While acupuncture has been a successful Chinese medical treatment for over 5,000 years, it was not well known to the generalU.S. public until the early 1970s, when President Nixon reopened relationships with China. Acupuncture was first met with skepticism, both by the U.S. public at large and the conventional American Medical Association. Slowly, Americans and other western countries began to conduct studies, sometimes in conjunction with the Chinese, about the efficacy of acupuncture. Certain types of acupuncture, particularly for pain management and drug related addictions, were easily translated into western medical theory and could be easily learned and used by western doctors. Thus, the idea of using some acupuncture gained mainstream acceptance. As this acceptance grew, so did the use of acupuncture and Chinese medical theories and methods, at least amongst the numbers of people open to "alternative" medicine. By the 1990s, despite initial scientific skepticism, acupuncture became one of the most accepted "alternative" medicines in the United States, used to varying degrees by AMA physicians and licensed Chinese doctors, and accepted on some levels by health and government institutions.
Acupuncture theory purports that the body has an energy force called Qi ("chee") that runs through pathways, called meridians. Qi involves not only the physical, but also spiritual, intellectual, and emotional aspects of people. When the flow of Qi is disrupted for any reason, ill-health ensues. To get the Qi flowing smoothly and health restored, points along the meridians are stimulated either by acupuncture (very fine needles), moxibustion (burning herbs over the points), or acupressure (using massage on the points). Often, these three methods are used together. The concept of Qi is also used in other medical and spiritual philosophies, and was broadly used in the "New Age" theories of the 1980s and 1990s, which helped popularize acupuncture and vice versa.
Acupuncture began to be used in the United States primarily for pain relief and prevention for ailments including backaches, headaches, arthritic conditions, fibromylgia, and asthmatic conditions. Because the type of acupuncture used for these ailments was easy to learn and adapt to western medicine, it was more quickly accepted. The introduction of acupuncture in the United States sparked interest by western medical researchers to gain a more complete understanding of traditional Chinese medicine and to learn why, in western terms, acupuncture "works." Theories soon abounded and those couched in western terms further popularized acupuncture. A study by Canadian Dr. Richard Chen, for instance, found that acupuncture produces a large amount of cortisol, the body's "natural" cortisone, a pain killer. In 1977, Dr. Melzach, a noted physician in the field of pain, found that western medicine's trigger points, used to relieve pain, correspond with acupuncture points.
Methods of acupuncture that became common in western culture were ones that seemed "high-tech," were (partially or mostly) developed within western culture, or developed in contemporary times, such as Electro-acupuncture and Auricular acupuncture. Electro-acupuncture, often used for pain relief or prevention, administers a small amount of electric power with various frequencies to send small electrical impulses through an acupuncture needle. Electro-acupuncture was first reported successfully used as an anesthesia for a tonsillectomy in China in 1958, and the Chinese thereafter have used it as a common surgical anesthesia. Doctors at Albert Einstein Medical Center and Northville State Hospital successfully conducted surgeries using Electro-acupuncture as an anesthesia between 1971 and 1972. Contemporary Auricular acupuncture, or ear acupuncture, developed largely outside China in France in the 1950s. It started becoming popular in the United States mostly for treating addictions like cigarette smoking, alcoholism, and drug addiction.
By the 1980s, the popularity of acupuncture supported the establishment of many U.S. schools teaching acupuncture within a "Traditional Chinese Medicine" degree. Approximately sixty such schools existed by the late 1990s. A quasi-governmental peer review group recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation, called ACAOM (Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine) was devoted specifically to accrediting schools of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Many states licensed acupuncturists and doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine, while some states would allow only American Medical Association physicians to practice acupuncture.
Acupuncture also gained broader acceptance by the government and health institutions in the 1990s. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that there were approximately 10,000 acupuncture specialists in the United States and approximately 3,000 practicing acupuncturists who were physicians. In 1993 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that Americans were spending $500 million per year and making approximately 9 to 12 million patient visits for acupuncture treatments. A few years later, the FDA lifted their ban of acupuncture needles being considered "investigational devices." In late 1997, the National Institute of Health announced that "… there is clear evidence that needle acupuncture treatment is effective for postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, nausea of pregnancy, and postoperative dental pain … there are a number of other pain-related conditions for which acupuncture may be effective as an adjunct therapy, an acceptable alternative, or as part of a comprehensive treatment program." In late 1998, the prestigious and often conservative Journal of the American Medical Association published an article agreeing that acupuncture, as well as other alternative therapies, can be effective for certain disease management. This admission from the AMA was a sign of how far acupuncture and Chinese medicine had been accepted in "popular culture"—if the AMA had accepted acupuncture under certain conditions, then the general public certainly had accepted it to a much greater extent.
Further Reading:
Bischko, Johannes. An Introduction to Acupuncture. 2nd ed. Heidelberg, Germany, Karl F. Haug, 1985.
Butler, Kurt. A Consumer's Guide to "Alternative Medicine": A Close Look at Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Faith-healing, and Other Unconventional Treatments. Buffalo, New York, Prometheus Books, 1992.
Cargill, Marie. Acupuncture: A Viable Medical Alternative. Westport, Connecticut, Praeger, 1994.
Cunningham, M. J. East & West: Acupuncture, An Alternative to Suffering. Huntington, West Virginia, University Editions, 1993.
Dale, Ralph Alan. Dictionary of Acupuncture: Terms, Concepts and Points. North Miami Beach, Florida, Dialectic Publishing, 1993.
Firebrace, Peter, and Sandra Hill. Acupuncture: How It Works, How It Cures. New Canaan, Connecticut, Keats, 1994.
Mann, Felix. Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing and How It Works Scientifically. New York, Vintage Books, 1973.
Tinterow, Maurice M. Hypnosis, Acupuncture and Pain: Alternative Methods for Treatment. Wichita, Kansas, Bio-Communications Press, 1989.
Tung, Ching-chang; translation and commentary by Miriam Lee.Tung shih chen chiu cheng ching chi hsüeh hsüeh/Master Tong's Acupuncture: An Ancient Alternative Style in Modern Clinical Practice. Boulder, Colorado, Blue Poppy Press, 1992.
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