Louise Demorest takes a long, thin acupuncture needle out of its white envelope and, with a practised hand, inserts it in the shoulder of the woman lying on the treatment bed.

The patient is a public health nurse who has been coming to Demorest for years for treatment. She brings her whole family.

At last count four million Canadians have tried some sort of alternative medicine — 12 per cent have tried acupuncture. The numbers are growing.

“When I started [my] practice people came in and they expected to see a bone through my nose and doing voodoo,” says Demorest, who has been pushing needles into shoulders for 20 years. “Now there is a lot more respect, a lot more interest.”

Only five provinces regulate acupuncture – B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland. Just two — Ontario and B.C. — regulate Chinese herbal medicine. Tattoo parlours have more rules than Chinese medicine clinics in the rest of Canada.

But one of the major issues surrounding Chinese medicine right now isn’t regulation of credentials — it’s the language of the practitioners.

Language divide

In B.C., exams can be written and courses can be taken in Chinese — a provision that is unique in the country. No practitioner of Chinese medicine has to speak English.

Everywhere else in Canada, Chinese medicine practitioners must be fluent in English. More.

See: CBC News

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