Sung S. Kim, M.D.

Biography

Sung S. Kim is a physician and surgeon with extensive experience in Chinese Acupuncture. He has specialized in Chinese Acupuncture for over 30 years.

Certified as a surgeon by the American Board of Surgery in 1971, Dr. Kim became interested in acupuncture in 1972, when his wife’s chronic neck pain was cured through acupuncture treatments performed by Taiwanese acupuncture doctors visiting the U.S.

Dr. Kim’s wife had been suffering from chronic right shoulder and neck pain for over three years. She had undergone physical therapy, right anterior scalenotomy, x-ray treatment — all without improvement. Only the acupuncture treatment helped.

Dr. Kim subsequently worked with visiting acupuncturists. He studied Korean and English textbooks and attended many seminars throughout the United States at that time.

In 1975, he published the article "Acupuncture Mode of Action in Migraine Headache" in the Medical Journal of Acupuncture, and presented the paper at an international symposium in Las Vegas. There he met the leader of the Korean acupuncture delegation, Dr. Chow, Chancellor of Kyung Hee University.

Kyung Hee University is a prestigious university, having both a Western medical college and also a Traditional Oriental Medical College under its umbrella. After meeting Dr. Chow, Dr. Kim was able to study at the acupuncture clinic of Kyung Hee University’s Traditional Oriental Medical College. Following his work in Korea, Dr. Kim continued his studies in Germany, Sweden, China and Korea.

In 1976, Dr. Kim wrote another paper, "Mediators of Acupuncture", which attracted worldwide attention. This paper was presented at an acupuncture symposium in New York City, as well as at the First International Congress of Acupuncture, in Beijing, China.

From the beginning, Dr. Kim has advocated a model of acupuncture founded on the notion that acupuncture does its harmonizing work through the autonomic nervous system. As he gained experience, his conviction that acupuncture works through the autonomic nervous system deepened. Dr. Kim developed a system of acupuncture called "autonomous traditional acupuncture".

Many authors writing on acupuncture are now  embracing theories Dr. Kim first proposed decades ago. However, Dr. Kim’s approach to acupuncture remains unique in that every placement of a needle is intended to enhance a patient’s general autonomic nervous system, at the same time treating the patient’s immediate, more local, problem.