Acupuncture Physical Medicine by Mark Seem, Ph.D. In this groundbreaking book, Dr Seem shares with us the fruits of 20 years of treating patients with all types of chronic fatigue, pain, and stress disorders. These are patients for whom standard medical treatments have offered little help and who often find their way to acupuncturists as a last resort. Included are Dr Seem's classification of the four major patterns of tight tender points that he finds in such patients, his treatment strategies in each pattern, and many charts and diagrams to help busy practitioners use his approach more effectively. This book is a must for acupuncturists treating any type of chronic condition.

Bodymind Energetics: Toward a Dynamic Model of Health (Paperback) Mark D. Seem Ph.D. DIPL. AC. (NCAA) (Author), Joan Kaplan (Contributor) Dr. Seem proposes a powerful integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and psychosomatics in this model of health care that acknowledges the connection of body and mind.

Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management An Integrative Approach: by Yun-Tao Ma, Mila Ma, Zang Hee Cho. This may well currently represent the most comprehensive approach to the bio-medicalization of classical acupuncture. It has excellent chapters on the neurology of acupuncture and integrates most of the contemporary scientific acupuncture theories and practices. Also openly embraced as part of the mix is the additive/enhancement nature of the so-called placebo effect in the acupuncture therapeutic process.

Acupuncture Treatment for Musculoskeletal Pain: by Harris Gellman, MD. This text is written for orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists and rehabilitation medicine specialists, and will aid in the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal pain both acute and chronic as well as arthritis.

Acupuncture In Practice Beyond Points and Meridians: by Anthony Campbell. Dr. Campbell is a long-standing acupuncturist who more or less utilizes Felix Mann type acupuncture. He exemplifies a cautious scientific approach emphasizing the importance of resisting ultimate theories of acupuncture as none of the contemporary approaches or research account for all of its effects. He outlines the Acupuncture Treatment Area (ATA) as a realistic alternative to acupoints.

Reinventing Acupuncture A New Concept Of Ancient Chinese Medicine: Felix Mann. This book was first published in 1992 and it is astounding that so few acupuncturists appear to have read it. Felix Mann has practiced acupuncture for over 40 years and wrote some of the very first texts in the modern West. Initially he studied traditional acupuncture, making several trips to China. An independent thinker he soon moved on denying the existence of the meridians and even precise acupuncture points. The book is sometimes a little eccentric but overall a seminal work of one of the Wests greatest acupuncturists.

Lectures on Tungs Acupuncture Therapeutic System by Wei Chieh Young. The book focuses on the therapeutic system of Tung's Acupuncture. Disorders covered in this book include therapeutic point selections and the analysis of reasoning and theoretical principles. The point selections are described according to the 14 meridians and explained in accordance with classical acupuncture and Master Young's personal clinical experience. Master Young also compares the therapeutic effect between the applications of the 14-meridians and Tung's acupuncture. All subjects are covered in depth and are clinically practical in scope. Thus it is not only a book on Tung's therapeutic system, but also a practical book on therapeutics in the 14 meridians, allowing readers to choose either the 14 meridians or Tung's acupuncture or a combination of both to treat clinical disease presentations. Important theoretical principles such as Zang Fu Bei Tung (The extraordinary connections of the zangfu), Ti Ying Zhen Fa (Application of Holographic Acupuncture Technique for Different Parts of the Body), Taiji Holography and Correspondence, and the Method of Selecting Five Shu Points of the Same Five-Element Category have their own chapters to elaborate their theoretical principles and applications in details.

The Gunn Approach to the Treatment of Chronic Pain Intramuscular Stimulation for Myofascial Pain of Radiculopathic Origin: C Chan Gunn. This richly anatomically detailed book outlines Dr. Gunns intramuscular stimulation form of acupuncture. First published in 1989 long before acupuncturists were talking about motor points Chan Gunn had developed this contemporary acupuncture therapy involving such points and more besides. Central to this approach is the concept of neuropathic pain, releasing shortened muscles that put pressure on nerves and resetting a malfunctioning peripheral nervous system.

