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Sunday 3 July 2011

Acupuncture

The ancient Chinese referred to ch'i, which connects all the different organs. They believed there are two forces in the body, called yin and yang, that sometimes become in-balanced, which interrupts the energy flow and affects a person emotional and physical health. Acupuncture, a medical procedure involving the insertion and twirling of needles at some 800 points in the human was developed in response to this. They believed the process assisted the flow of ch'i or life force in the body, thereby re-balancing the patient’s yin and yang and restoring him to health.

Acupuncture was first used as a medical treatment in 2700 BC by a Chinese Emperor.

Acupuncture chart with a series of points indicated on the Wellcome 

The 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ă–tzi the Iceman was found in the Tyrolean Alps with 15 groups of tattoos many of which were located at points on the body where acupuncture needles are used for abdominal or lower back problems. It's been speculated that he suffered from a painful parasitic infection in his intestine, which he attempted to alleviate the pain by means of an early form of acupuncture,

The first needles were stone; later, bronze, gold, or silver were used, and today needles are usually made of steel.

Acupuncture spread first to Korea in the 6th century AD, then to Japan through medical missionaries and then to Europe, beginning with France.

Cheng Dan'an 1899 – July 10, 1957) first developed an interest in acupuncture in 1923, after suffering from severe lower back pain which was relieved by his father's acupuncture. He attended the Tokyo College of Acupuncture in Japan, before establishing in 1930, the Jiangsu-based China Acupuncture Research Centre, the first school of acupuncture in modern China.

Cheng made radical changes to Chinese acupuncture, rescuing it from from superstition and oblivion. He sought to uncouple acupuncture from astrology and divination and stepped away from the tradition of treating men and women on their left and right sides. Cheng is widely considered the father of modern acupuncture.

Acupuncture was rarely used in American medicine before the early 1970s, and many U.S. doctors remained skeptical of its efficacy. During President Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China, a newspaper correspondent who had accompanied Nixon was forced to have an emergency appendectomy whilst there. Much publicity was given to the pain relief provided by acupuncture he received after the operation. As a result Nevada became the following year the first American state to license acupuncture as medical treatment.

By 1996, however, America's Food and Drug Administration, which had previously considered acupuncture an experimental procedure, had reclassified acupuncture needles as suitable products for use by qualified practitioners.

Today acupuncture is often used in the United States to help control pain and drug and alcohol addiction.




The reason why people don't bleed when undergoing acupuncture is that the needles are both extremely fine and not as pointed as other needles. Also they are strategically placed to avoid piercing a vein, capillary or artery. If they do happen meet one, because the end of an acupuncture needle is "rounded" they kind of "glide around" veins rather than puncturing them.

Guidelines from the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) is that "The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) only recommends considering acupuncture as a treatment option for chronic lower back pain, chronic tension-type headaches and migraine".

Source Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia

3 comments:

  1. thx1 really helpful for my acupuncture project!

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  2. And..... wrong.
    Yin and Yang arent opposing forces, they are ways of measuring something and they are actually complementary energies, Acupuncture was used a lot earlier than that, ch'i is spelt Qi, and it's not the Yin and Yang the needles balance, it's the organ and energy system as a while but also reprograms the nervous system and creates microdamage for the brain to send healing cells.

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  3. Yin and Yang is that the Yin is the negative or passive or feminine principle in nature while Yang is the positive or active or masculine principle in nature as per Chinese philosophy. It discussed to us in our session in acupuncture in miami and I'm thankful that I tried the acupuncture, lots of changes in my body especially my lower back pain.

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