Acupuncture legislation in Italy is slow, limping. It is difficult to produce a law that regulates the category of acupuncturist doctors, with the consequent confusion that is created with respect to those who can actually practice it. Abroad, the situation is very different and it would be enough to widen the horizon to move people, streamline bureaucratic procedures, make decisions on an important subject such as health and traditional techniques aimed at maintaining it.

Acupuncture before the law

Acupuncture and legislation go hand in hand abroad, because Chinese medicine is now recognized in all respects. Any data that confirms it? The Food and drug administration, an important American control body, has established for some years now that acupuncture is an effective medical tool for treatment. Not only: the World Health Organization, already in 1998, had extended a list of diseases that Chinese practice is able to successfully fight. At first this list included 20 pathologies: today there are 60 of them.

In many American hospitals, including the Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, an acupuncture cycle is offered free to all cancer patients to alleviate the discomfort caused by chemotherapy.

It then reflects the fact that the aid of the "Acupuncturists without Borders" ( Acupuncturists Without Borders ), sent to the aid of injured and shocked people, was essential to face the disaster of the Haiti earthquake.

Acupuncture and Italian legislation

In Italy, three million people use acupuncture. Nevertheless, an embarrassing legislative vacuum persists. The absence of a regulation for acupuncture creates a considerable confusion about the distinction between those who are qualified or not to practice it: experts continue to repeat that the acupuncturist must necessarily have a degree in medicine and surgery and a subsequent specialization in acupuncture with a diploma recognized by scientific federations.

The need for legislation in acupuncture is taking the form of a real urgency: once the professional category has been recognized in all respects, it will be important to provide specialized training in the University and / or equivalent institutions that is standardized and set on a consistent regulation, valid for the whole national territory.

On the web you will find useful sources to learn more about the legislation on non-conventional medicines and various groups have been created on Facebook for acupuncture, groups where users are informed, confronted and proposed.