Are acupuncture and herbal medicine separate degrees?
It's a fair question — the field genuinely does split this way in some schools, so wondering whether you have to choose one narrow lane or the other is a reasonable place to start. At Five Branches, the honest answer is: it depends which track you enter, and both are real, complete options rather than one being a "lesser" version of the other.
Are Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Separate Degrees?
It's a fair question — the field genuinely does split this way in some schools, so wondering whether you have to choose one narrow lane or the other is a reasonable place to start.
At Five Branches, the honest answer is: it depends which track you enter, and both are real, complete options rather than one being a "lesser" version of the other.
| Program | Includes Herbal Medicine? | Length / Hours |
|---|---|---|
| DAcHM / MAcHM (Doctor & Master of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine, dual-degree) | Yes — full Chinese herbology track | 4-year program, 3435 hours / 195.5 units |
| DAc / MAc (Doctor & Master of Acupuncture, acupuncture-only, dual-degree) | No herbal medicine | 3-year program, 2647.5 hours / 149 units |
The DAcHM/MAcHM path covers what the school calls the "five branches" of TCM — Acupuncture, Herbology, Tuina Massage, Energetics, and Chinese Dietary Medicine — including six trimesters of herbology covering over 500 individual herbs and 350 classical and modern formulas. The DAc/MAc path covers the same "five branches" curriculum minus Herbology (the "four branches" version), and is aimed particularly at students planning to practice outside California, or MDs and other licensed Western medical practitioners who are already authorized to use acupuncture needles in California and want an acupuncture-focused credential.
So it isn't that acupuncture and herbal medicine are always separate degrees here — it's that you choose, up front, whether herbal medicine is part of your training or not. (Per Five Branches' DAcHM/MAcHM/DAc/MAc Catalog, checked 08/2026.)
Are you drawn more toward a practice centered on needling and bodywork, or one that also folds in Chinese herbal prescribing?
Sources
- Five Branches University — Dac Mac Dual Degree Program checked 2026-08
- Five Branches University — Dtcm Mtcm Dual Degree Dac Mac Dual Degree Catalog checked 2026-08
- Five Branches University, DAcHM-MAcHM-DAc-MAc-Catalog-2026-1, pp. 17, 24-25 (Program Overview and Educational Objectives (www.fivebranches.edu) checked 2026-07
- Five Branches University — Tcm Herbology checked 2026-08
- Five Branches University — The Five Branches checked 2026-08
- The school's own published catalog and website checked 2026-07
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