ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE
Definition /
History / Techniques /
How Does It Work /
What Can It Be Used For / Is Acupuncture
Treatment Holistic / Does It Hurt / How
Long Is A Session
DEFINITION
Acupuncture is an ancient system of healing based on the
manipulation of energy through a network of meridians with
the use of needles. It is used to maintain and restore the
proper functioning of the body and its systems, and to bring
the individual towards a state of balance and health.
HISTORY
Evidence of primitive forms of acupuncture can be traced
back over 3000 years ago, with the first written records
dating back 2500 years. The development of acupuncture
precedes the refining of metals. Thus, the first acupuncture
needles were carved of wood, stone, or animal bones. The
system of treatment was unrefined, meridian pathways were
broader and more generalized, and only few acupuncture
points had been identified. The treatment was empirical –
certain spots were needled to treat specific symptoms, with
no development of theories regarding mechanism of action. As
time passed, careful observation and reflection on the body
and the surrounding environment led to a theoretical, highly
evolved system of treatment.
After the development of acupuncture in China, its practice
spread throughout Asia by way of trade and travel. As was
true within China itself, various styles developed according
to the culture, the environment, the population, and the
health issues faced. Within China, these diverse styles are
now collectively referred to as part of Chinese medicine.
Throughout Asia, they are referred to as Asian or Oriental
medicine.
TECHNIQUES
Although needle therapy is the most well known technique in
acupuncture in the west, there are others. The most common of these are moxibustion,
guasha and cupping. Like needling, they are forms of therapy
used to promote circulation through the meridians, and
involve respectively the use of heat, friction and suction.
HOW DOES IT WORK
Acupuncture works by inserting thin needles at
specific points on the surface of the body. In the West, we
refer to these spots as acupuncture points. In Chinese, they
are more properly referred to as holes. These holes are like
wells where energy, or electricity, collects. The insertion
of needles contacts and manipulates this energy (referred to
as Qi), affecting its flow along channels that are called
meridians. There are 73 meridians, with 365 acupuncture
points on them, and several hundred more outside of them.
Together they irrigate and connect all of the tissues and
organs of the body with each other, and to the surface of
the body. Acupuncture theory teaches that pain and disease
arise from blockage and imbalance in these channels. This,
in turn, results in improper functioning of the organs and
tissues of the body. Acupuncture opens and rebalances the
channels, thus promoting normal functioning of the body.
Function is the key word in acupuncture, and in all of
Chinese medicine. Meridians are not structural entities,
like blood vessels or nerves. Rather, they are more like
bioelectric circuts, and their presence can be measured with
machines that detect electrical current. These meridians map
out maintained connections of biological function. Similar
information and concepts are found in the field of
developmental biology and in trigger point theory.
WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR
This question is not really an appropriate question in
Chinese medicine. Acupuncture is useful in treating any
condition that results from imbalanced meridians and poorly
functioning organs. Thus, it is useful in a wide variety of
conditions. The most correct answer, at least in theory, is
that acupuncture can treat any condition that it can make
sense of in terms of acupuncture theory (see The
Significance of Diagnosis In Chinese Medicine). In clinical
reality, other forms of therapy are often needed to treat a
particular condition. In Chinese medicine, this might
involve herbal medication. Having said this, the World
Health Organization published a report in 2002 entitled
Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled
Clinical Trials. Disorders for which acupuncture has been
tested in modern clinical trials are grouped into four
categories:
1. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture
has been proved through controlled trials to be an effective
treatment:
Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy,
allergic rhinitis (including hay fever), biliary colic,
depression (including depressive neurosis and depression
following stroke), acute bacillary dysentery, primary
dysmenorrhea, acute epigastralgia (in peptic ulcer, acute
and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm), facial pain
(including craniomandibular disorders), headache, essential
hypertension, primary hypotension, induction of labour, knee
pain, leukopenia, low back pain, correction of malposition
of fetus, morning sickness, nausea and vomiting, neck pain,
pain in dentistry (including dental pain and
temporomandibular dysfunction), periarthritis of shoulder,
postoperative pain, renal colic, rheumatoid arthritis,
sciatica, sprain, stroke, tennis elbow.
2. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the
therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for
which further proof is needed:
Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to
gastrointestinal spasm), acne vulgaris, alcohol dependence
and detoxification, bell's palsy, bronchial asthma, cancer
pain, cardiac neurosis, chronic cholecystitis with acute
exacerbation, cholelithiasis, competition stress syndrome,
closed craniocerebral injury, non-insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus, earache, epidemic haemorrhagic fever, simple
epistaxis (without generalized or local disease), eye pain
due to subconjunctival injection, female infertility, facial
spasm, female urethral syndrome, fibromyalgia and fasciitis,
gastrokinetic disturbance, gouty arthritis, hepatitis B
virus carrier status, herpes zoster (human (alpha)
herpesvirus 3), hyperlipaemia, hypo-ovarianism, insomnia,
labour pain, lactation deficiency, non-organic male sexual
dysfunction, ménière disease, post-herpetic neuralgia,
neurodermatitis, obesity, opium, cocaine and heroin
dependence, osteoarthritis, pain due to endoscopic
examination, pain in thromboangiitis obliterans, polycystic
ovary syndrome (stein-leventhal syndrome), postextubation in
children, postoperative convalescence, premenstrual
syndrome, chronic prostatitis, pruritus, radicular and
pseudoradicular pain syndrome, primary raynaud syndrome,
recurrent lower urinary-tract infection, reflex sympathetic
dystrophy, traumatic retention of urine, schizophrenia,
drug-induced sialism, sjögren syndrome, sore throat
(including tonsillitis), acute spine pain, stiff neck,
temporomandibular joint dysfunction, tietze syndrome,
tobacco dependence, tourette syndrome, chronic ulcerative
colitis, urolithiasis, vascular dementia, whooping cough (pertussis).
3. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which there are
only individual controlled trials reporting some therapeutic
effects, but for which acupuncture is worth trying because
treatment by conventional and other therapies is difficult:
Chloasma, central serous choroidopathy, colour blindness,
deafness, hypophrenia, irritable colon syndrome, neuropathic
bladder in spinal cord injury, chronic pulmonary heart
disease, small airway obstruction.
4. Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture
may be tried provided the practitioner has special modern
medical knowledge and adequate monitoring equipment:
Breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
coma, convulsions in infants, coronary heart disease (angina
pectoris), diarrhea in infants and young children, late
stage viral encephalitis in children, progressive bulbar and
pseudobulbar paralysis.
IS ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT HOLISTIC
Acupuncture is a truly holistic therapy, in that it treats
the whole person. Not even including the overwhelming amount
of literature published during the 20th century, there have
been over 30,000 volumes of acupuncture and Chinese medical
texts written prior to the 20th century. They offer
comprehensive discussions on the nature of health and
disease, including the organs, meridians and acupuncture
points, emotion, diet, lifestyle, exercise, environmental
considerations, and the relationship between these.
Chinese medicine is a system of systematic correspondences.
That is, it describes relationships and connections between
all things in the macrocosm (the external environment) and
the microcosm (the internal body). Continuing this, it makes
connections between the physical, the mental, and the
emotional. In fact, there is no concept or language in
Chinese medicine for describing these as even being
separate. We speak of mind-body medicine in the West, but
this implies a separation that is not perceived in Chinese
medicine. While disease may manifest primarily on one of
these levels, it is still connected to the others. This
complex manifestation of illness is the topic of pattern
disharmonies discussed above. Acupuncture treatment, by
definition, addresses all of these levels, and often allows
people to experience these relationships. Symptoms are often
logical extensions of who people are in the world.
Acupuncture theory allows a framework for connecting our
symptoms to our lives.
DOES IT HURT
Acupuncture does not hurt. There are as many different
styles of needling as there are styles of acupuncture.
Chinese medicine describes the sensation known as “de Qi,”
or the Qi has arrived. This is often described as a dull,
achy sensation, and signifies that the acupuncture point has
been manipulated. In acupuncture, you do not just stick
needles into spots without some needle manipulation and
subsequent sensation of activation. However, this varies
greatly. In America it is common to use thinner needles and
elicit milder sensations than the Chinese might. As is true
with herbal medicine, because we are not used to it, a
little goes a long way. The right amount of stimulation is
simply the amount that is appropriate for each person. It
should never be painful,
HOW LONG IS A SESSION
Needles are typically left in place for 25-30 minutes,
although this can vary greatly. In my own practice, I allow
30 minutes of time prior to the treatment for questions,
discussions, and examination. The first session is longer,
as a complete history has to be gathered.
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