbate is uniquely placed to introduce the reader to the complexities of acupuncture as she has long experience both as a practitioner and clinical teacher. She is therefore aware of the needs of students and practitioners. Dr. Abbate's clinical and teaching experience is apparent in every page of the book.

The transmission of the medical tradition from one culture to another is always fraught with difficulties. When transmitting a medical system between two such different cultures as the ancient Chinese and modern Western cultures, the difficulties are even greater. I personally feel we should strike a balance between adhering firmly to the tradition and adapting this tradition to the needs of Western student and patients. Adhering rigidly and blindingly to tradition will not serve the needs of our patients, while adapting a medical system without fully understanding it first may create theories which have no basis in practice.

Dr. Abbate's book strikes such a balance as it presents the traditional techniques of acupuncture and creatively adapts them to the needs of Western patients. For example, there is an innovative and important chapter on the treatment of the spirit with acupuncture. She correlates spirit treatment with treatment of the blood level.
Dr. Abbate's book is an example of the kind of books needed to ensure a faithful and creative transmission of Chinese medicine to the West.

* Chen Ming Preliminary Study on the Relationship between Acupuncture in Different Solar Terms and Changes in Pulmonary Function in Asthma in Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Zhong Guo Zhen Jiu.2000;20(3):155.

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Alumni Outreach

Dear Alumni,
We hope you are well and enjoying a thriving practice in the field of Oriental Medicine. If you haven't joined our Alumni Directory which is posted on our website at www.acupuncturecollege.edu for graduates, prospective students, patients and acupuncture consumers to visit, just fill out the enclosed form and return it to us. If you have already joined and need to make corrections just let us know by sending this back to me.

In our 26th year, we know that the college has representative alumni throughout the country and you continue to be one of the leading reasons why students choose Southwest Acupuncture College. Still millions of patients throughout the country do not have the potential and affordable vehicle of Oriental medicine available to them due to practitioner shortage. In an attempt to continue to meet our dual-fold mission of educating outstanding healthcare providers, and offering low-cost, effective medical care to the community at large, we would love to send you our latest beautiful catalog for your office and a brochure. We would greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness in making our literature available to your patients, many of whom have become graduates of Southwest Acupuncture College.

The catalog can be downloaded by anyone for free from our website. However, if you would like to receive a hard copy of both brochure and catalog, just let me know and I will be happy to forward them to you.

In the meantime, we will continue to keep you apprised of college events via the newsletter and the website. Our next newsletter will be coming out in March. Always feel free to submit an article about yourself, your practice or an area of interest you have pursued.

Additionally, our continuing education program continues vigorously with leaders in the field such as Virginia Duran, Whitfield Reaves, Jake Fratkin, Lonny Jarrett and Giovanni Maciocia. All continuing education is approved for NCCAOM credit, California, and the New Mexico Acupuncture Board.

If you haven't already done so, we'd also love to receive your business card for our graduate bulletin boards.
Wishing you the best always. Thank your for your continued visits, phone calls, e-mails, cards and letters of appreciation for your education and our enduring friendship.

Sincerely,
Dr. Skya Abbate, M.A., D.O.M., Dipl. Ac., Dipl. C.H.
Executive Director
Southwest Acupuncture College.

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Good News for New Mexico Student Loan Borrowers
By Marcella Sanders, Financial Aid Director

For all new loans originated after July 1, 2006, New Mexico Student Loans (NMSL) will offer zero-percent origination and insurance fees. This new benefit will apply to NMSL Stafford loans as well as those loans disbursed by the organization's full-service lending partners [Bank of America, Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of the West, and Bank of the Rio Grande].

This means that students will be disbursed 100% of the amount they borrow because no fees will be deducted from their loan at each disbursement. For students borrowing $18,500 this translates into a savings benefit of $555.00.

Southwest Acupuncture College Students Benefit from the NMSL Loan Forgiveness Program

In February 2006, NMSL forgave $127,341.00 in student loans for 7 of our students who are borrowers in good standing and who have been paying on their loans from Dec. 1, 2001 to Dec. 1, 2005. As a non-profit agency, NMSL must return excess earnings on its bond issues to borrowers. This forgiveness is the result of earnings from NMSL's 1994 bond issue and its largest ever.

Future bond issue settlements are likely to result in additional forgiveness programs that will benefit borrowers in good standing. For more information about NMSL's Loan Forgiveness Program, visit www.nmstudentloans.org.

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