b'W ith tightening sport horse competition drug JEAN-YIN TAN, DVM, DIPL. ACVIM-LAregulations, increased scrutiny surrounding horse racing, and the general publics desire to turn toward natural alternatives to medi-cations, many veterinarians are seeing a rising demand for equine acupuncture. In the Western Hemisphere acu-puncture has become an increasingly acceptable treatment modality. In fact, a 2017 survey of 423 horse owners in the U.K. found that 81% were willing to try a complementary or alternative form of veterinary medicine.1 Even if you are open to equine acupuncture, how much do you really know about this therapy? In this article well explore the scientific basis of equine acupuncture, so you can come to your own informed decision about pursuing it to treat your horses ailments.A Primer on TerminologyMany people use words such as holistic, alternative, complementary, and integrative medicine interchangeably. Although each of these categories includes acupuncture, each term has a distinctly different meaning. Holistic medicine refers to a type of practice that looks at an animal as a whole while considering its environment and nutrition. Alternative medicine uses nonmainstream practice to replace conventional medicine, while complementary medicine uses conventional medicine together with nonmainstream practice. Integrative medicine combines all forms of holis-tic care, wellness, and medical practice in a coordinated fashion.The History Behind Equine AcupunctureAcupuncture is simply the stimulation of a specific point using a sharp object, such as a needle, to create therapeutic effects. Equine veterinary acupuncture traces back to ancient Chinas Tang Dynasty in 618-907. 2Although its origins have not been described, many feel it might have been observational, from recording unintentional treatments from being struck with sharp objects, thus serving as the longest clinical trial in medical history.Despite its popularity, equine acupuncture has limited scientific evidence behind it. Researchers have conducted only two systematic reviews of com-panion animal acupuncture literature in the English language, and both concluded that most scientific evidence of veterinary acupunctures efficacy was nonexperimental and of low quality (not randomized and controlled trials) and, therefore, inconclusive.How Does it Work?Western-medicine-trained horse owners and veterinarians can struggle to understand acupuncture in traditional Chinese veterinary medicine (TCVM) termswords like qi, theory of five elements, internal and external pathogens, meridians, and yin and yang. DUSTY PERINTheHorse.com|The HorseNovember 201919Untitled-19 19 9/25/19 9:50 AM'