It is increasingly common for people to go to natural or traditional medicine , in search of relief from their pain and less chance of adverse effects from industrial drugs.Of course we must know that Just as there are risks, the fact of being natural does not mean that it is totally harmless.This is the case of acupuncture, that ancient Chinese practice that is still used in many parts of the world today.Join us to discover what acupuncture is.
Discover, at last, what acupuncture is!
As we already mentioned, it is a healing technique of traditional Chinese medicine that is part of what has been called alternative medicine (alternative to allopathic, or western or hypocritical medicine).For 5,000 years it has been used in China, and 2,500 years ago, knowledge about anatomy was reflected in a book, called Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen ( Emperor's Internal Medicine Class Yellow ), and there is the first known or registered reference to acupuncture.
The method is to insert very fine needles into the" acupuncture points "of the body, located along energetic paths that the Chinese have called meridians , in order to stimulate these areas, and to anesthetize and soothe pains and various ailments.The theory is that through this stimulation the energy balance of the body it is reinstated, bringing health back.In its beginnings, the needles were extremely sharp stone, and were used mostly to treat skin conditions, such as boils, cysts or abscesses.Then they began using other materials, such as bone , silver and gold, and even bamboo chips, until you reach today's stainless steel.
In Chinese medicine, the body is considered as a network of paths that link the different systems of the organism, and on these roads-the meridians-the points would be, so that they fulfill a regulatory function by transporting energy through the 14 meridians that the body has.
These points are the 361 places where the Qi (energy) of organs and viscera moves, and each of they reflect the activity of the organism.Therefore, through stimulation by means of needles, the body's balance is restored by allowing energy to flow freely, thus relieving various pains.
Then, the basic idea is that depending on what you have, the acupuncturist will activate different points that reflect different organs and areas of the body; there are 3 categories for acupuncture points: the regular, the extraordinary and the ashi.
The first ones, which are also called" of the fourteen channels ", are distributed along the meridians, and almost all have a fixed location.Extraordinary have regular names and sites, but they are not included in the fourteen channels, and the points there have no fixed location or names but are in painful areas when a disease occurs.
It should be clarified that there has been a lot of scientific research on acupuncture and specifically on acupuncture points, but they have not found enough evidence of that correspondence between a point and an organ.However, it is also necessary to clarify that acupuncture has served millions of people to relieve chronic pain such as back pain, relieve stress, depression and anxiety, improve digestion (and even lose weight), relieve pain head and even counteract the side effects of radiation in cancer treatments.
In fact, the World Health Organization included acupuncture as curative therapy for some diseases, as long as the minimum measures of hygiene and care are taken.
It is recommended that, if you decide to go to this traditional therapy, it is with a qualified professional, so that the experience is successful and the risks of possible infections, minimum.If you have already gone, do not hesitate to share it with your comments.
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Images: Boemski, Beavela, Terry Feuerborn , Wonderlane, weegeebored, CeliaTR
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