NADA Blog

Special Seminar with Dr. Michael Smith, NADA founding chairperson

Saturday March 10, 2012
12:00-1:30pm
Great Lakes Grill Conference Room
817 E State Street (US 23)
Cheboygan, Michigan

Hear how using acupuncture can reduce cravings for alcohol and drugs, reduce stress and anxiety, as well as improve sleep, when used along with traditional counseling and self-help groups.

Cost: $15.00 - Includes lunch buffet / speech / acupuncture

To reserve a ticket: email Marilyn Miller at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (231) 268-3381.

The US Department of Justice BJA Drug Court Technical Assistance Project, together with the American University's School of Public Affairs in DC, have published a review of evidence regarding the use of NADA as an adjunct treatment within addictions programs.

Click here to download the full document:

Effectiveness of Acupuncture as an Adjunct to Substance Abuse Treatment: Summary of Recent Research Findings

http://www1.spa.american.edu/justice/documents/3286.pdf

"Life in the midst of genocide...

Compassion in action...

and the journey to a free mind"

--from On the Borderline: Surviving Genocide in Burma, a radio documentary on the NADA program "DARE" on the Burma/Thai border.

Please consider donating and spreading the word about DARE through Global Giving so ongoing training and capacity building can allow other local refugee workers can learn the NADA skill: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rebuild-flooded-burma-refugee-camp-recovery-centre/?rf=ggWidget

Thank you Pam Rogers for your commitment for this community, and congratulations in this 10 year anniversary of your program's birth.  Their 2010 DARE Network Annual Report offers a glimpse at a NADA program that has been able to sustain itself throughout the years in a challenging context.

Right now we are requesting international affiliates to share program reports, pilot data and other outcome data to be assimilated and shared with the larger NADA community.  If your NADA program, in the US or abroad, would like to share their data, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

In this September 2011 editorial in a British Medical Journal affiliate publication, David Cowan from London South Bank University dives head first into the methodological problems with laboratory-style research on NADA and proposes some simple ideas on how researchers can more effectively investigate how NADA works within a real world treatment program. 

This is a must read for NADA members, acupuncture students and researchers.

Here is the link to the abstract:

http://aim.bmj.com/content/early/2011/03/20/aim.2010.003772.abstract

Interested in getting involved with NADA research teams?

Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

NADA trainer Megan Yarberry writes of her visit with Dr. Michael O. Smith on Hawaii on her blog through the Traditional Chinese Medical College of Hawaii where she is an Academic Dean and faculty member. Follow her blog as she returns to Kenya for more NADA trainings.

The Austin Oriental Medicine Academy (AOMA) is offering free NADA treatments in Austin next week in honor of the Great American Smokeout which is on Thursday 11/17. Thank you for this great service, AOMA!

Click here to read their press release

See more comments about this event on our Facebook page.

Check out this article that was published in the first Connecticut Mental Health Center's online newsletter featuring 2012 conference co-chair, NADA trainer and Board treasurer, Katurah Bryant.

NADA is thrilled to go to New Haven, CT for the 2012 conference which will be held on the campus of Yale University. Online registration for the conference will be available starting 12/1/2011.

Caregivers Explore Acupuncture—“Resilience is Inherited”!

Members of the Daughters & Sons Support Group at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in New York City met with Acupuncturist Wendy Henry (LAc, ACA) to learn about stress releasing techniques and experience acupuncture in a group setting.   The mission of “Daughters & Sons” is to provide support for people whose parents... (Read more)

At the NADA Euro conference in Dublin we learned that non-medical NADA specialists in Hungary are at risk of losing the ability to provide ear acupuncture treatments based on a law being drafted by an association of medical professionals. Participants of the NADA Euro conference drafted and signed an open letter to the Hungarian government which was published online on Oct 1 in one of the main Hungarian newspapers. Look for an update on the effect of this letter in the November issue of Guidepoints. Click on title to read more...

North Carolina researchers found that the NADA protocol in addition to standard addictions care yielded statistically significant improvement in cravings, depression, anxiety, anger, body-aches, concentration and fatigue on a 10-point Likert scale, as published in Medical Acupuncture in August 2011.  The trial was conducted at the Mecklenburg County Substance Abuse Services Center (SASC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Please stay tuned to Guidepoints: News from NADA for an upcoming feature series on the use of NADA within hospital, addictions as well as community wellness programs throughout North Carolina.

