The recent article A Health Poke: Demystifying the Science Behind Acupuncture which appeared in The Atlantic, is a well-written summary of where the research stands in its efforts at explaining, in western terms, how acupuncture works.

"We Know it works, we just don't know why"

The key take away is,  in the words of Dr. Leena Mathew an attending physician in Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, that "we know it works, we just don't know why. It's very hard to translate into Western language."

You can copy and paste the url below if the link isn't working for you.

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/09/a-healthy-poke-demystifying-the-science-behind-acupuncture/245816/

‍