Acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world. As part of traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture aims to restore and maintain health through the stimulation of specific points on the body. In the United States acupuncture is considered part of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
Tell your health care providers about any complementary and alternative practices you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care.
To read my review on a recent acupuncture treatment for my painful shoulder click here. About Acupuncture: If you don't know what acupuncture is, the easiest way to describe it is that the practitioner uses small gauge (exceedingly fine) needles, along various points on your body. The intention is to solicit a physiological response. Acupuncture is widely used in Asian countries to treat virtually any condition or disease: however, it is credited with being a noted pain reliever. Chinese practitioners use this healing art to treat whole body conditions.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the body is seen as a delicate balance of two opposing and inseparable forces: YIN and YANG:
Yin represents the cold, slow, or passive principle, while yang represents the hot, excited, or active principle. According to TCM, health is achieved by maintaining the body in a "balanced state"; disease is due to an internal imbalance of yin and yang. This imbalance leads to blockage in the flow of QI (vital energy) along pathways known as meridians.
Qi can be unblocked, according to TCM, by using acupuncture at certain points on the body that connect with these meridians.
History: It will amaze you to find out just how long this alternative healing art has been around. Would you believe over 7,000 years? There is some proof that in India a very primitive acupuncture-like therapy was used on people at that time. In China over 5,000 years ago, fishbone needles were used on humans to obtain healing results.
Seven thousand years is quite the track record, and that astonished me until I found more information, which indicated that the first person to use acupuncture on animals did so in 480 BC in China.
Acupuncture obviously has something going for it when partnered with traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Although having said that, I should also say that this art fell out of favor in the 1940s because antibiotics were thought to be better for certain illnesses.
Acupuncture became better known in the USA in 1971, when New York Times reporter James Reston wrote about how doctors in China used needles to ease his pain after surgery.
It wasn't until 1983 that acupuncture was finally endorsed by the American Osteopathic Association as a recognized component of a diverse medical practice. This meant that "real" doctors approved of and used this healing art.
Who Gets Acupuncture:
Dr. Sugar gets a acupuncture at least once a month. I tend to carry a fair amount of stress and tension in some of the muscles in my neck and I find acupuncture assists with this as well as reduces overall life stress and balances Qi. According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a comprehensive survey of CAM use by Americans, an estimated 3.1 million U.S. adults and 150,000 children had used acupuncture in the previous year. Between the 2002 and 2007 NHIS, acupuncture use among adults increased by three-tenths of 1 percent (approximately 1 million people).
What To Expect from Acupuncture: Acupuncture needles are metallic, solid, and hair-thin. Definitely nothing like the needles I use to draw blood or give shots. In fact they are so thin that they probably shouldn't even be called needles.
People experience acupuncture differently, but most feel no or minimal pain as the needles are inserted. Some people feel energized by treatment, while others feel relaxed. Improper needle placement, movement of the patient, or a defect in the needle can cause soreness and pain during treatment. This is why it is important to seek treatment from a qualified acupuncture practitioner.
Acupuncture Side Effects and Risks: Relatively few complications from the use of acupuncture have been reported to the FDA, in light of the millions of people treated each year and the number of acupuncture needles used. However, acupuncture can cause potentially serious side effects if not delivered properly by a qualified practitioner.
Any Scientific Research: There have been many studies on acupuncture's potential health benefits for a wide range of conditions. Summarizing earlier research, the 1997 NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture found that, overall, results were hard to interpret because of problems with the size and design of the studies.
Conclusion: In traditional Chinese medicine, the human body is regarded as a small part of a large infinite universe. That body will then follow the governing laws of nature and experience good health doing so. You can see how this is applicable to the mind, body and spirit connection that I believe in and follow.
However, what also captured my attention about acupuncture is that the practitioner's goal is to diagnose imbalance in the life force, or the Qi, determine what the imbalance or disease is, and get rid of the cause by treatment. While traditional Western medicine doesn't always pay attention to imbalances in the life force, it does diagnose disease and attempts to get rid of it with various medicinal forms of treatment. Sweet! Do you see the parallels here?
To Your Total Wellness, Dr. Sugar
Your own
Community Doctor- Isn’t that Sweet!!
The information contained in this blog is not medical advice.
Please consult your medical doctor before making any decisions or taking any actions on your health or the health of your family.
References:
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/introduction.htm http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/acupuncture-for-pain.htm More videos from Dr. Sugar, MD available on
www.MyOwnMedicalDoctor.com
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