Acupuncture is steeped in a 4000-5000 year old history and had a very peculiar beginning.  The original discovery of acupuncture is attributed to battlefield injuries where long long-time sufferers of chronic conditions found relief after being wounded in battle due to piercing injuries.  Through millennia of trial and error, it has been refined into a very exact science consisting of hundreds of recognized body points and even more on the ear (called “auricular therapy”).  Different styles of acupuncture have emerged throughout the evolution of the profession.  Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Taoist acupuncture are just a few of the specialties.

In 1928, Soulie de Morant, a Frenchman with the bank of France, was sent to China and became fascinated with acupuncture.  He took the classical “Pin Yin” names and numbered the points, making them easier to learn.  He constructed the current system where points are known by the meridian they belong to and their number along its path.  For example, Gall Bladder 21, or “GB-21,” used to be known in Chinese as “Jianjing” and in Japanese as “kensei.”

Although the practice of acupuncture is almost 5000 years old, it has only been consistently practiced in the United States since the 1970’s.  It wasn’t until 1997 that the National Institute of Health endorsed the practice of acupuncture. 

Today, acupuncture is becoming very widespread, with the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsing acupuncture as effective treatment for a wide gambit of ailments, including:

• Acute bacillary dysentery
• Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
• Allergic rhinitis
• Biliary colic
• Depression
• Essential hypertension
• Headache
• Induction of childbirth and correction of the malposition of fetus
• Inflammation of the tissues surrounding the shoulder
• Leukopenia
• Nausea and vomiting including morning sickness
• Pain in the epigastrium, face, neck, tennis elbow, lower back, knee, during dentistry and after operations
• Primary dysmenorrhea
• Primary hypotension
• Renal colic
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Sciatica
• Sprains
• Strokes