What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a natural healing method that had been handed down from ancient China that had begun about 3,000 years ago. Acupuncture treatments include multiple modalities, composed of single needle acupuncture, seven star needle acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion, Chines herbs, cupping, auricular acupuncture, Tuina, electro acupuncture, and dietary advices. Among these, single needle acupuncture is the most common treatment in acupuncture offices today. In this modality, a single needle is inserted into the skin and stay in for about 20 minutes. The human body then responds to the insertion by releasing chemical substances to correct any imbalance of qi or irritants in the body. The term, ‘qi’ is the traditional Chinese medicinal term that describes ‘energy’ or ‘life force’ of the Western terms. TCM prescribes that there are 365 qi pathways in our body, called the meridians. In TCM-point-of-view, when any of the meridians experiences a problem such as blockage of qi or too little or too much flow of qi, it causes imbalance of yin and yang, resulting in an illness. The needle insertion awakens our body’s safety mechanism and make it deal with these problems. In the perspective of the Western medicine, an illness occurs when homeostasis is tipped off balance. The homeostasis is maintained by electro currency of positive and negative chemical substances in balance.
In both TCM and the conventional medicine, balance is the key to health. According to many recent studies, the needle insertion stimulates our body to release chemicals such as endorphin, norepinephrine, and serotonin to counteract irritants, bringing the body back to the well-balanced state. (Grigory V. Chernyak, Daniel I. Sessler, 2006)
Acupuncture can help various illnesses such as gastrointestinal problems, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, premenstrual disorders, gynecological problems, mass, cancer, pre and post operational anxiety and pain, arthritis, immune disorder, eye problems, skin disorder, swelling, UTI, bowel or bladder incontinence, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, allergy, skeletal muscular pain (shoulder, knee, and back pain), and more.
Grigory V. Chernyak, Daniel I. Sessler. (2006). Perioperative Acupuncture and Related Techniques. HHS Author Manuscrips, 1031-1078.