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Dr. Richard Hazel is a distinguished Doctor of Acupuncture and a New York State Licensed Acupuncturist, renowned for his expertise in Functional Acupuncture, with a specialized focus on Orthopedic & Sports Acupuncture. With a passion for optimizing athletic performance and facilitating recovery, Dr. Hazel proudly partners as the acupuncturist for UB Athletics, working with their football, volleyball, and other dedicated athletes.
A Leader in Integrative Sports Medicine
Dr. Hazel's approach integrates advanced acupuncture techniques with a deep understanding of human physiology and athletic demands. His commitment to enhancing recovery, regeneration, and adaptation to exercise stress is evident in his significant contributions to the field. He is a co-author of Chapter 22, "Acupuncture: Its relationship to Recovery, Regeneration and Function," in the authoritative book Fundamentals of Recovery, Regeneration, and Adaptation to Exercise Stress: An Integrated Approach (Springer Nature). This publication solidifies his position as a thought leader in the application of acupuncture for athletic populations.
Pioneering Education and Global Influence
A graduate with honors from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine – New York, where he earned both his Master of Science in Acupuncture (Orthopedic & Sports Medicine) and his Doctor of Acupuncture, Dr. Hazel is a dedicated educator. He has developed and taught extensive curricula in Motor Point Acupuncture and Trigger Point Needling, sharing his knowledge through online courses on Podia and at prestigious international seminars. His teaching engagements span across Europe and Australia, including the European Sports and Orthopedic Acupuncture Congresses in Barcelona and Amsterdam, and workshops in Poland, Canada, Ireland, and France. His work has significantly influenced practitioners globally, establishing him as a world-renowned authority in Functional Acupuncture.
Dedicated to Athlete Well-being
Through his partnership with UB Athletics since 2024, Dr. Hazel provides cutting-edge acupuncture treatments to help athletes achieve peak performance, accelerate injury recovery, and maintain optimal physical well-being. His hands-on experience with collegiate athletes underscores his practical application of advanced acupuncture principles in a high-performance sports environment.
Episodes
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
If a muscle tests strong when you expect it to be weak, do you not treat it?
If you expect a muscle to be tight but the length test is fine, you don't treat it?
What about maintenance for your patients? You only treat what tests weak?
Sunday Aug 14, 2022
Sunday Aug 14, 2022
This is an excellent way to stimulate the deep peroneal nerve for someone with drop foot.
I walk you through the location of the nerve trunk and how best to position the patient for a comfortable stimulation that is often very successful.
Sunday Aug 07, 2022
Sunday Aug 07, 2022
No one can own orthopedic assessment or treatment with motor points and trigger points. And you can't own acupuncture points. But we don't have a generic name for a treatment of motor points with electrical stimulation to treat pain and mobility issues. We see plenty of names that were created to represent a single person's perspective but that others are not supposed to use if they didn't study that method.
We need a term that anyone who is sitting in front of a computer can search for to find an acupuncturist who uses orthopedic assessment and treatment of motor and trigger points to relieve pain and improve mobility.
And it needs to be free to anyone who wants to learn and use it.
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Neuromodulation is a big word. I wanted to be sure I knew what it was and I realized that we should all be using this word more often to explain what we do, especially when we talk to medical professionals.
Here's the link to the study I mentioned: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/13/4647/pdf
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Understanding postural issues, over-use issues, the actions and antagonists and synergists of muscles is essential to treating tough cases and in many cases we simply can't do muscle testing on patients due to age, size, level of pain or other reasons. When we understand how to body responds to pain and over-use we can often put together a solid treatment plan without muscle tests.
The thought experiment today was all the ways I can think of that the TFL can cause low back pain. How many can you think of?
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
Sunday Jul 10, 2022
There are things that happen to the body when there's injury or a surgery. One of them can be the fascia lata getting very tight.
You won't find this from muscle testing. You need to know what you are looking for and how to address it.
I mentioned IASTM in this episode so here's a good example of IASTM from Brent Brookbush of the Brookbush Institute:
Saturday Jul 02, 2022
Saturday Jul 02, 2022
Sometimes people make things too complicated when there's a simple treatment that will get fast pain relief for most patients.
I'll piss some people off with this one. But I want to help the people who are new to orthopedic assessment get fast results for this condition that can take months to resolve without an intervention with acupuncture and electric stimulation.
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
Sunday Jun 26, 2022
I'm a big fan of studying common peripheral nerve entrapments from medical books that are by and for MD's.
Here are some strategies that I have success with for foot pain and numbness that involves consideration of plantar nerve distribution and entrapments.
Here's my favorite reference:
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Thursday Jun 16, 2022
Not all SI Joint pain is coming from the SI Joint. In fact, many or most times it's coming from something else.
The SIJ is often the underlying instability for many issues like hip and back pain, but that doesn't mean the SIJ will hurt.
When there's pain at the SIJ I always check these three things first.
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
Sunday Jun 05, 2022
If you find that you rarely see a need to treat the hip adductors and you are only doing a manual muscle test of them as a group, you are likely missing some things.