Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine

Clinical Experience

MCAHM’s clinics provide the opportunity to rotate through a variety of unique clinical settings where interns experience the approach of many different practitioners. Interns at MCAHM treat a wide range of conditions and gain thorough hands-on experience in acupuncture and other physical modalities of healing, such as Tui Na massage, moxibustion, and cupping.

Interns also gain clinical experience making healthy eating recommendations and suggesting specific healing foods based on their TCM energetic characteristics. The nutrition component in the program is fully integrated into the Oriental Medicine courses. Clinical Internship is designed to build knowledge and skills and also to fine-tune patient/healer sensitivities. Your internship begins in the very first fall quarter you are enrolled and continues throughout the entirety of the program. After completing the program, graduates are confident in their ability as Oriental Medical Practitioners to address the full spectrum of conditions seen in practice

Nutrition & the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The Importance of TCM Nutrition in Modern Practice

Nutrition has long been an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The Midwest College has identified this branch of TCM as an important specialty, sought by healthcare consumers, for which we prepare our future graduates. The Midwest College’s Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (AHM) program is unique in that the concentration in this area is an important focus of the curriculum and clinical experience.

While completing the Master of Science in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine, you will gain an important concentration in the biomedical concepts of nutrition including MyPlate and health-promoting effects of vitamins and minerals. TCM nutrition, additionally, looks at the energetic characteristics of foods, how they are used based on an individual’s constitution, and how food affects Zang Fu syndromes.

After completing the OM program you will be able to augment your acupuncture and herbal treatment with the Chinese system of food therapy. In fact, students in the Master’s program receive the concurrently awarded degree B.S. in Nutrition with an M.S. degree in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine.

The M.S. curriculum prepares graduates for a competitive healthcare environment by combining the use of Chinese herbal formulas with nutritional counseling and the use of supplements. Integrating TCM Nutrition with acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbs lets practitioners confidently make recommendations regarding food energetics as a preventative to disease in the maintenance of optimum health. Graduates will meet the expectations of patients who expect a holistic practitioner to make recommendations regarding herbs and commonly used nutritive products. If you feel that healthy eating and guided nutrition are important parts of Holistic Healthcare, you should look seriously at Midwest College.

Education at Midwest College includes a unique focus on traditional Chinese Nutrition Therapy. There are two aspects to a Chinese Medicine nutritional consultation; the first concerns healthy eating according to a patient’s constitutional type, and the second is the recommendation of foods and recipes for specific disorders.

The Midwest College’s contemporary clinical approach to Chinese nutrition therapy includes updated “energetic” recipes based on classic medicinal cooking with herbs. These traditional recipes have been selected to be “pleasing to the palate” so that they will be enjoyed by most patients.

It is not surprising that prospective students of Oriental Medicine are looking for a program where they can gain the skills and knowledge needed to integrate the best-known branches of TCM (acupuncture, massage, and herbs) with healing foods and recipes in their future professional practice. The nutrition component of the Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine program, as well as its clinical experiences, has been designed to ensure that students see a wide variety of health problems and that they become familiar with using food and nutraceutical supplements in TCM clinical practice. Its emphasis is on the student applying the principles of traditional and modern nutrition learned in class to the treatment of patients in the student clinic.

What You Earn

Graduates of the Midwest College’s Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Program earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition (TCM) granted simultaneously with the Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine. Graduates are qualified to sit for all examinations given by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, NCCAOM, and meet the requirements for licensure in Illinois, Wisconsin and many other states.