Meet Huiling Tang of Tang Acupuncture

Today we’d like to introduce you to Huiling Tang.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am a witness of “Acupuncture and Chinese medicine heals” miracles. I was born in Jinan, Shandong province, a big city in the mid-east of China. I had suffered from skin problems a lot during my first several years of life. My parents took me to almost all the top Dermatologists in the city to seek help but were not able to relieve my issue eventually. An old Chinese Medicine doctor was finally introduced to my family and my mom would give a try. After several months of acupuncture and herbal formula treatments, all the ugly rashes and plaques were gone and my hair grew back. My mom kept telling the story and encouraged me to study Chinese Medicine.

In the junior year of my high school, my grandpa had a very bad stroke and stayed in the hospital for several weeks. I hate to see my grandpa lying in the bed helplessly and my parents rushed between work and hospital. Luckily the Western and Chinese medicine doctors in the hospital worked together to help him and it was very impressive to see my grandpa started to walk on himself again after several weeks of acupuncture treatments. That was the first time I decided to learn Chinese Medicine seriously to help others and save lives.

After graduated from high school, I got the offer from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, one of the top Chinese Medicine Schools in China as well as in the world. 300 miles away from my hometown, Beijing is much more busy and stressful. Plus, the five-year program was packed with education and training of both Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine. Only three months after I started my college, I found something not right. I craved on sweets and carbs, gained 20 LB and my period didn’t come for no reason. Quite some of my classmates had the same issue and we were referred to the OBGYN department in the affiliated hospital of the University. We were given customized herbal formulas and acupuncture treatments depending on individual constitutions and patterns. All the girls had the periods back in one to several months and got rid of the extra weights gradually.

It was a start of my whole life journey to explore the healing power of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. What I have learned from my own experience is to treat a condition both body and mind in a holistic and integrative way.

Has it been a smooth road?
After so many years of study and research of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, I found myself like both clinic practice and basic research. The winter after I got my Doctoral degree, I had a chance to come to the US for post-doctoral training and research on traumatic brain injury. I decided to give it a try. So, I came to the US and worked with Dr. Donald G Stein in the Brain Research Lab, Department of Emergency Medicine in Medical School of Emory University. I enjoyed the time in Emory and got my language improved huge. I have finished several projects and published most of my work. However, I still have the dream to practice Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture sometime in my life. I made another big decision at the end of 2014. Just several weeks after I started my Acupuncture practice, I realized it was not easy because the practice of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are alternative or supplemental medicine and excluded from the conventional Medical Care. Almost all the patients in my clinic have tried all the conventional medicine such as medication or surgery but with limited improvement. The cases are always tough and challenging.

It is not easy to explain how acupuncture and Chinese Medicine work. The philosophy of Chinese Medicine is the harmony between the human and the nature. Since Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture were from 2000 years ago when there was no modern conventional medicine, the concept of diseases and treatments have been written in a special system. We could call it a different language from that of modern Western Medicine.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Tang Acupuncture story. Tell us more about the business.
My clinic’s name is Tang Acupuncture. The word “Tang” in Chinese means sugar and sweet. So “Tang Acupuncture” means the acupuncture treatment is comfortable and effective; the experience of the Acupuncture is not scary at all but very relaxing and no suffering. Despite the size of the needle, most patients would not feel anything during the insertion of the Acupuncture needle. Not only the pain management, I also specialize in cosmetic/facial acupuncture and infertility treatment. I have clinical and research training both in Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine. I hold a medical degree in Chinese Medicine and a doctoral degree in Integrative medicine which makes me outstanding.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The United States is facing a national opioid epidemic, and medical systems are in need of non-drug strategies that can be applied to decrease the opioid dependence. Acupuncture has emerged as a powerful, evidence-based, safe, cost-effective, and available treatment modality suitable to meeting this need.

Acupuncture’s cost-effectiveness could dramatically decrease health care expenditures, both from the standpoint of treating acute pain and through avoiding the development of opioid addiction that requires costly care, destroys quality of life, and can lead to fatal overdose.

Numerous federal regulatory agencies have advised or mandated that healthcare systems and providers offer non-pharmacologic treatment options, and acupuncture stands as the most evidence-based, immediately available choice to fulfil these calls.

I expect Acupuncture would be incorporated into the main healthcare system both in the clinics and hospital settings as diverse as the emergency department, labor and delivery suites, and neonatal intensive care units to treat a variety of pain. Acupuncture is already being successfully and meaningfully utilized by the Veterans Administration and various branches of the U.S. Military. I also expect Acupuncture as a Non-drug treatment or strategy for not only diseases such like pain syndrome also for disease prevention to help more and more patients.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1305 Hembree Rd, Suite 204, Roswell, GA 30076
• Website: www.atl-acupuncture.com
• Phone: (770) 696-4675
• Email: dr.tang@atl-acupuncture.com

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