Two decades after ping-pong diplomacy

Abstract

Despite ancient roots, worldwide use, and emerging scientific validation, acupuncture remains obscure in American medicine. The reasons for that obscurity are based in cultural biases. The author attempts to highlight the sources of bias against acupuncture and outline the current scientific foundations of acupuncture research that parallel and overlap modern pain science and treatment. The author concludes that acupuncture deserves a role in pain medicine and that it can be subjected to scientific scrutiny provided due appreciation is given to the complexity of testing hypotheses about acupuncture.