Acupuncture is the use where small filiform needles are inserted and directed into particular points of the body in order to remedy pain or for medical uses. Orthodox Chinese medication has developed special acupuncture points which are positioned on meridians through which qi or the vital energy of the body flows. However, on that point are no histological or analogical grounds to back the assumptions about acupuncture points or meridians.

The use of acupuncture in China can be retraced backwards to 3000 B.C. as rock acupuncture needles were acquired in diggings in Mongolia. Although acupuncture is assumed to have started in China, various forms of it, taking on Japanese, Tibetan, Korean and Vietnamese acupuncture is practiced all over the world. The modern interest in acupuncture became popular in the United States during 1970s, supposedly after James Reston who underwent emergency appendix surgery in China published an article to The New York Times. During the surgery, acupuncture intervention was practiced on Mr. Reston to keep down discomfort. Consequently, due to the growing pursuit in acupuncture The National Acupuncture Association (NAA) was constituted to promote the use of acupuncture by conducting seminars and displays. In addition, in 1972, the UCLA Acupuncture Pain Clinic was initiated by the NAA.

Acupuncture has undergone extensive technological researches and analyses although it yet remains a controversial issue among physicians and research workers. Several works hold exhibited results that propose that acupuncture is an effective method to treat certain circumstances although many lay claim that these effects could be explained through the placebo effect. The placebo result is where the patient is sort of tricked into thinking that real medical intervention is being carried out and consequently, aiding the healing action by motivating the patient. Nevertheless, a report issued by the World Health Organization puts forward that after certain monitored clinical tests, it was concluded that acupuncture has proved to be working for 28 conditions such as, depression, headache, and strokes. Furthermore, it also claims that evidence also goes to propose that loads of other conditions may be cared for effectively through acupuncture.

What Is More, several medical associations such as the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have published studies regarding the result of find acupuncture. The general perception about acupuncture is that it is secure, only if executed by trained individuals applying sterilized needles. Nevertheless, further research in the matter is promoted by physicians as well as research workers.

Acupuncture still remains to be a kind of mysterious form of medical intervention with a common percentage of skeptics. However, it might prove to be just the intervention for numerous untreatable medical circumstances.