Photobiomodulation of Acupoints on Standardized Therapeutic Protocols: An Example of Successful Integration between Eastern and Western Medicine

Abstract

Acupuncture has not yet gained uniform acceptance among Western medicine (WM) practitioners, despite its increasing use in healthcare facilities and its growing popularity with the general public to treat a wide range of clinical conditions. Anyone who works with acupuncture or traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is acutely aware of the complexity of achieving a true integration of these Eastern practices into Western medicine, a process hampered by the difficulty in finding a unique biological explanation for the established efficacy of TCM therapies. Despite such difficulty, acupuncture application is expanding, and clinical evidence is growing rapidly. We submit that it is just about time to start integrating the two worlds bridging the gap between them. Object: Our work was therefore aimed at proposing a combination of the western criterion of applying standardized therapeutic protocols and of the eastern principle of restoring the healthy energy flow throughout the