The Acupuncture Profession Is Being Hijacked By FAKE Acupuncturist In South Dakota. The Public Needs To Be Informed and Real Acupuncturist Need To Be Supported Since They Are The BEST Providers of Acupuncture In South Dakota!

                                                                acusocietysd.com
The disturbing fact is that there are other standards for those calling themselves "Acupuncturists" or utilizing forms of "Acupuncture" here in South Dakota:

• Chiropractors (D.C.s)- need only 100 hours of training, review 25 case histories and no examination to legally perform "acupuncture" in South Dakota.

• Medical Doctors (M.D.s) and Doctors of Osteopathy (D.O.s) have no minimum training requirements to do "acupuncture" in this state. They call themselves "Medical Acupuncturist"

Ask your acupuncturist if they have passed the nationally recognized certifying examinations in acupuncture and graduated from a minimum of a three to four year full-time acupuncture program (over 3,300 hours) to ensure you are being treated by a properly trained practitioner. 

Acupuncture has nothing to do with chiropractic. 

Do not believe your chiropractor even when they show you their fancy acupuncture diploma since it is not adequate or recognized training.  It is a "crash course" training program and the diploma was designed to be deceptive and fool the public into thinking their chiropractor has completed the appropriate training in acupuncture.  Don't be fooled by the fake and fancy looking diploma.

For more information about professional standards and licensing requirements for acupuncturists, contact the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at 1-866-455-7999 or www.aaaom.org.

The mission of the Acupuncture Society of South Dakota is to educate the public about the practice of acupuncture by fake practitioners in South Dakota and to support the community of properly trained South Dakota acupuncturist and their clinics as they serve the people of South Dakota with the best acupuncture care.

In order to better understand the warped perspective of the chiropractic profession and how it thinks.  This then demonstrates how this disturbing profession would think they have the right to invade the professional turf of REAL acupuncturists.  We encourage as many people as possible in South Dakota to read this book. 

There is a new book critical of chiropractic: Chiropractic Abuse: An Insider’s Lament. The author, Preston Long, DC, PhD, is a chiropractor who says he made a big mistake when he chose chiropractic as a career. He has written an intriguing book explaining his mistake and the experiences that resulted from it during 3 decades as a chiropractor and a critic of chiropractic.

Chiropractic encourages self-delusion, and those who break free of delusion have two choices: to fight or run. Preston Long chose to fight, to keep the baby and throw out the bathwater polluted with pseudoscience and quackery, to try to practice rationally and ethically, and to try to reform chiropractic from within. He soon learned that it was next to impossible for a chiropractor to make a living with a science-based, ethical practice. He eventually found his niche and put his knowledge of chiropractic to good use. He evaluates chiropractic cases for disability and fraud, has worked with the FBI, and has testified at over 200 trials. He has written two previous books, The Naked Chiropractor (2002) and The P.R.E.S.T.O.N. Protocol for Back Pain (2006). This new book tells the story of his life and exposes the delusions and misbehaviors of his chiropractic colleagues.

He reveals “20 things most chiropractors won’t tell you”:

1. Chiropractic is not based on science
2. Chiropractors promise too much
3. Their education is vastly inferior to that of medical doctors
4. Their legitimate scope is very narrow
5. Little of what they do has been studied
6. It’s best to get diagnosed elsewhere
7. They offer lots of unnecessary services
8. “Cracking” the back doesn’t mean much
9. If the first few visits don’t help, more treatment probably won’t help
10. They take too many x-rays
11. Research on spinal manipulation doesn’t reflect what happens in chiropractic offices
12. Neck manipulation is potentially dangerous
13. Most chiropractors don’t know much about nutrition
14. If they sell vitamins, they charge too much for them
15. They have no business treating young children
16. The fact that patients swear by them doesn’t mean they are actually being helped
17. Insurance companies don’t want to pay for chiropractic care
18. Lots of chiropractors do really strange things
19. Don’t expect chiropractic licensing boards to protect you
20. The media rarely look at what they do wrong.

The first time I read this list, there was no number 19. I wondered if 19 was the one thing nochiropractor will tell you, not even Preston Long. Turns out it was just an inadvertent omission that was corrected in subsequent copies.

He started to realize his mistake during his first classes in chiropractic school. He wondered why he hadn’t learned about those displaced bones and all the devastating health problems they cause during his undergraduate studies in anatomy, physiology, and biology. He noticed that his teachers never mentioned how hormones help regulate the human body. Despite glaring doubts about this profession, he stayed, simply because he had no other place to go. He has lots of stories to tell about his first adjustment, the cheating he observed, and the inconsistencies in what he was taught.

He covers the history of chiropractic, the imaginary subluxation, the studies evaluating the efficacy of spinal manipulation, the economic abuse of patients, the reasons you should never sign a contract for chiropractic care, the risk of stroke with neck manipulation (with tragic patient stories), insurance frauds and injury mills, upcoding visits, regulatory abuses, and unethical practices of chiropractic boards.

As a practicing chiropractor, he observed many kinds of misconduct among his peers, from cynical marketing techniques to defrauding insurance companies. Intruding on the professional turf of South Dakota's REAL acupuncturists and the South Dakota acupuncture profession could also be added to that list.

Understanding the Mission, Purpose and Perspective of the REAL Acupuncture Professionals in South Dakota

                                                                  acusocietysd.com

The purpose of the Acupuncture Society of South Dakota (ASSD) is to increase public awareness of properly educated and adequately trained practitioners in their communities through the State.

