Acupuncture declines in China

Thousands of foreign students are swarming into Chinese universities of traditional Chinese medicine each year to learn acupuncture. More than 100,000 acupuncturists are providing alternative treatment worldwide nowadays.

However, contrary to the flourishing development abroad, acupuncture has been declining in its motherland during the past two decades.

As acupuncture cannot generate as much economic gains as TCM drugs do, it is commonly neglected both in hospitals and research departments.

For most Chinese patients, acupuncture is also not their first option. Acupuncture doctors earn much less than other doctors, because each treatment would only allow them to charge a few yuan, similar to the cost of redressing a wound. A lot of them try their luck abroad to practise acupuncture.

As a result, Chinese acupuncture is facing a serious brain drain.
On the other hand, in order to obtain international recognition, most acupuncture research has focused on the theory study, but has been divorced from clinical practice. The efficacy of acupuncture is declining.

Acupuncture experts worry that China may lose its advantage in acupuncture practice one day if the present dilemma cannot be changed.
Source: China Daily

Comment-

I noticed during acupuncture school that there were a lot of white people studying asian medicine, and a lot of asians at UCSD studying Western medicine.

It is too bad that acupuncture in its homeland is declining. But it is not declining here. In fact, not only are more and more acupuncturists getting licensed and practicing and treating patients in the US and UK (at least, not to mention NZ, perhaps Europe- I don't know)- but there is also a lot of private grant money available to acupuncturists who can get a quality grant proposal together.

Many acupuncturists have more of the altruistic spirit MD students used to have, and few of either group are business savvy- thus, grant writers, former administrators, and altruistic acupuncturists make another great combo for the future of acupuncture.

The crux of the problem is the perception of acupuncture's value. Even what good studies exist (more than most press and conventional docs know of or acknowledge) demonstrate more than anything the inertia of bias against acupuncture acceptance- that is, many people are slow to believe in it, even in the presence of proof. They look for any reason to dsipute the evidence. They exemplify the idea "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up".

But those who have been helped by acupuncture believe. They know it works, and then when they hear the scientific info, they know why. It works in reverse. Though we're taught to trust scienctific evidence above opinion, experience, and emotion, our real lives much more often are governed by our emotions and experience and then rationalized with pieces of logic and evidence.