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Western Views of Acupuncture.
Clan Western science support a 2,000-year-old Eastern medical system whose principles predate any real knowledge of anatomy or physiology, to say nothing of modern diagnostics and therapeutics--or even the germ theory of disease? That question continues to be asked regardless of the fact that an estimated 1 million Americans now undergo acupuncture annually for various ailments, including menstrual cramps and nausea in pregnancy.
In doing so, they are participating in a medical tradition founded on the opposing concepts of yin and yang and energy flow through channels or meridians, with disease being a manifestation of disturbances in this flow. The fundamental energy force in traditional Chinese medicine is qi, which protects, nourishes, and animates. Although the Western medical model does not recognize such a concept, it's possible to view this ancient Chinese tradition through contemporary eyes. For example, consider the three principal forms of qi:
Wei qi is defensive energy that surrounds the body like a protective shield and prevents pathogens and toxins from penetrating to the organs. This is what we know today as the immune system.
Zhon qi is nourishing energy. This encompasses the circulatory, digestive, and respiratory systems.
Yuan qi is ancestral, inherited energy expressed through growth, development, reproduction, and senescence. It refers to what we now consider the genetic component of life, our DNA.
This was quite an advanced system of thinking for its time, but this is the 21st century and if acupuncture is to be accepted into wider contemporary medical practice, it must stand up to scrutiny in the harsher light of evidence-based medicine. Its critics have demanded scientific explanations for it.
Accordingly, the National Institutes of Health established a consensus panel that evaluated the state of knowledge and experience about acupuncture and found "clear evidence" for its efficacy in postoperative and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and some benefit in a number of other conditions such as tennis elbow and menstrual cramps.
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Source: HighBeam Research, Western Views of Acupuncture.