LIVE discussion • 1 CEU from CAB and NCCAOM* available • FREE for ASLAT members
What Twenty-Two Years of Inflammation Research Reveals at the Heart of Chronic Pain That TCM 4.0+ Finally Solves
Join Steve H. Liu, LAc., BSEE for a clinical discussion of the July 2026 New York Times Magazine report on inflammation, read against TIME’s 2004 cover story and the 2022 McGill paper. Twenty-two years of research now converge on one conclusion: the chronic pain in your treatment room, heart disease, and cancer are faces of the same unresolved process, and suppressing that process with drugs carries a real cost. He will make the clinical case for FAST Protocol, TCM 4.0, and TCM 4.0+ as the dosed, non-pharmaceutical way to help it finish instead.
Session Date:
September 9th at 5pm PST
Presented By:
Steve Liu, L.Ac., BSEE
Attend Live and Earn:
1 CEU from CAB and NCCAOM*
More than 100 million Americans live with chronic pain, more than heart disease, diabetes, and cancer combined. Twenty-two years of inflammation research now traces all of it back to the same unresolved process.
“Across specialties, we all study the same disease.“
Peter Libby, cardiologist, quoted in The New York Times Magazine, July 29, 2026
The 2026 report closes the case that inflammation causes disease rather than simply accompanying it. The CANTOS trial enrolled roughly 10,000 patients and cut major cardiovascular events by 15% by lowering inflammation alone, independent of cholesterol. Researchers now describe a single process, “inflammaging,” running underneath cardiology, oncology, and neurology. The same trial exposed the cost of blocking it with a drug. Suppress inflammation everywhere in the body and you suppress the inflammation patients need to fight infection.
Read alongside the 2022 McGill paper, the picture sharpens for anyone treating pain. Suppressing acute inflammation early does not just delay healing. It programs pain to persist. Chronic pain, heart disease, and cancer are not three unrelated epidemics. They are three faces of one inflammatory process that never finished, and the Western default of NSAIDs, steroids, and symptom suppression is structurally positioned to keep it unfinished.
That is the opening this session is built around. Your patients already get real relief from your hands, your needles, and your diagnostics. What the research keeps pointing to is a dosed, non-pharmaceutical way to help that inflammatory process actually complete at the tissue level, without the infection trade-off CANTOS exposed. Steve walks through all three layers of the answer: the FAST Protocol, TCM 4.0, and TCM 4.0+.
This clinically focused live discussion will help you learn:
- Why chronic pain, heart disease, and cancer are three faces of one unresolved inflammatory process rather than three unrelated epidemics
- What the CANTOS trial proved about inflammation as a cause, the infection trade-off that came with suppressing it body-wide, and why GLP-1 drugs appear to be hitting the same target from another direction
- Why the Western default of NSAIDs, steroids, and symptom suppression is structurally positioned to prevent resolution rather than promote it
- How the FAST Protocol works with the body’s resolution process instead of against it, accelerating cellular and mitochondrial activity rather than blocking the cascade
- How TCM 4.0 turns that into dosed, mechanism-based laser parameters, reproducible and teachable, layered onto the hands-on medicine you already practice
- What TCM 4.0+ adds through pain neuroscience education and reward regulation, reaching the psychosocial dimension the inflammation research alone does not
Secure Your Spot in this Live Discussion September 9th with Steve Liu, L.Ac.
1 CEU from CAB and NCCAOM* available for attendees
Part of a monthly series of 1 CEU sessions, all free for members of ASLAT – join today and save!
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1 CEU for attending live + access to recording
*Course Participant Attestation:
I understand that the information in this course presented by the Provider and/or Instructor(s) is for educational purposes only and should only be applied with appropriate clinical judgment and used by a trained and licensed practitioner. Governmental laws and regulations vary from region to region and the contents of this course vary in permissible usage. The participant is required to check their local, state, and federal laws and regulations regarding the practice requirements and scope of practice issues and the use of the information of this course including, but not limited to, theory, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. I acknowledge that NCCAOM does not endorse any specific treatment regimens of any kind. Furthermore, if I use any modalities or treatments taught in this course, I agree to waive, release, indemnify, discharge, and covenant not to sue NCCAOM from and against any liability, claims, demands, or causes of action whatsoever, arising out of any injury, loss, or damage that a person may sustain related to the use of the information in this course. I understand that this Release is governed by the laws of District of Columbia, U.S.A. and shall survive the termination or expiration of this course.
Presented by Steve Liu, L.Ac., BSEE
As an acupuncturist and a leader in laser therapies for over 20 years, Steve Liu saw the incredible potential for Acupuncturists to provide not only better outcomes but improved opportunities to grow their practices with these natural, safe, and effective therapies.
Steve Liu has developed innovative and effective treatments for chronic soft tissue injury, macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, and others, incorporating acupuncture and photobiomodulation therapies with significant results for over 25 years.
