History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture has a clearly recorded history of about 2,000 years, but some authorities claim that it has been practiced in China for some 4,000 years.

The Chinese believe that the practice of acupuncture began during the Stone Age when stone knives or sharp edged tools, were used to puncture and drain abscesses. Eventually metal needles began to appear and these took the form of the classical 'nine needles'.

The 'nine needles' comprised the arrowhead needle for superficial pricking, the round needle for massaging, the blunt needle for knocking or pressing, the three edged needle for puncturing a vein, the sword-like needle for draining abscesses, the sharp round needle for rapid pricking, the filiform needle, the long needle for thick muscles and the large needle for puncturing painful joints.

The 'nine needles' were initially made of either bronze, or gold and silver, and seem to have been first used about 2,000 years ago.

The tomb of the Prince of Chungshan, dating from the second century BC, was excavated in 1968 and contained a set of nine needles, four being of gold and five of silver. Some acupuncturists use gold and silver needles but the majority only stainless steel filiform needles.

The main needle now used for acupuncture is the filiform as most of the others have been replaced by more sophisticated surgical instruments, for instance, the sword-like needle has been replaced by the scalpel.

The first known acupuncture text is the ‘Huang Di Nei Jing’ (the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine), which, dated from the third century BC and compiled over centuries by numerous ancient Chinese medical practitioners, remains an indispensable text for students of traditional Chinese medicine.

It summarized all the medical knowledge handed down in China since the time of the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di) and clearly defined the fundamental principles that lie at the root of Chinese medicine.

The practice of acupuncture to treat identifiable pathophysiological conditions in American medicine was rare until the visit of President Nixon to China in 1972.

Since that time, there has been an explosion of interest in the United States and Europe in the application of the technique of acupuncture to Western medicine.

Many studies and researches were directed since to understand the mechanism of acupuncture.

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How Does Acupuncture Work?

Historically, acupuncture points were believed to be holes that allow entry into channels. These holes provide us gateways to influence, redirect, increase, or decrease body's vital substance, qi, thus correcting many of the imbalances.

To achive the goal of balance, an acupuncturist may insert the fine needles into and/or apply moxibustion on the correspondent channels/meridians. By way of these channels, the flow of Qi can be adjusted, regulated and strengthened, and thus enable ourselves to reach the state of harmony with our environments.

Moxibustion, which means literally Herb Burning, is a method often used by an acupuncturist in combination with needles. The type of herb used for the therapeutic purpose is a downy substance obtained from the dried leaves of an Asian plant related to mugwort. The plant is Crossostephium artemisioides, family Compositae - moxa, moe kusa (or mogusa by Japanese).

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• Acupuncture is one of the most thoroughly researched and documented of the alternative medical practices.
• A series of controlled studies has shown evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of a variety of conditions, including osteoarthritis, chemotherapy-induced nausea, asthma, back pain, painful menstrual cycles, bladder instability, and migraine headaches.
• Studies on acupuncture also have shown positive results in the areas of chronic pain management and in the management of drug addition, two areas where conventional Western medicine is very limited.
• “Effectiveness of Acupuncture as Adjunctive Therapy in Osteoarthritis of the Knee: A Randomized, Controlled Trial”. Berman BM, Lao L., Langenberg P, et al. Annals of Internal Medicine Dec.21, 2004; 141 (12) 901-910.

For more Information:
• www.Acupuncturetoday.com
• www.yinyanghouse.com
• www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/4321/
• www.cornelius-celsus.ch/
• Info@panafricanacupuncture.org

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