Problems with the Energy Meridian Theory: D. E. Kendall. See the article at www.pacificcollege.edu D E Kendall makes a clear case for the mystification of contemporary traditional acupuncture through mis-translation and its subsequent marginalization in modern medical practice. It is truly amazing how entire alternative medicine systems (Thought Field Therapy, NAET to name two) have been built upon the erroneous energy-meridian construct. How then do these systems appear to work? You might ask. Remember acupuncture has a deep generalized stimulation effect possibly capable of being molded via anticipation or suggestion and mediated through the brain's limbic system.

Medical Acupuncture A Western Scientific Approach: Jacpueline Filshie, Adrian White. An excellent textbook with 20 contributors on the developing scientific understanding of acupuncture theory and practice.

*Source: Thomas Martin, LAc., 2007 - Integrative Acupuncture Online

Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction: The Trigger Point Manual, Travell & Simons (2-Volume Set) (Hardcover): Janet Travell MD and David Simons MD spent a lifetime studying the patterns and treatment of muscular and soft tissue pain in patients. It is a specialty in itself, and provides an amazingly detailed review of anatomy. These books are the bible on the subject written by the "mother" and "father" of the specialty. There will hardly be a day in the professional life of a busy primary care practitioner, rheumatologist, orthopedist, neurologist, physiatrist or physical therapist when these books will not be used. The more one knows of this field, the more revelations one gets into those difficult chronic pain patients. The etiology and muscular complexity of the huge field of "tension headache" syndromes now become clear. With these books you will have the tools to diagnose and treat effectively (usually dramatically) the entire spectrum of myofascial pain from head to toe, muscle by muscle.

Biochemical Individuality (Paperback): by Roger Williams Biochemical Individuality was first published by Dr. Roger J. Williams in 1956. It has just been reissued with a new introduction by Jeffrey S. Bland, Ph.D. Dr. Bland explains that Dr. Williams was the first to recognize all humans differ biochemically from others. He says that Dr. Williams was also the first to recognize that "nutritional status can influence the expression of genetic characteristics."

Genetic Nutritioneering (Paperback): by Jeffrey S. Bland. The focus on this book is to bring the latest research on how to create from a person's genetic template the best health outcomes as they age using personalized nutrition and lifestyle tailoring. The book is science-based from both the clinical research experiences of the author in the Functional Medicine Research Center and from the hundreds of scientific studies from other researchers cited in the extensive bibliography. This is a "how to" book as much as a description of when, why and where medicine will be changing to become "personalized medicine" in the 21st century.

Textbook of Functional Medicine (Hardcover): by Sidney MacDonald Baker (Author), Peter Bennett (Author), Jeffrey S. Bland (Author), Leo Galland (Author), Robert J. Hedaya (Author), Mark Houston (Author), Mark Hyman (Author), Jay Lombard (Author), Robert Rountree (Author), Alex Vasquez (Author), The Textbook of Functional Medicine is a comprehensive teaching tool that supports an emerging new model of care, linking together a cross-disciplinary group of clinicians, researchers, and educators. It is one of the most important medical textbooks of our time and hopefully there are many more editions to come from this science-based approach.

"It is rare to find a textbook that is so needed and that so successfully ties together so many loose ends for clinicians on the front lines managing complex chronic disease."

Integrative Medicine: Text with BONUS Pocket Consult Handheld Software (Hardcover): by David Rakel (Author) A must-read book for every physician. Integrative medicine does not deny allopathic medicine, nor points out every mistake of allopathic medicine just to support alternatives. It is a well balanced, evidence based book.

The Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine (Hardcover) by Leonard A. Wisneski (Author), Lucy Anderson (Author) The authors propose a unified theory of human functioning, called integral physiology, which combines important Western biological knowledge with Eastern medical traditions of healing. Unique aspects of the text include the elucidation of the pineal as the master gland, the transducer of environmental information into neuronal and hormonal communication within the body. In addition, the authors assert that there must be a hormonal cascade for the relaxation response, paralleling the well-known hormonal elaboration of the stress response, and then provide a review of some of the hormones involved in this response.