Ancient China has given us a great deal by way of medicine and acupuncture, which has similarities with acupressure, is one of them. Both these techniques use the energy paths in the body to make health possible by stimulating the flow of energy. When a person is healthy, energy (Chi or Qi) is free flowing through the meridians whereas when one is ill or injured, there is no free flow of this energy as it gets blocked. Along the body’s exterior surface, there is a total of three hundred and sixty five different points of acupuncture scattered around, all of these points follow fourteen main meridian paths.
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. Imagine removing obstacles blocking a river so that it can flow freely again. Chi, depending on the situation, may flow either too slowly or too quickly – in either case, acupuncture is normally used to regulate the energy’s pace.
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. Three schools of acupuncture exist today, these being the Traditional Yin/Yang Theory, The Five Elements and the Western or Medical Acupuncture. The three schools of acupuncture though using the same acupuncture points and parallel diagnostic methods use distinctive approaches to the etiology of the basic cause of the sickness and the treatment.
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. Based on this, it believes that physical cure can be achieved only by removing the mental stress first.
Five elements method is a slow process as it does not merely treat the symptoms but the reason behind the illness due to which the process takes a longer period of time to achieve full recovery. The old yin/yang theory of acupuncture mainly concentrates in bringing back the entire balance of the yin and yang in the human body. 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. Among the two categories of medical benefits of Acupuncture, the first type, Anesthetic Acupuncture finds its place in surgeries and dental procedures. Again it is used as a temporary pain reliever or as an analgesic for immediate effect.
Reputable medical research has found it to be effective in treating depression, allergies, asthma, arthritis, infertility, gynecological disorders, migraines and high blood pressure. As with healing methods dealing with energy, acupuncture effectively heals conditions not treatable with conventional treatment, persistent conditions and disorders and maladies arising due to lifestyles.
