Acupuncture leads the revolution. .
When a National Institutes of Health panel issued a report in November announcing its conclusion that acupuncture actually works, it was analogous to experts in China announcing that we kooky kids in the West have this thing called the wheel that's really kind of handy. It's a revolution that is interesting to observe as it challenges Western precepts, and it's one that should gather a lot of steam in the year ahead. Certainly acupuncture has been practiced in the West as long as there have been immigrants from the East, but it wasn't until 1972 that it made its first move toward the mainstream. When New York Times reporter James Reston had emergency surgery for appendicitis while covering Richard Nixon's trip to Beijing, he received acupuncture to treat the pain that followed. He wrote about his experience and the great results of his treatment, and Times readers took note.