Acupuncture: Is the West Ready For It?

Since the opening of communication between the People's Republic of China and the United States, acupuncture has become the most talked about facet of Chinese medicine.

Thousands of American skeptics have gone to the Orient to witness or experience first-hand a medical procedure that has been in use for more than 5000 years--more than 3000 years before Aristotle laid the groundwork for the theory of Western medicine.

Acupuncture has indeed caught the fancy of Western nations. In the United States, for example, acupuncture clinics have opened by the dozens to meet the demand of the growing number of consumers who seek the miraculous cures that have been reported in a massive pile of literature on the subject.

Many western doctors view this publicity as "propaganda." Other more progressive physicians who sympathize with acupuncture research say that the media assault may result in an exploitation of innocent patients.

Dr. William J. Curran, Lee Professor of Legal Medicine, says that many acupuncturists in Boston "do not do an adequate job in determining what is exactly wrong with the patient." He says that everything is done on a "quick in and out" basis and there is very little follow-up on the patient.

Curran sees this as a major drawback to the acceptance of acupuncture and, he says, all of the "exaggerated claims" that have been reported are reasons why the techniques has met with so much opposition here.

But the "miracles" began long before the 20th century and the Chinese, who read about the acupuncture fad in the United States, view it as just another Western oddity. Acupuncture, they say, has been practiced for over 5000 years with success so how can anyone doubt its efficacy?

According to the Chinese, "acupuncturation," the art of acupuncture, originated under the reign of Huang-ti, the Yellow Emperor, who acceded to the thrown in 2704 B.C. A book called Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wen (The Yellow Emperor's Classic on Internal Medicine), which was written around 400 A.D., relates many of the emperor's tales of acupuncture. One tale, for example, tells of a soldier who was hit with an arrow and noticed an improvement in an illness affecting a completely different part of his body.

Those doctors and medical technicians who practice acupuncture according to the old Chinese principles put forth in this book maintain that it works by correcting an imbalance of Yin, the female element, and Yang, the male element. These traditionalists say there is an invisible system of meridians in the body and along each meridian there is a series of acupuncture points--supposedly 300 in all--which, when pierced correctly, can cure an illness.

Modern researchers have determined that there are acupuncture points which range in size from a pinpoint to the size of a silver dollar that do in fact exist. But they claim there are at least a thousand of them. The whole idea of meridians, however, along the Eastern philosophy of Yin and Yang, is alien to conventional Western thought.

Because researchers and scientists have not yet discovered the reason for its success--although many theories have been advanced--Western doctors, particularly members of the American Medical Association, say they are skeptical about putting the doctor's stamp of approval on the technique.

And because the doctors are hesitant, the laws regarding acupuncture are strict. The procedure is still regarded as an "experimental technique" in most states. Curran, for example, does not think acupuncture will be integrated with traditional medicine in the foreseeable future. In most states, the only persons who may administer the needles are a licensed physician or somebody under his or her direct supervision.

As a result, there are few people practicing acupuncture legally here, although a great number are practicing it against the law. Last year, in New York's Chinatown, hundreds of individuals were arrested for treating patients with acupuncture, and two clinics operating without a license were forced to close down. In China, on the other hand, there are over 1,000,000 specialists, 150,000 of whom are doctors and the rest trained practitioners, conducting acupuncture therapy.

Curran says that Boston has "learned from New York's mistakes" and that there have not been any law suits regarding illegal use of acupuncture here. The laws in Boston, he says, are more flexible than in New York, because Massachusetts law does not have a specific definition of medicine.

Nevertheless, the patient who wishes to have acupuncture in the United States must be willing to sign a consent form stating that he or she understands the risks involved in such a treatment. Most doctors, however--even the most closed-minded--agree that very little can go wrong.

It is clear that most physicians currently administering the needles in the United States--and in all other countries--discount the traditional Chinese explanations of the art as nothing short of fantasy.

There was even a period in Chinese history when government officials, wishing to eliminate any remnants of Eastern thought in hopes of "catching up" with the West, prevented acupuncture and all traditional Chinese medicine from being taught. During the Chiang Kai-shek regime, the government only let new Western methods be taught in medical schools, and anyone caught practicing acupuncture was given a severe prison term.

But when Mao Tse Tung came to power in 1949, he renewed the interest in traditional Chinese medicine. His popular maxim "Heal the wounded, rescue the dying, practice revolutionary humanitarianism" applied literally to acupuncture and traditional medicine as well as figuratively to Chinese society.

The Cultural Revolution of 1968, brought a merger of Western and traditional medicine to China--a merger which most doctors and laymen in the United States agree is a long way off for the West.