Ryan Smith—C.SMA of the Month (April 2023)

Ryan Smith, MS, L.AC., C.SMA is a practicing acupuncturist in New York City specializing in using acupuncture for cancer patients.

Ryan Smith completed the SMAC Program in July 2017. Shortly after graduating from Tri-state College of Acupuncture (TSCA) in 2008, his father was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer. He made it his mission to alleviate the debilitating symptoms that cancer patients often suffer from, such as pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbances, through the use of acupressure, acupuncture, and essential oils.

Smith has more than 15 years of experience working with cancer patients and has worked as a Lead Acupuncturist and Program Developer at the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center.

His work led him to create 5 Point App, a certified B Corp that aims to help cancer patients who suffer from cancer-related symptoms to self-administer acupressure to alleviate their symptoms. 5 Point App has created EnergyPoints™ to be a fully functional mobile health app that guides users through daily evidence-based acupressure rituals to manage fatigue and sleep disturbances.

Research to develop and test EnergyPoints™ was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the U.S. National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43CA261446 (Beck, SL, PI). The app content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

As a practitioner of Sports Medicine Acupuncture^®, the diagnostic pillars of acupuncture and traditional East Asian Medicine are essential to effectively using acupuncture for cancer patients. These provide a holistic understanding of the patient’s condition and guide the selection of appropriate acupuncture points. In addition to specialized and various needling and treatment techniques learned in SMAC, the diagnostics training made a big difference in my practice.

Learning postural assessment, part of the inspection pillar, has helped me treat cancer patients’ pain more effectively. Postural assessment allows me to identify imbalances that may have resulted from how the body healed after tumor resection, for example.

Going beyond identifying what muscles are “tight or ropy,” to more specifically which are “locked long” or “locked short,” is essential for knowing whether to tonify or disperse. These concepts point me toward how to restore the patient’s posture and movement patterns. So, beyond deactivating trigger points or muscle knots, I feel I’m getting to why the knots may be happening.

Postural assessment tells us where to go beyond “where it hurts” to where something might be out of balance and causing the pain.

For example, head and neck cancer patients often have forward head posture or cervical rotations due to surgeries in the anterior aspect of the neck. Radiation to the front of the neck is also common in this population and can lead to tissue fibrosis. Needling can help the fibrosis, and we can also improve posture and movement for a better overall outcome.

Breast cancer patients, after mastectomy, often present with forward shoulders or an elevated scapula. Many of these patients feel pain between their scapulas. Knowing to tonify and strengthen this area and disperse and release the pectoralis muscles has made a big difference for these patients.

Both head and neck and breast cancer patients often present with Upper Crossed Syndrome, so understanding assessment, stretches, and strengthening exercises taught in SMAC has been invaluable. Using off-channel motor point needling has effectively resolved complex patterns in my head, neck, and breast cancer patients. Only needling where it hurts will not solve the problem. By targeting motor points, practitioners can help to activate inhibited muscles and release tension in tight or hypertonic muscles. Balancing the locked long and locked short muscles begins with a postural assessment and cross-fiber muscle palpation.

Knowing what to tonify and disperse to restore proper posture and movement is critical to effective treatment. As we learn, restoring proper musculoskeletal function and neuromuscular communication often gets to the root of the pain patterns. These techniques taught in SMAC, from diagnostics to treatment, have made a difference in my practice of treating complex postural and pain patterns in patients with head and neck or breast cancer. By addressing the underlying muscular imbalances and compensations, acupuncture can help restore function and reduce pain, improving these patients’ overall quality of life.

Cancer patients also develop pain from playing sports or sitting at desks for long hours! They live lives and treatment aggravates existing pain. Some treatments, like aromatase inhibitors, make joints commonly affected by poor posture worse. Practitioners trained in Sports Medicine Acupuncture^® can use pattern diagnosis, our favorite pain-reducing acupoints that follow that diagnosis, and then layer in other tools in our SMAC toolboxes for more complex tendinomuscular meridian issues.

In the same way that SMAC has helped me treat pain in my patients, being an oncology acupuncturist has honed my internal diagnosis skills. I bring this to my athletes. I always use the Inquiry Pillar and its 10 Questions to pattern diagnosis to get to a root treatment. The SMAC program also encourages this. In the end, athletes have a competitive edge when all internal systems run optimally, including the organ’s energetic systems and emotional landscapes. I end up treating my orthopedic and cancer patients the same. Everyone gets a pattern diagnosis, root treatment, and musculoskeletal medicine when there is pain.

To connect with Ryan Smith, visit his C.SMA Directory Listing.