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| === Recognition by Western Medicine === | | === Recognition by Western Medicine === |
| Since the incorporation of Traditional Chinese Medicine into the Western-style hospitals in China, China has pioneered research into acupuncture's application and clinical effects. The Western World, particularly Europe, discovered acupuncture through France's acquisition of Vietnam, which they called the French Indochina. Dr. Nogier was a notable French doctor whose research on ear acupuncture between 1951 and 1996 built the bridge between oriental acupuncture and Western medicine.[http://www.americanacupuncture.com/history.htm] When President Nixon opened the doors in to China in 1972, acupuncture gained world wide recognition as a form of medical treatment. More attention was called to acupuncture when American journalist James Reston had an emergency appendectomy in China with acupuncture used as the anesthetic. [http://www.americanacupuncture.com/history.htm] | | Since the incorporation of Traditional Chinese Medicine into the Western-style hospitals in China, China has pioneered research into acupuncture's application and clinical effects. The Western World, particularly Europe, discovered acupuncture through France's acquisition of Vietnam, which they called the French Indochina. Dr. Nogier was a notable French doctor whose research on ear acupuncture between 1951 and 1996 built the bridge between oriental acupuncture and Western medicine.[http://www.americanacupuncture.com/history.htm] When President Nixon opened the doors in to China in 1972, acupuncture gained world wide recognition as a form of medical treatment. More attention was called to acupuncture when American journalist James Reston wrote an article in the ''New York Times'' about an emergency appendectomy he had experienced in China in which acupuncture was used as the anesthetic. [http://www.americanacupuncture.com/history.htm] |
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| Acupuncture's origins in China are uncertain. One explanation is that some soldiers wounded in battle by arrows were cured of chronic afflictions that were otherwise untreated,[24] and there are variations on this idea.[25] In China, the practice of acupuncture can perhaps be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones.[26] In 1963 a bian stone was found in Duolon County, Mongolia, pushing the origins of acupuncture into the Neolithic age.[27] Heiroglyphs and pictographs have been found dating from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BCE) which suggest that acupuncture was practiced along with moxibustion.[28] Despite improvements in metallurgy over centuries, it was not until the 2nd century BCE during the Han Dynasty that stone and bone needles were replaced with metal.[27] The earliest records of acupuncture is in the Shiji (史記, in English, Records of the Grand Historian) with references in later medical texts that are equivocal, but could be interpreted as discussing acupuncture. The earliest Chinese medical text to describe acupuncture is the Huangdi Neijing, the legendary Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (History of Acupuncture) which was compiled around 305–204 B.C. The Huangdi Neijing does not distinguish between acupuncture and moxibustion and gives the same indication for both treatments. The Mawangdui texts, which also date from the second century BC though antedating both the Shiji and Huangdi Neijing, mentions the use of pointed stones to open abscesses and moxibustion but not acupuncture, but by the second century BCE, acupuncture replaced moxibustion as the primary treatment of systemic conditions.[8]
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| In Europe, examinations of the 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman have identified 15 groups of tattoos on his body, some of which are located on what are now seen as contemporary acupuncture points. This has been cited as evidence that practices similar to acupuncture may have been practiced elsewhere in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.[29]
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| [edit] Middle history
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| Acupuncture spread from China to Korea, Japan and Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia. Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century were among the first to bring reports of acupuncture to the West.[30]
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| [edit] Modern era
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| In the 1970s, acupuncture became better known in the United States after an article appeared in The New York Times by James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy while visiting China. While standard anesthesia was used for the actual surgery, Mr. Reston was treated with acupuncture for post-operative discomfort.[31] The National Acupuncture Association (NAA), the first national association of acupuncture in the US, introduced acupuncture to the West through seminars and research presentations. The NAA created and staffed the UCLA Acupuncture Pain clinic in 1972. This was the first legal clinic in a medical school setting in the US.[citation needed] The first acupuncture clinic in the United States is claimed to have been opened by Dr. Yao Wu Lee in Washington, D.C. on July 9, 1972.[32][unreliable source?] The Internal Revenue Service allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense beginning in 1973.[33]
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| In 2006, a BBC documentary Alternative Medicine filmed a patient undergoing open heart surgery allegedly under acupuncture-induced anaesthesia. It was later revealed that the patient had been given a cocktail of weak anaesthetics that in combination could have a much more powerful effect. The program was also criticised for its fanciful interpretation of the results of a brain scanning experiment.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncture]
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| == Traditional Method == | | == Traditional Method == |
