There are no specific, cookbook-type treatment protocols available with low-level laser acupuncture, just as there are no specific, cookbook-type treatment protocols with needle acupuncture. The practitioner needs, rather, a sophisticated knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and understanding of the actions of the acupuncture points, to be a successful practitioner with laser acupuncture.

I do not recommend practicing only with laser acupuncture, rather, I recommend adding it to the collection of acupuncture modalities - i.e., acupuncture needles, microamps electrical stimulation, moxibustion, cupping, Chinese herbal medicine, ion pumping cords, magnet therapies, etc. In America, it is now required that one have a minimum of 1,725 hours of acupuncture training, before one can take the acupuncture exam for certification in acupuncture, from the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

I hope the information provided below will be helpful. Thank you for your interest in low-level laser acupuncture.

How does this work? How can I learn to do it?

The area of low-level laser acupuncture is complex. Unfortunately there is no single laser that will do everything, and I do not recommend any specific lasers, I conduct laser acupuncture for pain, and formerly, with stroke patients with paralysis.

Technical considerations of laser acupuncture with painless, non-invasive laser acupuncture, we work with Class IIIb lasers (5 to 500 mW). One can start to burn the skin at greater than 500 mW (Class IV lasers). With laser acupuncture, we also primarily only work with wavelengths in the red-beam range (600 - 700 nm) and in the near infrared-beam range (800 - 1000 nm).

The red-beam laser has only a shallow penetration, around 0.8 of one mm, direct energy - used on acupuncture points on the hand, foot (not the heel), face, or sometimes the ear. The red-beam is fine for the shallow Jing-Well points on the foot.