The ASSD supports the mission, work and members of the South Dakota Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Association.  All members of the SDAOMA are welcomed as members of the Acupuncture Society of South Dakota without any annual dues or application.  The ASSD gladly refers prospective patients to SDAOMA member acupuncturists in their community for acupuncture care and informs them why it is very important to see one of those members versus an inadequately trained non-acupuncturist (such as a chiropractor).  These chiropractors that are holding themselves out to the public as "acupuncturists" have a dangerously limited education in the field of  acupuncture to administer acupuncture treatment effectively and safely. 

The ASSD was established to support efforts regarding the regulation and licensing of acupuncturists in South Dakota that have passed the national acupuncture board examinations and graduated from an approved and accredited graduate college of acupuncture (see acaom.org and ccaom.org).

However, the ASSD does not support the requirement of active certification with the testing agency that issues the national board exam.  This takes the issue of regulation out of the power of the State to regulate its own practitioners and hands it over to a national "umbrella" organization.  The majority of States do not require active certification to obtain an acupuncture license.  Many States that once required the certification have now dropped the requirement due to many reasons (these States include OR, TX, PA, NJ, MD, DC, HI, FL in the past few years and this trend will continue with more States to follow).  The first States to license acupuncture (NY and CA) never required active membership or certification with this national testing agency.

As of September 2017 there were 14,037 REAL acupuncturists (those that graduated from accredited acupuncture colleges) practicing in the Unites States (according to acupuncturetoday.com) and 11,215 were practicing  in States where active national board certification from the national acupuncture exam agency was not required.  

80% of the practicing acupuncturists in the U.S. practice acupuncture without the requirement of active certification from this testing agency. Any membership relationship with this national testing organization beyond the exams is voluntary and not mandatory and has no impact on the requirements for maintaining an active acupuncture license.

With all of the expenses of professional and business licenses, insurance and continuing education, it should be voluntary on the part of the practitioner whether they decide to burden themselves with additional expenses.  There are many professional organizations in the acupuncture field and each one plays an important role.  However, there is no one organization that should be made mandatory to pay dues to on a regular basis in order to continue in professional practice.  In many cases the issue can be one related to personal freedom, the right to work and a State's right to governor their own licensed health professionals independent of an outside national umbrella organization with many other agendas beyond simply testing an acupuncturist's clinical proficiency.

It is the belief of the ASSD that the issue of regulation regarding acupuncture should not be influenced by an outside agency. However, successfully passing their national board examinations is one of the minimum entry level requirements for the field of acupuncture. This testing agency certifies proficiency in the field of acupuncture with tests and continuing education credits.  It should not be given the power of a regulatory agency.  This is the role of each State's professional board.

It is the goal of the ASSD to require chiropractors and other non-acupuncturists to meet this very basic standard along with the appropriate approved hours education and supervised clinical training at a regionally accredited graduate college of acupuncture to practice acupuncture in South Dakota.  Currently chiropractors are encroaching on the acupuncture profession in the State with dangerously inadequate training.  This is a serious public safety concern and a dishonest and deceptive business practice holding themselves out to the public as properly trained acupuncturists.

The ASSD believes that it is important to create a clear separation of the acupuncture profession and the practice of acupuncture from the chiropractic profession.  It is the goal of ASSD to educate the public that:

Acupuncture has nothing to do with chiropractic and chiropractors should not be practicing acupuncture unless they have met the minimum basic standards of education, clinical training and testing as any other professional acupuncturist (MSOM, MAcOM, DAOM, LAc).

Acupuncture Legislation in South Dakota:

In 2010 a House Bill was introduced to regulate acupuncture. Fortunately, it did not become law since it was a typical template bill (provided by the national acupuncture testing agency) that gave the national testing agency power over the State's professional licensing board to decide to whom they may issue acupuncture licenses. There was specific wording that makes a State's ability to license a practitioner based on this agency's approval (by active status with their certification).  This completely takes control of acupuncture regulation out of the hands of the State. Additionally, there are many professional acupuncturist throughout the country that are concerned about this testing agency gaining too much power of the acupuncture profession.  When a new House Bill is introduced again in South Dakota, it must be required to omit any of the wording that grants this national testing agency ultimate authority or requires allegiance to them beyond their role as a testing agency to evaluate competence in the acupuncture field.

The House Bill must look similar to the legislation that has been adopted in States like Wyoming, Washington, Wisconsin, New York, etc where State professional boards are the ones that determine the granting of acupuncture licenses in their State, independent of approval by national umbrella private and government agencies.  It is simply about States being able to control healthcare related policies and licensing within their own States minus the agenda of blanket national control and financial interests of this testing agency.

In recent years more than a few State acupuncture licensing boards have dropped the requirement for active certification with this agency. These States, as other States that do not require active certification with this agency, simply use this national testing organization for the intended purpose for which it was initially established: evaluating an acupuncturist's skill, knowledge, safety and competence in acupuncture and Oriental medicine as well as approve courses for continuing education.  They are not a regulatory or enforcement agency that has the power to overstep a State's role in deciding to grant acupuncture licenses to various individuals since this is the role of the State professional board.  This position regarding this issue of the testing agency's role is shared among the vast majority of acupuncturists practicing throughout the United States as demonstrated by the dropping of the requirement for active certification (by the national testing agency) in many States that one held it as mandatory for obtaining a license.  It would be of no benefit to South Dakota acupuncturist to create a practice act that does not reflect the position of the majority of practicing acupuncturists and would overstep the authority of the State's acupuncture board in deciding to whom they grant licenses.