Acupuncture is a technique that involves applying very thin needles at strategic points on the body to treat ailments and reduce stress. These points were defined for thousands of years in Chinese Ancestral Medicine. Although there are old manuals on these points, which generally have been transmitted orally. Doctor to doctor, generation by generation, the mysteries of acupuncture have been preserved until our dates.
The first compendium of acupuncture was called Book of the Yellow Emperor by Neijing Suwen. Although the tradition locates in the 2500 BC, recent interpretations recognize that the book is much less old. Still, much of the teachings of Chinese medicine are established and respected as a dogma of truth.
According to the National Institute of Health, USA, it has proven to be excellent to relax and relieve the pain, and is currently research is being conducted on its effects on various diseases.
Traditional Chinese Medicine constructed maps of the human body where energy meridian were marked with different functions and features. These meridians are divided into five categories as;
- Wood
- Fire
- Water
- Metal
- Earth
There are additional points recognized in different schools, but there is a consensus that there are 365 points, possibly to match the number of days a year. Acupuncture presses these points to increase or decrease the energy in them, depending on whether spare (jitsu) or absence (KYO). Health is gained by reorganizing the energy and trying it to circulate throughout the body in balance.
Acupuncture and Western Medicine
The conducted MRI research studies suggest that the points where the fascia, a membrane that covers and connects organs, bones and muscles along the entire body, has greater connectivity points which correspond to acupuncture. This means that by stimulating these areas of the body, the layers beneath the skin are organized and can reach to influence other organs with the practice of acupuncture. Still, this does not explain the influence of acupuncture in reducing levels of cortisol in the body, relax muscles or enhance the immune system.
Another unique property of acupuncture is to build maps of the body regarding reflexology, ear acupuncture, iridology and principles of oriental diagnosis. Even some lines of study of chiropractic are associated with this theorem. It is fascinating to discover that the maps of these disciplines centuries ago generated from intuition and sensory perception, and are comparable with body maps in the brain that recent studies revealed done with magnetic instruments.
Today, acupuncture stands tall and is being practiced in many parts of the world other than China.
