In the early 1970’s  American newspaper reporters covering President Richard Nixon’s visit to China wrote about a “miraculous” healing art virtually unknown in the United States. The method immediately caught the American imagination, and suddenly a new word was on millions of American lips: acupuncture.

According to news reports, instead of using chemical anesthetics, Chinese acupuncturists were able to block the pain of surgery by deftly inserting needles into the patient at specific points. Even more astonishing, it was said that acupuncture relieved a wide variety of human ills, and had worked reliably for people through thousands of years. That publicity brought acupuncture into great demand by many Americans, some of them seeking a last resort remedy for serious afflictions.

But how to meet such demand? Although acupuncture was already somewhat known in Europe, there were only a few acupuncturists in the United States, most of them sprinkled in California and New York, so it took several years for acupuncture colleges to establish themselves in the United States and train American acupuncturists.

Today, more than 60 colleges throughout North America graduate some 1000 new acupuncturists each year as the demand for acupuncture increases. It is estimated that 15 million persons each year try acupuncture for the first time and more would avail themselves of this ancient healing method if only they knew more about it.

That’s why we’re reviewing acupuncture here. By answering a collection of relevant questions, this book translates the last great Eastern mystery into an understandable message for today’s Western patients seeking potent alternative health care.