Richard Blitstein

Richard Blitstein L.Ac., MSTOM, Dipl CH, Dipl Ac., practices in Bilbao, Spain where he specializes in male and female infertility. He is a graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Chicago and was a professor in their Oriental Medicine Department as well as a supervisor in the school clinic for years. In order to gain greater expertise in the treatment of fertility with TCM, he has spent time in China following, “old doctors” a term used to refer to practitioners, usually over 70, who are revered as the holders of decades of knowledge and experience.

In Nanjing he followed two eminent Chinese fertility doctors seeing over 1000 patients during 6 weeks of advanced clinical study. One of these doctors, Xia Gui Cheng, is currently regarded as the most distinguished fertility specialist in China and is famous for turning away students. Dr. Xia is credited with creating the method of treatment according to the phases of the menstrual cycle. For Mr. Blitstein, perseverance and connections gave him the rare opportunity to study under these doctors, who while adhering closely to classical Chinese medical theory, incorporate western testing in their practice. These doctors’ treatment methods form a great deal of his practice methods and he has created seminars to share these treatment methods with other practitioners

He has long been interested in research, leading him to investigate pattern differentiation in cyclic vomiting patients at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and lead a research study on interobserver reliability in Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis techniques. His research has been published in the journals Medical Acupuncture and The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine He has also been a presenter at the AAOM conference, Society for Acupuncture Research Conference, Pacific Symposium and Resolve Fertility Conferences. He has also worked on the editorial board of the journal Integrative Cancer Therapies.

Mr. Blitstein is also a board member and volunteer coordinator for Mindful Medicine Worldwide, www.mindfulmedicineworldwide.org a non-profit organization which maintains permanent year around staffing of acupuncturists and other health care practitioners at clinics in Nepal to serve the poor and under-privileged who have little or no access to health care.