updates

[Guest guest]

Seasons Greetings

 

Well, Chinese Herbal Medicine egroup began a little over 18 months ago

with about 6 members. Now we have just about 300, of whom maybe 50 are

located outside the US. Since there are about 11000 licensed

acupuncturists and perhaps 5,000 students in the US, this represents a

little over 1.5% of the US professionals in this field. It has been my

observation in seven years of teaching at three different acupuncture

colleges, that perhaps less than 20% of the typical student body has a

primary interest in herbology by the time they graduate. In other

words, far fewer practitioners seem inclined to tailoring prescriptions

for their patients versus the much larger number who prefer to use

prepared formula of various forms or even prefer western herbs or

vitamin therapy.

 

So perhaps about 8% of American practitioners and TCM college students

involved in the field with a serious interest in herbology are now group

members. We are also possibly one of the largest in a a single

field of alternative medicine that is limited strictly to graduate and

professional level members. We are particularly well represented in

California, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, New York, Colorado and

Florida. I know a lot of heartland states do not have herbs in their

scope of practice, perhaps this is why such states are

underrepresented. I'd like to attract some additional members from

Asia, Europe and Australia to round things out some more, too.

 

Several members have commented privately to me recently that our

discussion group has evolved (self-organized?) into a very important

medium for exchange in our field. We should all be pleased with the

level of discussion we generate and with the civility (for the most

part) of our dialogues.

 

Happy Holidays and all that stuff :-)

 

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Chinese Herbal Medicine