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Editorial
June 27, 2017

Acupuncture and the Complex Connections Between the Mind and the Body

Author Affiliations
  • 1National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
JAMA. 2017;317(24):2489-2490. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.7214

Almost 50 years ago, New York Times reporter James Reston had an emergency appendectomy while traveling in China. His subsequent report1 that acupuncture produced substantial relief from his postoperative discomfort is widely credited with launching Western interest in acupuncture, although many Western medical practitioners have remained skeptical. Nevertheless, there has been steady progress in application of the methods of evidence-based medicine and modern neuroscience to these ancient practices, suggesting that acupuncture may have therapeutic benefit.

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