About the American Institute of Acupuncture

Traditional Chines medicine refers to ideas, experiences, and substances that have been handed down generation to generation from ancient times, where the origins are obscure but where the continuity of basic understanding has been assured by a formal structure. Among the primary traditional medical systems still active today are in the Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian (Ayurvedic). AIA enriches the lives of people seeking traditional medicine knowledge and services by clarifying the nature of traditional medicine and demonstrating how it can be utilized in the modern Wellness and Health setting. To accomplish this goals, the AIA performs 5 basic functions:

1. It operates one clinical facilities, the Acuherb Clinic. This clinic has been providing acupuncture, Chinese herb therapies, and Massage therapy primarily for patients with serious ailments that can clearly benefit from effective adjunctive therapies, though all are welcome so long as they follow program protocol. The clinic serves as a charitable outlet for AIA's clinical activities. Also this clinic is a mixed therapies clinic offering naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, Chinese herbs, and modern medicine. It is a demonstration clinic that illustrates a potential new model for integrative health care. In addition, AIA provides consulting to other clinics that wish to follow the presentation method or the therapies that are available at these clinics. Selected students at local acupuncture colleges, can get advanced training at these clinics.

2. It provides numerous educational materials, primarily articles written by Wang. Currently, over 2,000 pages of such articles are in the AIA Journals. Dr. Wang provides free consulting to practitioners to aid in their understanding of herbs, issues related to traditional medicine, individual patients, and practice methods.

3. It conducts background research in traditional medicine, including medical journal searches in China (carried out by Dr. Jidong Zhang in Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and computer searches here in the U.S.

4. It provides specially designed herbal formulations for use in the AIA clinics and by practitioners who read AIA's literature. These formulas integrate the study of Chinese medicine into the practice of Chinese medicine. The formulas most of them based on traditional Chinese medicine principles. AIA also maintains a pharmacy of dried extracts, following the method of herb use that is dominant in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. These dried extracts (granules) are used to make personalized formulations or formulas that are used in doses higher than suited to tablets.

5. AIA supports traditional environments where traditional medicine can be preserved and organize Taiji, Qigong Club to help people's wellness life style. And provides information to other organizations, such as the magazines, news reporters, and researchers, upon request. AIA is frequently cited as a source for reliable information on herbal therapies.

Most AIA's employees are mainly acupuncturists and massage therapists, and AIA has affiliate organizations in Taiwan and China.

To better understand the work of AIA, please read more here.