What you must know before you try dry needling

EDITED 05/13/2015: A previous version of this article included a section titled “A few key facts about dry needling”. This section has been removed and I now encourage interested readers to consult a detailed and authoritative discussion of the same issues by the National Center for Acupuncture Safety and Integrity (NCASI) here. To this point I have not spoken out about this issue because I didn’t want to get embroiled in an ugly fight, but it has come to the point that I cannot in good conscience remain quiet about... [Read more...]

The danger of dry needling

As I wrote about here, it is my belief that so called “dry needling” is a danger to public safety. What is dry needling? Dry needling is another name for acupuncture performed by physical therapists, occupational therapists, massage therapists, athletic trainers, physician’s assistants, and other allied health professionals, typically after as little as 30 hours of training The video below is an excellent example of the very real risks associated with dry needling. The video shows a physician performing “deep dry... [Read more...]

Is it safe?

Like any medical procedure, acupuncture is not entirely without risk.  Fortunately, injuries are extremely rare among patients treated by trained practitioners. In the United States, acupuncturists use factory-sterilized, single-use, disposable needles.  The needles are individually packaged according to strict government guidelines and are discarded immediately after use, so there is no risk of disease transmission. In a Japanese survey of 55,291 acupuncture treatments given over five years by 73 acupuncturists, 99.8% of them were... [Read more...]