In the past two decades, acupuncture has grown in
popularity in the United States. A Harvard University study published
in 1998
estimated that Americans made more than five million visits per year
to acupuncture practitioners. The report from a Consensus Development
Conference on Acupuncture held at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) in 1997 stated that acupuncture is being "widely" practiced--by
thousands of physicians, dentists, acupuncturists, and other practitioners--for
relief or prevention of pain and for various other health conditions.
In 1979, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a list of 41
diseases amenable to acupuncture treatment. These include ENT, respiratory,
and digestive ailments, post-stroke paralysis, asthma and other allergies,
eye diseases, nervous system disorder, and various types of pain, to
name just a few. Since this WHO proclamation and by means of WHO-sponsored
training programs, acupuncture has spread successfully to many non-Asian
nations on every continent. One reason for this support is that acupuncture
a relatively inexpensive and cost-efficient modality requiring minimal
high-tech equipment.
