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Kang Jian
Username: Echokang
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2005 - 08:03: | |
How Does Acupuncture Work
According to the principles of TCM, qi flows through the body via 14 primary meridians or channels. To strengthen the flow of qi,or remove blockages in the meridians, an acupuncturist inserts a number of tiny, sterile, flexible needles just under the skin at certain specific points (called acupoints) along the channels. There are four to five hundred named acupoints along the meridians, some of which are associated with specific internal organs or organ systems. If you are suffering from nausea, for example, needles might be inserted into acupoints on your wrist, while a vision problem might be treated with needles in the foot. (Additional ear, scalp, and hand points are also commonly used by some practitioners.) Acupuncture practitioners believe that the therapy stimulates the body's internal regulatory system and nurtures a natural healing response.
Although Western science has neither proven nor accepted the notion of qi, a large body of evidence is accumulating indicating that acupuncture leads to real physiologic changes in the body. Numerous studies have shown, for example, that inserting needles into the skin stimulates nerves in the underlying muscles. This stimulation, researchers feel, sends impulses up the spinal cord to a relatively primitive part of the brain known as the limbic system, as well as to the midbrain and the pituitary gland. Somehow that signaling leads to the release of endorphins and monoamines, chemicals that block pain signals in the spinal chord and brain. |
Anonymous
Username: Echokang
Registered: N/A
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 24, 2005 - 04:10: | |
Acupuncture and Emotions
Several decades ago, the concept of personality as a predictive factor in disease was formally introduced to the West. Appreciation of the Type-A personality, with its hostility, its hurried mindset and polyphasic thinking, drew widespread attention to emotion as a factor in the genesis of disease. Subsequently, another illness-prone personality type-Type D-was recognized by its characteristic suppressing of negative emotions. Western clinical researchers in recent years have scrutinized the relationship between emotion and illness. Can negative thinking, they ask, make a person sick? More recently they have added, in counterpoint: can positive thinking (generated by prayer and imagery) help a person heal? While these questions may pose a fairly binary approach to the matter, binary it must be, since Western clinical studies cannot be conducted on poetic or allegorical explanations of mind/matter such as we find in Traditional Chinese Medicine. For authentic practitioners of Oriental Medicine, however, the interplay of organs/emotions/spirit is inescapable.
An ancient text, the "Huang Ti Nei Ching", compares the function and position of internal organs to hierarchies found in an empire. It tells us: "The heart is like the minister of the monarch who excels through insight and understanding; the lungs are the symbol of the interpretation and conduct of the official jurisdiction and regulation; the liver has the functions of a military leader who excels in his strategic planning; the gall bladder... excels through his decisions and judgment; the middle of the thorax is like the official of the center who guides the subjects in their joys and pleasures...the kidneys are like the officials who do energetic work and they excel through their abilities...."
In her translation of the "Nei Ching", Ilza Veith explains that the heart, the spleen, the lungs, liver and kidneys "determine the functions of all the other parts of the body, including the bowels, and also of the spiritual resources and emotions"(2). Logically then, we should consider involvement of these five organs when the issue of emotional problems is presented. Has the comparative weakness of certain organs, we might ask, exposed a patient to illness or to prolonged recovery? Could the illness cause depletion of specific organs, creating a self-defeating cycle? While the practitioner must be careful to leave psychology to the psychologists, he or she will nevertheless recognize patterns of behavior/illness and opportunities for therapy which have been described in ancient texts.
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ron
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 06:43: | |
About how Acupuncture works:
Would you describe it in western terms as stimulating the right nerves, which in their turn activate inner mussels and glands, or do you think that trying to explain it in western terms will miss the target.
Thanks |
ron
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 06:52: | |
About Acupuncture and emotions:
Do TCM doctors actually attempt to cure emotional problems described in Chinese medicine, or is this mainly therotical knowladge, and pacients are referred to psychologist whenever in need.
For example: a hessitance problem is related to the Gall Bladder. Taking care of the GB will solve such a problem ?
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Kang Jian
Username: Echokang
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 09:47: | |
reply to ron
The Chinese believe that health is achieved, and disease prevented, by maintaining the body in a 'balanced state'. This concept was applied to both individuals and society at large. In individual terms the ancient Chinese physicians preached moderation in all things, such as alcoholic intake and gastronomic excess.
The body is a delicate balance of Yin and Yang. Yin represents water, quiet, substance and night, whilst Yang represents fire, noise, function and day. The two are polar opposites and because of this one must be present to allow the other to exist; for instance, how can you experience joy if you do not understand misery? The state of the body is determined by the balance of Yin and Yang within it. Each of the organs of the body has an element of Yin and Yang, although one organ may be more Yang in its nature, whilst the other is more Yin. One organ may be more important in its substantive form (Yin) whilst another is more important because of its functional abilities (Yang). When the healthy body is examined as a complete functioning system the Yin and Yang properties within it are in a fluctuating balance.
The balance of Yin and Yang is not always exact. Sometimes a person's mood may be more fiery, or Yang, whilst at other times he may be quieter and therefore more Yin. Normally the balance changes from hour to hour and day to day, but if the balance is permanently disordered, for instance if Yin consistently outweighs Yang, then the body is unhealthy and disease results.
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Kang Jian
Username: Echokang
Registered: 05-2005
| | Posted on Friday, May 27, 2005 - 09:50: | |
reply to ron
Acupuncturists diagnose human illness in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which perceives the human organism and it¡¯s processes as flows of Qi or energy; somewhat like the currents, eddies and swirls in a stream or lake.
According to the principles of TCM, qi flows through the body via 14 primary meridians or channels. To strengthen the flow of qi,or remove blockages in the meridians, an acupuncturist inserts a number of tiny, sterile, flexible needles just under the skin at certain specific points (called acupoints) along the channels. There are four to five hundred named acupoints along the meridians, some of which are associated with specific internal organs or organ systems. If you are suffering from nausea, for example, needles might be inserted into acupoints on your wrist, while a vision problem might be treated with needles in the foot. (Additional ear, scalp, and hand points are also commonly used by some practitioners.) Acupuncture practitioners believe that the therapy stimulates the body's internal regulatory system and nurtures a natural healing response.
Although Western science has neither proven nor accepted the notion of qi, a large body of evidence is accumulating indicating that acupuncture leads to real physiologic changes in the body. Numerous studies have shown, for example, that inserting needles into the skin stimulates nerves in the underlying muscles. This stimulation, researchers feel, sends impulses up the spinal cord to a relatively primitive part of the brain known as the limbic system, as well as to the midbrain and the pituitary gland. Somehow that signaling leads to the release of endorphins and monoamines, chemicals that block pain signals in the spinal chord and brain.
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How Does Acupuncture Work