Acunpuncture: an Overview Essay

What is Acupuncture? How does sticking a bunch of needles into your body make you face better? Is this stuff for real? These atomic number 18 all questions Ive asked myself, and turn appear heard from others over the years. Acupuncture is a system of complementary medicinal drug that involves pricking the skin with needles. Its used to alleviate pain and to grapple various physical, mental, and emotional conditions is one of the key components of Traditional Chinese euphony and is among the oldest healing invests in the world.In a 2007 Consensus Development Conference, The National set up of Health determined that According to the traditional Chinese medicinal drug approach, stimulate specific stylostixis points corrects im equilibrates in the flow of qi through transmit known as meridians. Acupuncture slew be dated ass thousands of years, and as with any topic that old, there is a plethora of reading available, and it some cartridge holders can be hard to decipher.A fter researching the topic, and because of the context of the assignment, I narrowed my focus down to three specific beas theory, which covers qi, meridians, and stylostixis points account, which can be broken down into antiquity, middle history, and the modern era and eventually the length, diameter, and material of needles. The basis of stylostixis deals with manipulating the flows of qi throughout the body.According to Daoist principles, qi is the active principle forming part of any living thing, and it is the central key principle in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and warriorlike arts. The literal translation of qi is breath, air, or gas however, it is frequently translated as life energy, life force, or energy flow. In A Clinical Introduction to Medical Acupuncture, the authors, Aung & Chen, state, Traditional Chinese medicine distinguishes not only one but several different kinds of qi.In a general sense, qi is something that is defined by five cardinal number functio ns. These cardinal functions are what keep the body a pull through. The first function qi provides is keeping the body, especially the limbs, warm during frore temperatures. The energy from it heats the blood, the extremities, and allows us to live and our biological processes to take place. Qi also enables the actuation of the biological processes such(prenominal) as breathing, sweating, it controls the nervous system, and most importantly the circulation of all the body fluids such as blood in its vessels.Qi also provides containment of those fluids in their prissy spot it keeps blood, sweat, urine, and semen from leaking or excessive emission. We know now that regimen broken down by the digestion process, and that various enzymes convert it into blood, nutrients, and that theres a process for making the air we breathe into oxygen for our lungs. The ancient Chinese believed that qi did the transformation of food, drink, and breath into qi, blood, fluids, and the transformatio n of all of the latter(prenominal) into each other.The farthest function provided by qi, is defense against the sixsome Essences. The Six Essences are allegorical terms sometimes used to describe disharmony patterns in the body and their names are derived from environmental elements that were thought to pattern, or mimic, the symptoms. The first of the Six Essences is Wind, which is characterized by rapid onset of symptoms, wandering stance of symptoms, itching, nasal congestion, floating pulse tremor, paralysis, or convulsion.The second of the Essences is Cold, which manifests itself in cold sensations, aversion to cold, relief of symptoms by warmth, watery/clear excreta, severe pain, group AB pain, contracture and hypertonicity of muscles, (slimy) white tongue fur, and hidden, string-like, or slow pulse. Fire (or heat) is the tertiary of the Essences. Its symptoms are recognizable by aversion to heat, high fever, thirst, concentrated urine, cerise face or tongue, yellow tong ue fur, and a rapid pulse.The last three Essences are Dampness, Dryness, and Summerheat the symptoms of which are, respectively, sensation of heaviness, fullness, and symptoms of Spleen dysfunction dry cough, mouth, throat, lips, skin, stool, and nosebleeds and every heat or mixed damp-heat symptoms. In order fulfill its functions, qi has to steadily flow from the inside of the body to the superficial body tissues of the skin, muscles, t stopons, bones, and joints. It is help in its flow by channels referred to as meridians.Traditional Chinese Medicines identifies twelve regular and eight extraordinary meridians. (Aung & Cheng, 19-20) At various points on the meridians, are stylostixis points. The number of points has varied considerably over time. initially they were considered to number 365 stylostixis points, symbolically aligning with the number of days in the year however, the modern total, while once considered 