Acupuncture - You're Not Sticking Me With That!

By: Scott Goodman

Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese healing technique and acupressure have a great deal in common. Both these techniques use the energy paths in the body to make health possible by stimulating the flow of energy. It is brought down to a simplistic explanation of getting the Qi or Chi to flow without any blockage through the human body in order to maintain a state of good health. There are 365 points in the body that acupuncturists recognize and these are along the 14 meridians or energy paths.

apped energy or Chi is stimulated and released by inserting special needles at specific locations or through acupressure depending on the nature of the illness. This can be compared to a river blocked with debris. Removing the blocking debris allows the river to freely flow without obstruction. Acupuncture is also used to regulate the speed of the chi flow to optimum flow levels, when the chi energy flows too fast or too slow.

Within China, this particular form of medicine has been being practiced for a minimum of four thousand years, with all of these needles being found within archaeology digs of the late Shang Dynasty. There are three types and they are; Five Elements, Traditional Yin / Yang Theory and Western (or medical Acupuncture). Although all three have the same system of points and they use similar methods of diagnosis, each takes a dissimilar approach towards treatment of an illness and its cause. Alternative approaches are taken to arrive at the basic cause and treatment of an illness.

Chinese medicine believes that any form of physical illness is the outcome of stress and anxiety. The five element acupuncture also follows the same belief - the physical well being of a person is dependent on his psychological well being. Following along with all of this, the physical symptoms are only able to be alleviated when all of that inner stress has been dealt with. Since the main emphasis within the five elements theory focuses on treating an illness's underlying cause, one should realize that it can be a very slow process in order to reach a complete recovery even though it is quite possible. The old yin/yang theory of acupuncture mainly concentrates in bringing back the entire balance of the yin and yang in the human body. More than one energy meridian is stimulated at a given time to trigger more than one element simultaneously.

The Western Acupuncture methods are faster and the period of treatment is not very long - this form of treatment is a combination of both western and eastern practices. There are two sub-categories of the medical aspect, the first, anesthetic acupuncture, is used in surgical and dental procedures. Again it is used as a temporary pain reliever or as an analgesic for immediate effect. Well documented, reliable medical research has shown acupuncture to be successful in treating high blood pressure and migraines, allergies, depression, arthritis, asthma and gynecological problems including infertility. Acupuncture has been very successful in treating illnesses that do not go away with normal medication; it has also helped in treating psychological disorders that are related to a person's wellbeing.

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