History of Acupuncture in America

While the history of acupuncture is long and storied in Eastern cultures, the practice did not experience a rise in American pop cultures until President Richard Nixon visited China in the 1970’s. As the first United States president to visit China, journalists documenting the trip were shocked to discover numbers of patients undergoing surgery without the aid of anesthesia. Their only form of aid in the painful surgeries? Acupuncture!

Later, when a well-known New York Times columnist opted to follow in their footsteps by using acupuncture instead of anesthesia, the trend began to catch on here in the States. Acupuncture has become increasingly integrated with traditional Western therapies ever since.

Acupuncture anesthesia has been used in a wide variety of operations, from minor procedures to open heart surgery, but it is most commonly used for orthopedic surgeries as well as surgeries on organs above the diaphragm.