About Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine
Local History
The main impact of Traditional Chinese medicine in the United States began after the 1960s when communication opened between the United States and China. In 1972, President Nixon and his staff visited China and observed the use of acupuncture anesthesia. The effectiveness of this procedure was widely reported and discussed in news media. As a result, interest and demand for access to Chinese medicine grew in the United States and around the globe. Subsequently, Minnesota has developed its own history in this medicine.
Records indicate several Chinese practitioners were treating with acupuncture and Oriental medicine in Minnesota as early as the 1950s. Edith Davis, a Minneapolis-St. Paul resident, began teaching Oriental medicine as early as 1978. In 1998, she founded the first academic institution for the study of Oriental medicine in Minnesota. Today, there are two nationally accredited schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area offering master's degrees in the field of acupuncture and Oriental medicine.
Legislation was initiated in 1995 for licensing acupuncture practitioners in our state through the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice, and a fully functioning program for licensing acupuncture practitioners in Minnesota followed in 1997.
In 1996, there were only 10 licensed practitioners. In 1997, the first full year of regulation, there were 30 licenses issued. By the year 2000, there were 130 licenses issued. Currently, there are 360 licensed practitioners in Minnesota. 75% (271) of those providers are practicing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. 71% of providers are female, 29% are male.