Acupuncture is a well known alternative medicine. Opinions are controversial and range from its effectiveness being ‘just a placebo effect’ to ‘a viable treatment for pain, nausea, disease, and it promotes general health, among other things’.
It is believed, in virtually all branches of medicine, that if the needles used are sterile and the practitioner is skilled and experienced, the acupuncture treatment can do no harm. This fact is what makes many people feel confident to try it out as an experiment. Many patients who undergo the treatment are surprised and extremely happy with the results.
Quite a large number of mainline medical health professionals regard acupuncture as a promising complementary form of pain treatment, when carried out by licensed practitioners.
But many doctors would like to see further and deeper research into the practice of acupuncture. Some medical aids in various countries cover acupuncture treatments in co operation with medical consultations.In the culture of acupuncture, health is believed to be a condition of balance between the yin and yang. The channels along which these metaphysical energies flow in the body are called meridians. These channels are sometimes derived from astrological symbols, but in ancient Chinese lore they represented the network of rivers in China.
At the initial consultation, the patient’s health is assessed by the practitioner. According to which part of the body is affected and needs attention, the acupuncture needles are inserted into the meridians serving those parts.
In the face or other sensitive areas, smaller needles are used, while in the fleshy areas, the practitioner may prefer to use longer needles.Most needles are made of stainless steel wire, either disposable or re-usable when sterilized. Depending on the individual patient’s pain threshold, patients find the treatment easy or difficult to endure in varying degrees. Thinner needles tend to be less painful, but can be more flexible and sometimes require supporting tubes for insertion.
Acupuncture’s earliest written records go back to the 2nd century BC. But much earlier clues are given to its practise, in the discovery of sharpened shards of stone, dating back to 1600 BC.
A suggestion has been made that it all began with inexplicable cures and pain relief in some soldiers who had been mildly wounded by small, sharp arrows in battle.
Metal needles are a relatively ‘modern’ invention. The original practitioners used stone and then bone needles right up until the 2nd century BC.
An interesting link in Europe gives evidence that acupuncture may have been a universally accepted treatment in ancient times, and that the treatment did not arise originally from China alone, as is generally supposed.
In the Alps between Austria and Italy, the mummified body of a man was discovered in 1991. Preserved in the ice glacier it is estimated that he, today called ‘Otzi’, died about 5,300 years ago. What is of particular interest to believers in acupuncture is that he has 15 groups of tattoos on his body. Some of these are located on what are now known to be acupuncture points.
However, in time, the art of acupuncture seems to have been lost to the western world, and it was only in the 16th century that Portuguese missionaries discovered this practice in the east. By this time it had spread from China to many countries of Eastern Asia.
In the middle of the 17th century a Dutch doctor called Willem ten Rhijne wrote the first European literature on acupuncture and his proposal that it might help to relieve pain in arthritis sufferers. It was met with both praise and scepticism, pretty much as it still is today.