The first medical college in China, founded in 560 AD, taught acupuncture and herbal medicine. Acupuncture was virtually unknown outside the Asian community until 1972, when a New York Times reporter needed an emergency appendectomy during President Nixon s tour of China. He successfully underwent the entire operation with acupuncture as the only anesthetic. Today, there are an estimated 20,000 acupuncturists in the United States, both physicians and non-physicians, and acupuncture is an accepted medical practice in most of the world. The US Food and Drug Administration approved acupuncture needles for use by licensed practitioners in 1996.
Acupuncture works to unblock the flow of qi and by doing so treat illness or pain.
Western scientists have found evidence that acupuncture points are conductors of electromagnetic signals, and that stimulating these points increases the rate in which these signals are sent. Scientists believe that this may stimulate the production of pain killing chemicals and immune system cells naturally made by the body. There have also been shown to be changes in brain chemistry, blood pressure, body temperature, and blood flow to areas of the body in the meridians stimulated by the acupuncture needles. Many neurological disorders such as migraines, neurogenic bladder, and Parkinson s have been successfully treated by acupuncture. There are very few side effects from acupuncture.