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 technique 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
When specially designed needles or acupressure are placed at certain locations on the meridians the blocks are released thus enabling the chi to circulate freely. Acupuncture is a procedure in which the blocks are freed in the same manner in which obstructions are removed from a river, helping the water flow smoothly. Chi may also flow either too quickly or too slowly, in which case acupuncture is used to regulate the stream of energy.
Acupuncture is a 4000 year old medical discipline, practiced and perfected over thousands of years. Archaeological digs have found acupuncture needles in the 1000 BC Shang Dynasty. The three types of acupuncture methods are the Five Elements method, Yin/Yang Theory and Medical or Western Acupuncture. Though the diagnostic approach used by all the three methods is similar, the causes attributed to the illness and the treatment of the illness varies from one method to the other.
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. Pertaining to the medical aspect of acupuncture, there are two different sub-categories, which includes acupuncture which is used in dental and surgical procedures. The second type of medical benefit of Acupuncture which is "symptomatic" is to be seen in the area of temporary pain relief and not in diagnosis. Medical researches and studies have revealed that acupuncture has been very successful in the treatment of migraines, depression, asthma, gynecological disorders, allergies, infertility, and arthritis. Acupuncture is found to be one of the most effective methods to treat illnesses that persist for a long time without any results from conventional treatment or when the illness is caused by problems caused by one's lifestyle.
