**Roberta de Medeiros, PhD**

**1**

**Chapter 1**

Introductory Chapter:

Controversies? What Pathways?

This is a short chapter, with intention to be introductory for the nature and purpose of the book subject matter, as well as the significance of its contents for the readers. The field of acupuncture as a scientifically accepted therapy in the West is constantly evolving. All proponents of acupuncture are well convinced of the value of this therapy, and they are quite satisfied with the current documentation regarding its safety, efficiency, effectiveness, and cost-benefit ratio [1]. However, there are still many gaps on this knowledge, equally evidenced in the scholar literature. Very often, proponents of acupuncture have to justify all over again and again their point to the academic-scientific community, since critics are always remembering the flaws.

This duality looks like the antagonism in a board game, represented by the clash

Following this analogy, the new pathways are represented by the strategies the proponents of acupuncture will use to strengthen their arguments and weaken the detractors' arguments, to advance beyond this standoff. This chapter will put the reader on the position of a player interested on the acupuncture advancement. The adversary is virtual, embodying all the closed minds focused only on the acupuncture frailties. To win any game, the player must know his own strengths as well as his own weaknesses. Then, the player will identify threats and opportunities on the distribution of pieces along the board. Finally, he will work to keep the maximum amount of pieces, at the same time eliminating the opponent pieces. The lines below will discourse about intriguing this game.

The longevity of acupuncture already speaks enough for itself. Acupuncture and correlated techniques have been practiced in China and other Asian countries for millennia. The generally accepted history of acupuncture in China can be

between the positive and negative aspects of the technique. In this analogy, the pieces of both sides are in a continuous struggle between the forces strengthening the validity of acupuncture and the movements reducing its legitimacy (**Figure 1**). The positive aspects include everything science recognizes and endorses objectively, added to everything the patients who use the technique feel subjectively. The negative aspects include everything acupuncture is objectively owing to science while researches do not provide all the answers, added to everything subjectively derived

Acupuncture - What

*Marcelo Saad and Roberta de Medeiros*

from prejudice and ignorance against this technique.

**2. The pieces on our part of the board**

**2.1 A millenary tradition**

**1. A constant board game**

Full Professor of Physiology, Centro Universitário S. Camilo, S. Paulo (SP), Brazil