Copies of the study can be purchased through Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acu.2010.0784

We are currently needing assistance from NADA Registered Trainers (RT's) and members with Bilingual English/Spanish skills.

1--If you are interested in volunteering to help with trainings in Latin American this coming year...

--OR--

2--If you have NADA training materials or educational materials translated into Spanish...

...email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Your help is greatly appreciated!

(Please share with all VA employees)

We just received specific directions on how VA employees can vote for expansion (see below), so please forward to all VA employees today so they have time to vote on the NADA proposal for veterans before this Friday, June 10.

https://vha.ideascale.com

Votes are needed before JUNE 10 among Veterans Affairs (VA) Employees to expand NADA acupuncture services for veterans in crisis as part of the VHA Employee Innovation Competition.

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Directions on how VA employees can vote (VOTE BEFORE FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011):

[Use your VA e-mail address as the user name and the password you use to log into your computer. You will need to be on the VA network in order to access this page (VPN users, ensure you are connected).]

1. Go to https://vha.ideascale.com

2. Search for "acupuncture" or "1738" ;

when you find Idea # 1738...

3. Vote for "Idea # 1738 : Help when the veteran wants it: Increasing access to behavioral health care with acupuncture"

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Not a VA employee?

You can help spread the word by posting this blog on twitter or facebook, which just in the past week, has been a great tool in spreading the word around the country. A lot of VA employees have learned about this through facebook.

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Click here to learn more about the VA proposal for veterans in crisis http://acudetox.com/nada-protocol/nada-advocacy/146-votes-needed-to-expand-ear-acupuncture-for-military-veterans.html

Contact: Mark Farrington This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Salvation Army in Joplin, Missouri has been offering clothing, food and NADA group ear acupuncture services in a disaster relief tent.  NADA services are provided in part by non-acupuncturist Acu Detox Specialists (ADSes) who had been trained at the recent NADA conference in May, 2011, just before the tornadoes swept through the midwest.  Tornadoes touched down the last night of the conference, on May 21.  We are gathering reports currently on the disaster response effort.  Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you have reports to share on these disaster relief efforts.

Many thanks to the Missouri NADA community for hosting us in Kansas City, and making the NADA trainings possible for 30 some new ADSes, and for the programs that continue to support ADSes throughout the region.  NADA sends our condolences and our thoughts to the people of Missouri and Kansas who have lost family and friends in recent weeks. 

Please stay tuned to Guidepoints for more news on this.  Here is the link to a story in the Hartford Courant on these efforts:  http://articles.courant.com/2011-05-31/news/hc-campbell-joplin-recovery-0531-20110531_1_salvation-army-pork-tent

As employees of the Departmante of Veteran's Affairs prepare to vote this week on a proposal for expansion of NADA ear acupuncture services for veterans in crisis, a CNN story today includes comments from the Army's assistant surgeon general, who spoke about the need for acupuncture as an alternative to medication based care. 

Just over a week ago 16 Missouri health professionals were trained as Acu Detox Specialists (ADS) in Kansas City at NADA's annual conference. Upon learning about the devastating tornado that went through Joplin, MO, NADA contacted the new Missouri ADSes to see if any would be available to volunteer in a disaster response in Joplin, and 4 responded.

                          AWB 1-day disaster response training in Springfield, MO held on 5/27/2011

Attendees at the 2011 NADA pre-conference training recorded video diaries on Thursday, May 19 about their experiences throughout the week.

Our new NADA trainees down in Kansas City, and NADA's office manager Sara Bursac, were featured in the news Wednesday night. As the news article says, there'll be a free acu detox clinic today, Thursday, at 3pm at Cornerstone Counseling in Kansas City.

Here's the link to the tv news clip:

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-clinic-will-use-acudetox-to-reduce-stress-20110518,0,6013250.story

Two NADA innovators, David Eisen and Will Hall, will present on their work in providing alternative therapies for people diagnosed with mental illness at the upcoming conference May 13 and 14 in Portland, "Rethinking Psychiatry."  The conference, convened by award winning journalist Robert Whitaker and co-sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers, marks the latest in a national movement to create a holistic, effective and humane mental health system, according to the press release.

"Things will change. They have to. A provider can’t challenge a patient who says, 'This is going to help me.' "- Phillip James Oliver, Sickle Cell Support Group of Georgia

A year ago at the NADA conference in New Orleans, NADA members met advocate Phillip James Oliver, a genetic counselor with the Sickle Cell Support Group of Georgia. (click to see the video about the use of the NADA protocol within sickle cell peer support groups)  Two weeks after the conference, he died of a heart attack and has been missed since.  Here is a link to the honorary legislative measure adopted by the Georgia state legislature in memory of Phillip: http://www1.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sr1513.htm

How can we make acu accessible to military veterans?

