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A brief history of how acupuncture was introduced to America

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a term describing a traditional healing system with Acupuncture being a central component coming to us from China, Korea and Japan. It was the primary healthcare system in China for over 3000 years. It is a time tested medicine.

It wasn’t until 1972 President Nixon opened the doors to China. A New York Times journalist, James Reston, was in China at the time and had an emergency appendectomy. After the surgery he woke up in excruciating pain and an acupuncturist was rushed into his room. The acupuncturist inserted a few points and the pain disappeared completely. The next morning James Reston, completely amazed by his experience, explored the hospital and found that there was a whole wing of the hospital dedicated to Chinese medicine. Here he witnessed surgeries being performed using acupuncture as the only anesthetic. I am going to repeat that-he witnessed surgeries where acupuncture was the only anesthetic. In other words, someone is receiving brain surgery, while perfectly coherent and talking to the doctor. When he returned to the United States, instead of doing a story on foreign policy as expected, he did one on acupuncture and over night America became fascinated with this ancient science. This brought great notoriety to acupuncture and renewed interest in this form of treatment. Seeing brain surgery performed with acupuncture drew big headlines. Information started to flow, countless books were translated, scholars traveled back and forth and the power and potential of this ancient healing system began to unfold.

1996 the FDA bestowed the class 2 status of medical tools to acupuncture needles. This changed their previous classification of experimental device. This change of classification means that needles used for acupuncture will be subject to FDA approval to ensure quality control and “single use only” labeling, and it could make the treatment eligible for coverage under insurance policies which exclude alternative medicine. Nowadays 50% of insurance companies cover acupuncture treatments, again underscoring how effective acupuncture is. Most significantly the FDA ruling indicates that acupuncture is a safe and effective medical treatment.