Whether you’re a patient or another medical provider, you’ve heard the benefits of acupuncture, maybe even experienced them yourself, and want to learn more. You don’t have to spend four years in a masters program the way an acupuncturist does and you don’t have to dig deep into the theory, though that may interest you as well. This collection is in response to one of the most common questions I’m asked: “What can I read to better understand acupuncture and Chinese medicine?”

Here are four very different book options (with a few bonus suggestions) that I recommend to those who wants to explore this beautiful and effective medical system as it works in and beyond the treatment room.

The Web that has No Weaver

By Ted Kaptchuk (1983, 2nd edition 2000)

Best for: Anyone considering going to acupuncture school, People who want to know more after reading the other books on this list

Most acupuncturists I know recommend this book frequently to patients and I certainly picked up a copy very early in my Chinese Medicine education as a result. However, I don’t actually think it’s the best introduction available to the initially interested patient.

For one, it’s incredibly dense. Small print, no shortcuts. I didn’t get around to reading it until after my first term of acupuncture school and was shocked to find that all the important theory I learned was represented in the first half of the book. So I do think it’s a great book, but I don’t think most people start out seeking this level of detail. If you do pick it up, go with the second edition.

Bonus: Everyone should pay attention to Ted Kaptchuk’s research as his work on the placebo effect and harnessing it intentionally is fascinating and has important implications for medicine as a whole. Consider: if the placebo effect results in people feeling better, why not use it on purpose? A space that is quiet, smells good, and provides comfortable spaces to sit or lie down has been shown to decrease stress levels, putting us in a more parasympathetic state, which is more conducive to healing. Designing a waiting room and treatment area with those qualities can therefore be thought of as part of the treatment itself! I certainly saw patients visibly relax (and felt the difference in their pulses coming in off the street vs after being in the room for a bit). It wasn’t just the acupuncture treatment that had them wanting to come back. I designed my clinic to feel like a refuge because that in itself is medicinal. Western medicine is catching up to this idea with companies like One Medical thoughtfully designing offices and waiting rooms that calm mind, body, and spirit.

Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life

By Dr. Gail Reichstein (1998)

Best for: Casual readers who want a reference to flip through and read in sections

This is my main recommendation to most patients who are curious to learn more about Chinese Medicine. For one, it has a very classical focus and is organized in such a way that you can read it cover to cover or flip through to different sections and still get a lot out of it. It’s easy to get a sense of which section may apply best to you based on the types of symptoms you experience (which element or organ is most representative for your or best describes your pattern) and has easy to interpret suggestions for how to begin to use diet, lifestyle, and other interventions for yourself.

This type of guide gets to the heart of the medicine for me. It’s accessible and explains to a Western audience what a lot of people growing up in East Asia or the diaspora understand and use in their daily lives.

Bonus: If you like this one you may also enjoy Live Well Live Long: Teachings from the Chinese Nourishment of Life Tradition by Peter Deadman (2016).

The Spark in the Machine: How the Science of Acupuncture Explains the Mysteries of Western Medicine

By Dr. Daniel Keown (2014)

Best for: Scientific minds

Want your mind blown? This book bowled me over again and again and I still can’t get enough of it. There are so many ways that Chinese medicine and Western medicine overlap and ways in which they can explain each other’s complexities. This is my favorite book to come back to when I want to remember how much more we have in common than separates us. I can’t wait to be an ambassador for both fields and find yet more ways that they connect.

Dr. Keown is an emergency medicine doctor who went on to study acupuncture and has since blended the two. Using fundamentals of embryology and anatomy, Dr. Keown theorizes that the best structural explanation of acupuncture channels is fascia.

“Fascia is the overlooked link between Acupuncture and anatomy.
...
Every nerve, muscle, blood vessel, organ, bone and tendon is covered in it, and it tells a surgeon where things should be. Incredibly (as difficult as this may be for surgeons to believe), God didn’t put fascia there for surgeons, it was put there to enable the body to know where things should be, and what they should be doing.”

— Dr. Daniel Keown, The Spark in the Machine

This connective tissue layer that wraps our muscles and organs also conducts and generates electricity (it is piezoelectric). Keown stresses the importance of that ability in unlocking the regenerative abilities of our bodies and asks if this energy could be considered qi while maintaining and respecting the complexity of the classical concept of qi. Fascia stretches in continuous sheets from, for example, the ankle to the jaw, providing potential Western explanations for how treating the ankle can release the jaw. And in classical fashion, it is both the structure of fascia and the presence of space between it that promotes health. And this is just the first few pages!

Bonus: If you’re an acupuncturist who already loves this book, take Dr. Keown’s continuing education classes. I loved them both and found they built very nicely on what I had learned from reading. In one memorable anecdote he shows visuals of a thyroid surgery that uses the Lung channel, bringing the connections he wrote about into bright focus. He is an engaging lecturer and teacher and the kind of practitioner and thinker I hope to be.

Energy Medicine

by Dr. Jill Blakeway (2019)

Best for: Stripping away skepticism with its focus on the scientific research while still being a very readable travel memoir

Though Dr. Blakeway is a well-known and respected acupuncturist and author, this book is less about acupuncture than about energy medicines as a whole. So if the side of the medicine that intrigues you most is how the intent of the practitioner comes into play or how distance healing or healing without touching the patient as in reiki or medical qigong could possibly work, this book is for you. Just when your inner skeptic starts to balk, Dr. Blakeway outlines the careful research that supports these seemingly strange methods and you find yourself wondering what else we’re going to learn and what implications this research might have on treatments in the future.

This was the first book about acupuncture from a mainstream publisher and while I often wish it spent more time on acupuncture itself, it’s an accessible entry-point into scientific research that is otherwise difficult to imagine and an aspect of acupuncture practice that isn’t often discussed elsewhere.

Bonus: If you like this one you may also enjoy The Energy Cure: Unraveling the Mystery of Hands-On Healing by Dr. William Bengston (2010)

A Note On Finding These Books

Where possible I have linked to each book through Bookshop.org which allows you to find a local bookstore near you to support with your order (go to Choose a Bookstore link at top right). I don’t receive a commission for any of these links. I’d also encourage you to support your public library as many either already stock or would be happy to order these titles.

ABOUT SHAWNA

Shawna Seth, L.Ac., Dipl. OM. is a California state licensed and nationally certified acupuncturist. She is currently in the process of becoming a physician associate (PA) as well because of the benefits to patients found in both systems and their points of intersection. Shawna ran an acupuncture practice in San Francisco focused on promoting women’s health, particularly surrounding menstrual health and fertility. She believes in using the gentlest effective methods possible to guide her patients to balance. Get in touch with your questions or comments. To learn more about Japanese medicine and the world of acupuncture, follow her blog A Cuppa Qi.