Acupuncture in Western Terms

In 1971 an American journalist witnessed major surgery being carried out with acupuncture as the sole means of anaesthesia.

He reported his observations in the New York Times, and stimulated a great deal of interest in the subject. Acupuncture was suddenly taken more seriously by the Western scientific and medical professions, and much research has since been carried out into the way acupuncture works.

Early research suggested a purely neurological effect (the 'gate' theory, or the reduction of pain sensations by the stimulation of other nerve pathways), whereas later research indicated the involvement of chemical mechanisms, transported via the blood stream.

Though this kind of research has gone a long way to assist the recognition of acupuncture in the West, it has tended to draw attention to pain control, rather than the more widely therapeutic effects and to ignore the theoretical basis of Chinese medicine, that of Qi energy, the points and the meridians.