Acupuncture - You're Going to Stick Me with What?!

Acupuncture is an ancient and innovative Chinese Medicinal procedure, similar and linked to the other ancient techniques of Acupressure. Acupuncture treatment heals while keeping the body healthy and stress free. The procedure involves inserting fine needles within the skin on predetermined points or meridians, considered energy pathways similar to acupressure. The positive energy that is responsible for good health and a state of wellbeing is know as chi or qi and flows through the energy points known as the meridian. When a person experiences sickness or injury the chi gets blocked and positive energy stops flowing. There are totally 14 paths of energy meridians in our body and 365 acupuncture points distributed on the surface of the body along these 14 meridians.

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.

The needles were found in the late Shang Dynasty archeological digs and it can be seen that for at least 4000 years China has been practicing this type of medicine. Traditional Yin/Yang theory, Western or medical acupuncture and Five Elements are the three types of acupuncture. Each of these three types of acupuncture use diagnostic methods that are very similar and the exact same points system - however, they all take a completely different approach to illness's underlying causes and their treatment.

The five elements acupuncture, being strictly based on Chinese medicine's five element cycle, believes or assumes that a particular illness is most likely to be caused by either a physical cause or emotional stress. The inner stress has to be treated and eased in order to heal and alleviate the physical symptoms. As the emphasis in five elements is on treating the underlying cause of an illness, it can be a slow process reaching full recovery although it is possible. According to the Yin/Yang theory the overall balance of the Yin and Yang has to be maintained for good health. Simultaneous stimulation of more than one element is achieved by stimulating the different acupuncture points on different meridians together.

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 well being.