Since this a time of year designated for being thankful, I’ll take the opportunity to pay tribute to some incredible trailblazers in the field of acupuncture in the West, particularly those who set the stage for acupuncture to thrive right here in NYC. In honor of renowned acupuncture practitioner and teacher Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Dr. Shadidi Kinsey and I will be offering sliding scale acupuncture treatments on November 10, 2013 at 88 S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Contact me for an appointment at this landmark event.
Underutilized health care forms typically make traction once someone prominent, or a significant group of people, need to utilize them in a critical time when access to the prevailing methods are unavailable. The most notable time this happened with acupuncture was in 1971 when New York Times reporter James Reston received acupuncture in China for postoperative pain after an emergency removal of his appendix. A selection of what he published about his overwhelmingly positive experience is as follows:
“I was in considerable discomfort if not pain during the second night after the operation, and Li Chang-yuan, doctor of acupuncture at the hospital, with my approval, inserted three long thin needles into the outer part of my right elbow and below my knees and manipulated them in order to relieve the pressure and distension of the stomach… Meanwhile, Doctor Li lit two pieces of an herb and held them close to my abdomen while occasionally twirling the needles into action. All this took about 20 minutes, … there was noticeable relaxation of the pressure and distension within an hour and no recurrence of the problem thereafter.”
For English-speaking citizens of the U.S., or at least the vast majority who had little to no contact with Asians, this article was the first news of acupuncture to reach them. Apparently, it was influential, for in 1972 the first legal acupuncture center in the U.S. was established.
Around the same time, right here in NYC, the Lincoln Detox program was started by the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party and a group called White Lightening. This program occupied part of Lincoln Hospital in order to provide acupuncture-based treatment for people, especially those trying to overcome drug addiction that the hospital did not have adequate resources to accommodate. It relied heavily upon auricular acupuncture, or points in the ear (as in the photo), but utilized full-body treatments.
Dr. Mutulu Shakur who became director of the program comments, “Lincoln Detox became not only recognized by the community as a political formation but its work in …resuscitating these brothers and sisters and putting them into some form of healing process within the community.” This program was very successful and the legacy that began there continues to make a strong positive impact on efforts to address the mental and emotional aspects of health and curb addictions to alcohol, drugs, and even foods.
Today in NYC, The Mount Sinai Health System hospitals offer acupuncture treatment in a wide range of departments at multiple locations including Beth Israel and Roosevelt hospitals. This type of hospital-based acupuncture treatment, strong relationships between physicians and acupuncturists, and increasing and ongoing medical research on acupuncture all contribute to the successful integration of acupuncture in the West. I’m extremely grateful for all the work that has been done by acupuncturists and allied practitioners over the last few decades to make acupuncture accessible to all.
