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Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest continuous systems of medicine in history, with recorded instances dating as far back as two thousand years before the birth of Christ. This is in sharp contrast to the American or Western forms of health care, which have been in existence for some 150 years.

Traditional Oriental medicine is a major healthcare system for over one quarter of the world’s population. However, the origin and development of the profession of Oriental medicine in the United States has occurred only in the last few decades. In its early stages, the profession established the certification, accreditation and licensure structures to move the profession forward. This goal has been largely achieved as reflected in the adoption of licensure laws in virtually all states; the recognition of the field as a viable health care modality in the U.S.; and the growing number of third-party payers that offer insurance coverage for Oriental medicine treatments.

Currently, over 7,000 students are enrolled in some 50 acupuncture and Oriental medical colleges in the United States. According to the American Association of Oriental Medicine, an estimated 15,000 nationally certified acupuncturists are practicing in the United States. In addition, the majority of U.S. medical schools now offer courses on complementary medicine as well.

In the United States there is increasing public awareness of and demand for complementary medicine, including Oriental medicine. According to a 1999 Kaiser survey, more than 69% of respondants have used complementary medicine, up from 34% in 1990. Visits to mainstream primary care physicians are also taking a back seat to complementary medicine; while in 1997 there were 385.9 million visits to mainstream primary care physicians, there were a whopping 628.8 million visits to complementary medicine practitioners. Reflecting this public demand, the number of the nation’s insurers covering acupuncture treatments almost tripled between 1992 and 2001, rising from 5,525 to 14,228 and the budget of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, (a part of the National Institutes of Health), exploded from $2 million in 1993 to $114 million in 2003.

Here are some striking statistics:
• Approximately 42% of all Americans are using complementary therapies, spending more than $34 billion annually. This is comparable to all out-of-pocket expenditures for physician visits and exceeds out-of-pocket expenditures for all hospitalizations. (Journal of the American Medical Association)
• Nearly one out of every 10 adults in the U.S has tried acupuncture. (National Certification Commission for Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine)
• More than one in four Americans report having had a massage from a massage therapist in the past five years, spending a total of between $4 and $6 billion on 114 million visits each year. (Massage Magazine)
• In recent years, massage therapy has reached some of the nations’ top hospitals, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Stanford Hospital in California. Fifteen percent of hospitals now offer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies and almost 60% of medical schools offer courses in CAM. (American Hospital Association)
• Acupuncture has been cited by the World Health Organization (WHO) to treat over forty-three conditions. The 1997 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference on Acupuncture stated, "The data in support of acupuncture are as strong as those for many accepted Western medical therapies. One of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other medial procedures used for the same conditions." (WHO & NIH)

Modalities such as Oriental medicine have emerged in the U.S. as a sensible alternative to the more commonly practiced, and frequently more expensive, conventional Western medical practices. In 1997, a National Institutes of Health panel deemed acupuncture “an acceptable alternative, or part of a comprehensive treatment program” for certain conditions. Since this endorsement, interest in Oriental medicine has never been higher. Over 2000 drug treatment programs worldwide now use acupuncture including: community health clinics, court affiliated programs, halfway houses, prisons, jails, Native American clinics, and municipal hospitals. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine can now be found integrated in some of the most prestigious hospitals, clinics and universities in the nation.

Doctors, researchers, scientists, insurance companies, and patients alike are coming to the same conclusion: that although still relatively new to the United States, the growing field Oriental medicine has survived the test of time and is effective in treating illness.