As a Registered Acupuncturist in BC (R.Ac.) we are allowed to make dietary recommendations and practice our "food cures" for the health of our clients. It's in our regulations 4 (1) An acupuncturist may practice acupuncture, including
(a)the recommendation of dietary guidelines or therapeutic exercise.
Simple enough, but since (nearly) everyone carries a dispensary to some degree (some of us have a small counter while others have a full store around), I'm looking to clear up that grey area before someone else clears it for me.
The debate starts simply around that; to use an example if I want a client to eat congee, it's OK. Can I tell a client to eat congee cooked with Gou Qi Zi? Can I then add Gou Qi Zi and Da Zao? At which point does my congee stop being a food cure and start being a modified Qi & Blood tonic formula?
This may sound like me making a big deal out of nothing but think of this, have you any patients with GI issues or allergies/autoimmune disorders? Do you think that they "may" at some point have a reaction to a certain food? What if it severe enough to warrant a visit to the Emergency room, and then a lawyer? It's a worst case scenario, but as I was talking to LB, the point came up that our insurance provider is our best friend when we are paying our dues each year, but they will tear us to shreds examining EVERY case and decision we ever made if something bad happens. We don't have a union to protect us and give legal experience. If we screw up, we are alone.
To further the discussion, somewhere along the road, someone made a new classification called "food/dietary supplement" just to confuse the pants right off me. So if the supplement lies on the line between food and medicine, how far can I go? Cod Liver oil and others are great for nourishing the Yin and those wonderful organs down below, but is it food? It can be argued that modern pharmaceutical company vitamins are not food based as they are derived from a lot of mineral sources and then destroyed and rebuilt before packaging, but what about some of the vitamins that are all food based? Is the latest fad brand of green drink for your morning smoothie a food or is it a formulation similar to a patent medicine?
Health food stores and Chinatown shops are allowed to sell anything they want (for now) because they don’t prescribe. That’s right, sales clerks in the stores don’t prescribe, they tell you what to buy. To quote a reply from the college (CTCMA):
“You are responsible for your practice and the treatments you carry out. An R.Ac. may recommend dietary guidelines or therapeutic exercise, however a registrant must be able to demonstrate competency in whatever actions are taken. When treatments are not within the scope of practice of an R.Ac., then the registrant stands alone, without the regulatory support of CTCMA and without R.Ac. malpractice insurance.
Chinese herbal stores are legally able to sell individual Chinese herbs, patented herbal formulae and raw herbal teas etc. The caveat is that these stores cannot PRESCRIBE.
In British Columbia only a Dr.TCM, TCM.H, or TCMP has legal authority to prescribe these substances.”
There are quite a few of us happy being a lowly R.Ac. and having some protection in the form of concrete clarity in the regulations would go a long way. If it takes a grass roots movement to bring attention to the college with a challenge, so be it. I’m looking to see how everyone else feels about this.
Thanks in advance for not heckling to hard and finally a shout out to the ICTCMV class of ’02 (and everyone else too, why not?) “What’s going down y’all?”
Peace! Clayton
Joined: 2008-09-15