Acupuncture and Massage Major

The acupuncture and massage major is neither a metaphysics job that "relies on experience to blindly stick needles" in the stereotype of the outside world, nor is it a service major that "just pinches people's shoulders to relax". It is a formal medical major that belongs to the category of traditional Chinese medicine and has both clinical diagnosis and treatment attributes and practical skills. After completing your studies, you can apply for a practicing physician qualification certificate, and counterpart employment covers the three core tracks of clinical rehabilitation, pain diagnosis and treatment, and health care. It is essentially a technical medical direction that relies on professional ability to solve practical problems.

Last year, on my first day as an intern at the Provincial Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, I met a 28-year-old Internet operator. He had a stiff neck for half a month and could not turn his head more than 15 degrees. The X-ray showed that the physiological curvature of the cervical spine had become retrograde. He took painkillers for a week and applied a lot of plasters, but it did not improve. The teacher first used the 㨰 method to loosen the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles on her neck for 20 minutes, and then quickly pricked the two distal acupoints Hegu and Houxi. After twisting and turning for half a minute, she asked her to try to turn her neck. She cried out "Wow" on the spot, and the range of left and right turns basically returned to normal. She said, "I used to think massage was just for coaxing people, but this is amazing."

Many people think that our profession is just about memorizing acupuncture points and practicing strength. Only when you really learn it do you realize that this is not the case at all. The first semester of the first year is "Systematic Anatomy" and "Local Anatomy". Close-book exams, the direction of nerves and blood vessels, where to place a needle to easily penetrate the pleural cavity and cause pneumothorax, and what angle to insert the needle without injuring the common peroneal nerve. These are all contents that need to be engraved in the bones. The failure rate is no lower than that of clinical medicine majors. Let’s talk about the basic massage techniques. When we were freshmen, we practiced together as a class. Everyone’s forearms were swollen for more than half a month, and they shook when holding chopsticks when eating. It doesn’t just have to be strong in your hands, it has to be heavy. When you rub it, the outer skin is not red or painful, and the muscles underneath are loosened.

Of course, not all opinions in this industry are unified. Acupuncture alone can be divided into several approaches. The traditional Meridian School pays attention to selecting acupoints along the meridians, and you must have a "deqi feeling", that is, the patient will feel soreness, numbness, and pain after inserting the acupuncture points, which will give the best effect. ； The currently popular abdominal acupuncture and ear acupuncture schools pursue minimal pain or even no pain. There is no need to deliberately seek for a sense of Qi, just shallow punctures are enough. They are especially friendly to the elderly, children and young people who are afraid of pain. Previously, two teachers in our department argued over a three-year-old child who had an overeating problem. The traditional teacher said that four-slit pricking and bloodletting would be most effective. The abdominal acupuncture teacher said that if the child is afraid of pain, pricking a few shallow points on the stomach would be enough. Later, the parents chose abdominal acupuncture. After three times, the child's appetite was improved and he didn't suffer anything. In fact, both methods are effective, but they are suitable for different groups of people.

There are even more differences when it comes to massage. Massage of the bone-setting school emphasizes joint reduction. For patients with cervical facet joint dislocation and acute lumbar disc herniation, sometimes a single reduction can relieve most of the pain. However, many doctors advocate giving priority to muscle relaxation. They feel that violent reduction has a high risk and is more suitable for the elderly with osteoporosis or patients who are intolerant to pain. Our instructor repeatedly told us, don’t just think about showing off your skills when you come up. First, look at the patient’s film to see if there is osteoporosis, spondylolisthesis, and what conditions can be used and what situations cannot be touched. We have heard before that people in health centers outside have not learned anatomy and casually break people’s necks to remove cerebral infarction. That is making fun of human life.

As for employment, which everyone is most concerned about, there are actually not so many fanciful claims, that is, if you have a job, you will not have to worry about food. My classmate graduated and went to the rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital. Now he is doing limb function recovery, acupuncture and manual release for patients with hemiplegia after stroke every day. Last month, an old man who had been lying down for almost half a year can now walk slowly by holding on to the wall. The banner given by his family is still hanging in the corridor of their department. There was also a girl who thought that the hospital schedule was too hard, so she opened a small shop in the community, specializing in shoulder and neck conditioning for white-collar workers and pediatric massage. She had many regular customers and her monthly income was twice as much as in the hospital. Some students also worked as team doctors for the provincial team, following the athletes in competitions, relaxing their muscles before the competition and repairing injuries after the competition. They stayed with a group of young people every day, and their life was very lively. Of course, there are also people who change careers after working for half a year after graduation. After all, this profession relies on your hands to make a living. If you are weak in your hands and cannot find the acupuncture points accurately, it will be useless no matter how much theory you talk about. Patients are not stupid, and they will know if there is any effect in one session.

To be honest, there are still many people who are biased against this profession. They think it is a "side theory" and not considered serious medicine. There are also many people who boast that it is magical and can cure all difficult and complicated diseases. Both of these views are quite extreme. Last time I met a menopausal aunt who suffered from insomnia for more than half a year. She took sleeping pills and slept for up to three hours. She came here for three acupuncture treatments and massaged the Anmian and Taichong acupoints every day. Now she can sleep through the whole night. After that, she brought me home-pickled dried radish every time she came for follow-up consultations. That kind of real sense of accomplishment is really hard to give in other jobs. To put it bluntly, this major is just a major that doesn’t have so many bells and whistles. If you work hard to practice your skills, you can help people and make a living. It’s not that mysterious, and it’s not that unbearable.