Acupuncture and Massage Professional

The profession of acupuncture and massage is by no means "a back-pinching skill that can be employed after two months of training" as the public thinks. It is a formal profession under the category of traditional Chinese medicine that has the dual attributes of clinical medical diagnosis and treatment and rehabilitation and health care services. The core is to improve human body function by stimulating meridians and acupoints and adjusting musculoskeletal conditions. The scope of application covers all scenarios from the treatment of common diseases to sports injury recovery and daily health management. The span and upper limit of career development far exceed most people's stereotyped imagination.

I heard this from an old professor in the department during my first class in school. At that time, there were several students in the class who came with the mentality of "learning an easy craft". After taking two courses, systematic anatomy and basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine, in the first semester, three of them were transferred directly - after all, no one expected that To learn massage, you must first touch the bone marks on a human specimen for three months. To learn acupuncture, you must memorize the direction of the twelve meridians, the positioning and taboos of more than 300 commonly used acupuncture points. You must practice acupuncture on yourself first, and you can only get started when the needle penetrates the skin without shaking or bleeding.

There was a lot of quarrel on the Internet before. Some people said that acupuncture massage is an "IQ tax", which can only relieve fatigue but cannot cure diseases at all. Some people also boast that it can cure all difficult and complicated diseases. In fact, both views are too extreme. I went to outpatient clinics with different teachers and saw completely different ideas: Director Li of the traditional meridian school, when seeing a doctor, look for "the meridians pass through, and the main treatment areas are reached." There was a girl who suffered from peripheral facial paralysis. It would take at least 3 months to recover according to Western medicine assessment. Director Li took the acupuncture points on the Yangming meridian on her affected side, inserted acupuncture, and combined with facial massage and relaxation, and the girl's nasolabial folds healed in more than 20 days. It’s here, and there’s no air leakage in the blink of an eye; and the young doctor who was just recruited in our department studied acupuncture combined with modern rehabilitation. When treating lumbar muscle strain, he never likes to prick the Shenshu and Dachangshu on the waist. Instead, he gives priority to pricking the waist pain points on the hands and the Weizhong on the calf. He then teaches the patient to adjust their standing posture and practice core exercises, which can often relieve most of the pain in three to five times. There is no difference between the two ideas, but the angle of approach is different. In the end, they are all aimed at solving the problem.

Last month, our department took in a little girl who was a senior in high school. She suffered from migraines for almost half a year. She took painkillers until she had acid reflux in her stomach. She was in so much pain that she couldn't hold a pen during the mock exam. When she came, she frowned so much that she could crush a walnut. We first massaged the Taiyang and Yintang on her head and face to release the tense sternocleidomastoid muscles, and then inserted the Taichong and Hegu muscles on both sides, leaving the needles for twenty minutes. When the needles were removed, she said on the spot that the pain was half as good.

Many people think that after graduating from this major, they can only open a massage parlor, but this is not true. Half of my classmates in the same class have entered the acupuncture and rehabilitation departments of hospitals at all levels. One classmate joined the provincial track and field team as a team doctor. He trained with the athletes every day. After the game, he relaxed the muscles of the players and injected acupuncture to relieve fatigue. In case of acute sprains and contusions, the players could return to the competition in just a few strokes. There was also a female classmate who specialized in postpartum rehabilitation and started her own surgery. I opened a small studio specializing in postpartum pelvic adjustment and pelvic floor muscle repair. I rely on old customers to bring in new ones, and appointments are scheduled three months later. Of course, there are also those who find it difficult after graduation and work as technicians in ordinary health care institutions, resulting in a big difference in income. To put it bluntly, in this industry, the threshold is not the graduation certificate, but whether your skills are solid enough.

Of course, I have to be honest. Nowadays, many people are biased against this profession. No wonder others. There are too many informal institutions on the market. Just find someone to train for two weeks, and they dare to pull the neck of someone without even understanding the structure of the cervical spine. Last month, our emergency department admitted a patient who had a cervical facet joint dislocation at a massage shop in the community. The pain was so painful that he could not move. Regular practitioners, whether it is acupuncture or massage, will definitely ask for medical history and make an assessment before the operation. When encountering patients with severe osteoporosis or acute hypertension, they will not just perform resets casually, let alone pat their chests and say that they can cure any disease.

I have been in this business for almost ten years. People often ask me, "How come you, a serious college graduate, do massage?" I usually don't explain much. The elder brother who asked me this last year had lumbar prolapse pain that made him unable to get out of bed. He was scheduled for surgery. He came here with the mentality of giving it a try. He underwent acupuncture and waist relaxation and adjustment for two months. Now he can go back to climb Mount Tai without any problem. He didn’t say anything to me when he saw me again, and even introduced him to all his friends who have bad back problems. In the final analysis of this industry, whether it is the meridian theory passed down by our ancestors or the modern rehabilitation knowledge combined now, it can truly help people solve their pain, and it is more effective than any fancy name.