The concept of turning a human into a pincushion makes some people squeamish, but the practice clearly appeals to many—after all, acupuncture has been around for more than 3,000 years and is currently practiced almost everywhere in the world.
The two sides are in, which is nourishing, receptive, and protective, and yang, which is hard, dominant, and energetic. The circulation between these forces is the Qi.
A Growing Interest
The practice’s prevalence in the West has been on the rise in recent years: Between 2000 and 2012, the number of people receiving acupuncture in the U.S. increased by 50 percent, and the number of licensed acupuncturists doubled.
A Difference in Perspectives
Because of its far-reaching impact and medical applications, the practice of acupuncture in the U.S. is tightly controlled. Licensed acupuncturists go through years of education and often pair their studies with other forms of traditional medicine and therapy.
The language acupuncturists and traditional medical practitioners use to describe their work often follows this model of tying into greater forces and systems, but the actual mechanisms of the practice of acupuncture are pretty concrete.
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