Patients, lawmakers want acupuncture therapy regulated in state

12 Sep 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky (Kentucky.com)
Associated Press

Patients who depend on acupuncture for pain relief and other ailments are urging Kentucky officials to regulate the practice so therapists can be licensed to operate in the state.

Only a physician or osteopath can legally practice acupuncture in Kentucky. That has irked some patients, who travel across state lines seeking the ancient Chinese procedure.

"I don't have any options," said Melissa Brennan, a northern Kentucky resident who was paralyzed from the waist down after a car accident nine years ago. Brennan drives 40 minutes to her acupuncturist in Cincinnati, even though the therapist, Mimi Tagher, lives just 20 minutes from her Dry Ridge home.

Brennan, 36, copes with severe pain in her lower back - where a metal plate holds her spine together - and says the only respite she's found is acupuncture

"I can't do anything in Kentucky. But here, Mimi has all of these diplomas and all of this education. She's amazing."

A bill has been pre-filed for the next session of the General Assembly that would create a board to regulate and license acupuncturists.

"We've just got to prove our case," said state Rep. Denver Butler, D-Louisville, who is a sponsor of the bill. Butler said he became involved in the cause after talking with an acquaintance who was traveling out of the state to get the treatment for arthritis in his knees.

The Kentucky Medical Association acknowledges that non-physicians are practicing acupuncture in Kentucky and says it's time to regulate or license them.

"Currently, we are aware of acupuncturists operating in the state, and I think it's important that they be certified or licensed, and there be some standards established by the commonwealth to ensure public safety," spokesman Marty White said.

Acupuncture therapy has been increasing seen as a legitimate form of pain relief. Proponents say the insertion of acupuncture needles at specific points cures ailments.

The National Institutes of Health issued a statement in 1997 stating case studies have indicated promise in treating nausea and many kinds of chronic pain, plus aiding in smoking cessation and stroke rehabilitation.

In 2002, a World Health Organization report found that acupuncture's value "in relieving pain and nausea ... has been conclusively demonstrated and is now acknowledged worldwide."

Maryland, Nevada and Oregon were the first states to establish acupuncture as a licensed profession in 1973, according to the National Acupuncture Foundation. Most other states have since followed suit, with the most recent being Nebraska in 2001.