Stylostixis
What is Stylostixis?
I doubt most people who read this have every heard the term stylostixis. “The Free Dictionary” gives the following definition, “treatment of pain or disease by inserting the tips of needles at specific points on the skin.”
Now does it sound familiar? 
The medical term for acupuncture is stylostixis. Why don’t we use it? Most every “health care field” uses the “medical term” to describe their profession. Why don’t acupuncturists? Are we that unique or do we really want to give the impression of being less authoritative, less medical, and more woo woo?
Who uses the term stylostixis?
Interestingly enough I never heard this term during Acupuncture school. Don’t you find that a little odd? I know I do. After all it was grad school and it is a professional health care field. It would seem “normal” to use a medical term for the therapy you are trained in. I don’t know, maybe I’m a little off here…
If you search google for stylostixis you will find that there isn’t a lot about it other than definitions and a few cracker-box web sites spamming for medical acupuncture. Maybe that should tell you something. It seems that anyone using the term is directing their marketing toward medical doctors. That makes sense, doesn’t it? How many doctors want to call themselves acupuncturists? Probably not that many.
So, it really doesn’t seem like anyone is using the term.
Should Acupuncturist use the term Stylostxis?
Do we do a disservice to our profession by not using a medical term as our title? When we think of medical therapies, what usually comes to most peoples’ minds are, allopathic, homeopathics, naturopathic, chiropractic, and osteopathic. Then we have acupuncturists?! By using a more generic or common term to classify our modality, do we not declassify ourselves from what is perceived by the public as “authentic medical modalities?” Just by the names we use, we put our medical practice in the class of “alternative” medicine in the public’s eyes. Remember that acupuncture has been around a lot longer than most medical modalities ;).
We use such terms as Oriental Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, or just Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, or a whole host of other less than medical sounding terms. Why?
As a class of health care practitioners, are we insistent on keeping ourselves from being seen by the public as a true standard of “authentic” medical practice? Or is it the case that as a whole, the acupuncture community easily resigned itself to the position of woo woo medical practitioners?
I for one, have found Classical True Acupuncture to be more scientific than any of the “-pathic” medical modalities mentioned above. It is for this reason that I wish our community, as a whole, would strive harder to prove the scientific basis of stylostixis and adhere to more rigid terminology.
Manfred Porkert has attempted to use medical terminology in his writings of Classical Acupuncture, however, most acupuncturist will never look at his books because he used the Latin and Greek terminology. It would behoove us all to realize that using medical terminology to clarify and define acupuncture (stylostixis) theories would be a great benefit to all acupuncturist and acupuncture as a whole. It would give all countries a solid and universal foundational terminology on which to discuss this ancient form of medicine.
I like the term stylostixis, although I’m not sure it would be the correct term for our profession. After all there is no “-pathic” on the end of it, and would we say, “I’m a stylostixic medical practitioner” or “I practice stylopathic medicine?” I’m not really sure myself, but do you think it would add credence to our profession in the public’s eyes? We all know how people instantly give credibility to those who have an unpronounceable term next to their name.
Written and contributed by Charles Strodtbeck.
Convenient location of the clinic
The Classical True Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine clinic is conveniently located in South Denver, Colorado (Centennial), minutes from Aurora, Castle Rock, Cherry Hills Village, DTC, Denver Tech Center, Englewood, Greenwood Village, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Lone Tree, and Parker, Colorado.
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