With 23 yrs of experience, NADA member Karen Vaughn is featured in the news today on her work with vets: "...the guys who have been here a while will bring a new guy and introduce him to me, then proceed to explain to the new guy why he needs to get acupuncture."

Here is the link to the full story:

http://www.wect.com/story/14531222/acupuncture-used-on-wounded-warriors?redirected=true

Below is a clip from a blog posted on Psych Central by therapist and addictions specialist Richard Zwolinski. 

"I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I mention one of the treatment modalities I use. But auricular (ear) acupuncture works. Especially in the treatment of addiction where it is used for detox and relapse prevention.

It isn’t very well known because it is not generally reimbursed by insurance, so essentially I (and other practitioners) are performing a free service.

Ear acupuncture complements other therapies, but isn’t a main treatment, itself. It is a hard-sell to addiction programs. Not many programs want their staff doing treatments that they cannot bill for. I was initially skeptical that such a simple treatment modality (compared to regular acupuncture, much simpler) could be effective but several years ago I enrolled in a program when my then boss said that he had heard good things about it...." For the full blog click here:  http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapy-soup/2011/04/ear-acupuncture-for-stress-anxiety-and-addiction/

(Some corrections:  Richard also mentions that Lincoln Recovery Center is a place where counselors can get NADA training, but as of last December, unfortunately Lincoln is no longer a training center.  Please see the May 2011 issue of Guidepoints to learn more about NADA's efforts to create new training centers like Lincoln's, or visit the NADA advocacy page:  http://acudetox.com/nada-protocol/nada-advocacy.html  

Also, Richard refers to Acu Detox Specialists as "ear acupuncturists" but NADA does not hold that an ADS is the equivalent of an "acupuncturist" or an "ear acupuncturist.")

The following is a guest blog by Megan Yarberry, originally posted on the the Traditional Chinese Medical College of Hawaii website.  She is dean of academics at TCMCH.  Megan has facilitated several NADA trainings including Haiti, Uganda and Kenya, including one at a few years back at Omari Project, whose counselors have been providing NADA treatments inside prisons.  This training was designed to empower the prison staff at Malindi with NADA ear acupuncture skills, so that treatments could be available more frequently to the prisoners. 

Last day to pre-register for the NADA conference

in Kansas City, MO May 20-21.

Save up to $60!

Click here to register!

In anticipation of the upcoming 2011 conference in Kansas City, MO May 20-21, 2011, we are delighted to bring you video footage from last year's conference.  Our new resource page has a section on videos, and all of the videos can be browsed at this link:

http://acudetox.com/nada-protocol/news-and-resources/14-videos/98-2010-conference.html

Here are some of the links to the videos.

1. Michael Smith's keynote address

2. Sickle Cell Foundation Support Group members share about the power of acu detox to manage severe pain episodes

3. Short video of the Board singing to the retiring office managers, Jay and Mary Renaud.

4. 5-minute history of NADA from Pat Culliton, NADA co-founder.

Don't forget:  advanced registration ends April 15, 2011 for the NADA Conference in Kansas City:  Psychological First Aid and Communities of Recovery  

Students and Missouri resident discounts!  Register here!

Humberto Brocca y Sandra Tovar Kuri, de NADA Mexico, escribieron un articulo 'Acupuntura y Desintoxicación´en el periodico LiberAddictus.  Se puede leerlo en español aqui:

http://www.liberaddictus.org/Pdf/0411-34.pdf

Los ensayos de Humberto Brocca sobre NADA y el uso de hierbas Méxicanas tradicionales son disponible en español al NADA Literature Clearinghouse. Para ordenarlos, escribe un correo electronico:    This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

También hay un blog  en español que revisa la evidencia y investigaciónes cientificas sobre la acupuntura para adicciónes:

http://gabybiologycr.over-blog.es/article-36647576.html

....

NADA Mexico's Humberto Brocca and Sandra Tovar Kuri wrote an article on Acupuncture and Detoxification in the periodical LiberAddictus, which is available in spanish as a PDF file at this link:

http://www.liberaddictus.org/Pdf/0411-34.pdf

Humberto's essays on NADA and the use of traditional Mexican herbs for addiction is available in spanish through the NADA Literature Clearinghouse.  Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to order.