About Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine is one of the oldest continuous systems of medicine in history, with recorded instances dating as far back as 2,000 years. This is in sharp contrast to the American or Western forms of healthcare, which have been in existence for some 150 years. However, the origin and development of the profession of Chinese 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 holistic healthcare as a viable modality in the U.S. and the growing number of third-party payers that offer insurance coverage for Chinese and East Asian medicine treatments. The National Institutes of Health recognize the usefulness of acupuncture in treating addiction, fibromyalgia, headaches, cramps, back pain, osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel, asthma and much more.

Check out the campus pages to learn more about Pacific College’s acupuncture & Chinese medicine programs:

• San Diego Acupuncture School
• New York Acupuncture School
• Chicago Acupuncture School

According to a 2023 report in the Journal of Integrative Medicine, the profession remains strong, generating more than $3 billion each year in the US. Displaying resilience and growing demand for acupuncture services, 5 in 6 of the over 30,000 licensed acupuncturists in the US currently run their own clinics; others work in physical therapy and chiropractor offices, educational institutions, spas, clinics, and hospitals. Acupuncture’s inclusion in national healthcare strategies, particularly for pain management and opioid alternatives, highlights a continued and rising need for qualified practitioners.

Alternative healthcare is seeing a jump in patient visits, partially due to a growing awareness of the importance of staying healthy to be happier and ward off illness before it starts. In the United States, there is increasing public awareness of and demand for complementary medicine, including traditional Chinese medicine. This rise in interest has also led to a surge in enrollments in acupuncture schools. According to the “Deloitte 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers,” 20% of consumers report treating a health problem with an alternative approach to conventional medicine such as acupuncture, while 40% indicate that they are open to doing so in the future. According to a nationwide government survey, approximately 38% of U.S. adults aged 18 years and over and approximately 12% of children use some form of complementary or alternative medicine.