670, has been subsequently expanded out-of-pocket to more rec ent interest in auricular (ear) cupuncture and the treatment of come along conditions. These stylostixis points are mainly, but not always, found at stipulate locations along these meridians and acupuncturists use the points to manipulate the qi and restore harmony and balance to the body. Though most of these points are found along the meridians, there is a second group of points, called extraordinary points, which are found outside the meridians and are credited with special therapeutic properties.Examples of these are the pressure points in the net between the thumb and forefinger, just inside the arch of the foot, the temples, and the anterior animal foot of the neck. Lastly, a third category of acupuncture points called A-shi points brook no wintry location but represent tender or reflexive points appearance in the course of pain syndromes. The history of acupuncture can be broken down into three distinct eras that of antiquity, which goes gumption to its origins its mid dle history dating, from the early 11th century through the 1800s and the modern era, which picks up in the early 20th century.The precise start date of acupunctures use in China and how it evolved from early times are uncertain however, there are a myriad of theories and explanations as to how it came about. wizard explanation is that soldiers wounded in battle by arrows were believed to ache been senior of chronic afflictions that were otherwise untreated. Another is the sharpened bian shi treasures found in China, which designate suggests the intrust may date back to the Neolithic or gem Age (Acupuncture in Medicine 10 929). There have also been hieroglyphs found dating from the Shang Dynasty, which ran from 1600 through 1100 BCE.It is believed that Korea was the second country acupuncture spread to outside of China, and in 1023, the emperor of China ordered the merchandise of a bronze statuette depicting the meridians and acupuncture points then in use. The practice of a cupuncture lost a lot status subsequently Song Dynasty. In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries were among the first to bring reports of acupuncture to the westmost, and a Dutch surgeon traveling in Asia described the practice in both Japan and Java however, in China itself the practice was increasingly associated with the lower-classes and illiterate practitioners (Barnes, 589. The middle era of acupuncture came to an end in 1823, when an revisal from the Emperor banned the practice and teaching of acupuncture within the Imperial Academy of Medicine, as unfit for practice by gentlemen-scholars. The modern era of acupuncture came in to being around the time of the Chinese civil war, 1927-1949. Early Chinese Communist Party leaders ridiculed Traditional Chinese Medicine, claiming that it worked against the partys dedication to science as the way of progress.Chairman Mao reversed that position, and rewrote its theory in order to make it fit into the Chinese political doctrine. Acupuncture gained attention in the United States when President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, and his delegation was shown a uncomplaining undergoing major surgery while awake however, it was later found out patients were chosen because they had naturally high pain tolerance, were indoctrinated into the method, and were on morphine IVs which were claimed to have been essential nutrients and fluids.The greatest exposure in the West came after a New York Times reporter received acupuncture in Beijing for post-operative pain in 1971 and wrote about it in his report column. From there, the first legal acupuncture center was opened in chapiter D. C. in 1972, and in 1973, the IRS declared acupuncture was allowed to be deducted from taxes as a medical expense. The last aspect of acupuncture, and arguably the most essential, is the needle. While there are certain methods that do not involve needles, most of them do.The needles have evolved over the years, originally starting out as bone, or stone now, however, most of the acupuncture needles are made of upright steel, with some cultures development copper. Needles vary in length ,between 13 to 130 millimeters (0. 5 in to 5 in. ), with shorter needles used near the face and eyes, and longer needles in more fleshy areas, and range in diameter from 0. 16 mm (0. 006 in) to 0. 46 mm (0. 018 in), with thicker needles used on more robust patients.After this design overview of acupuncture, Ive answered a lot of my own questions and concerns with acupuncture The three aspects of acupuncture theory are qi, meridians, and acupuncture points. It long history has unknown origins, and edict from Chinese Emperor banned teaching in academy, but it brought back my Chairman Mao, and made popular in America by a reporter in the 70s. Needles are mostly made of stainless steel, and they vary in length, and diameter,