Connecting Through Acupuncture – A Global Opportunity
— By Mitchell Elkiss, DO, FAAMA, AAMA Board of Directors
April 19-21, 2024, the nation of Croatia held its first International Congress of Medical Acupuncture in Opatija, the beautiful jewel of the Adriatic. The event drew 150 attendees from 14 countries and three continents.
Croatia, now a country of 3.7 million people, is a focal point of prehistoric culture that dates back to the third millennium BC — from our Neanderthal ancestors to the earliest Indo-European cultural sites along the Danube basin. Fun fact: Croatians invented the cravat, the predecessor to the necktie.
There is a lengthy tradition of medical acupuncture in Croatia, the roots of which come from China, France, the UK, and the US, via Maurice Mussat, Hguyen Van Nghi, Felix Mann, and Joe Helms, as embodied in the presentations of Krunoslav Reljanovic, MD, the godfather of current Croatian medical acupuncture.
Maja Mustač, MD, was the organizer and host of the International Congress of Medical Acupuncture. Prof. Yang Jinhong, representing the Beijing International Acupuncture Training Center (CBIATC), presented on the three-needle technique and the four-needle technique. The three-needle technique, QiCi, represented by three needles converging at the same target, was used for neurologic disorders, including neuropathy. Four-needle technique, Yang Ci, represented by four needles aimed at and surrounding a central target, was used for rheumatologic disorders.
There were multiple presentations on auricular acupuncture, ranging from traditional Nogier-style while monitoring reflex auriculo-cardiac activity in the pulse (RAC), protocol driven, and neuroanatomical model driven. They treated the ears with needles and significantly with LASER and different color lights.
Indeed, photo biomodulation (PBM) was a major theme. There were elegant presentations by Florian Reinhart, PhD, demonstrating 700 nm red-light therapy in the treatment of acute, severe COVID. During the event, emphasis was placed on rebalancing emotions using needles, magnets, colored lights, LASER, and Ozone injections at acupoints.
There were multiple presentations regarding acupuncture for migraine prevention, including a comparison to medication prophylaxis. There was an excellent presentation on Yamamoto New Scalp Acupuncture (YNSA) by Juan Hahn, a disciple of Dr. Yamamoto. There was a presentation on Korean Hand Acupuncture (KHA) for spinal pain by Mark Labby, MD.
There were also presentations on brain plasticity, quantum properties of biological systems, acupuncture microsystems as self-resemblance and fractal theory, acupuncture in palliative medicine, immunology in TCM, Tibetan medicine, electroacupuncture in urinary incontinence, primary dysmenorrhea, menopause, endometriosis, and amenorrhea. There were lectures on dealing with stress, emotional pain, and physician burn out.
I was an invited speaker, representing Helms Medical Institute, the AAMA, and the American continent, presenting the ATP in the management of extraordinary stress. ICMART was represented by Konstantina Theodoratou, MD.
The lecture hall and the workshops were full. There was enthusiasm and camaraderie akin to AAMA events. I made many new friends.
The world needs to be better connected. We are working with the same problems and clinical conundrums across the continents. Together we can offer a more complete set of therapeutic offerings based on traditions, training, experience, understanding mechanisms, and compelling evidence of results.
