What Is Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a form of medicinal therapy that falls within the ambit of the articulate system of healing called Oriental Medicine. The other therapies that come under this category are herbology, physical therapy, dietetics and special exercises. Acupuncture, in itself, is a complete medical system, but is very different from the other branches of the modern Western medicine. This therapy finds its origin in the principles and philosophies that are based on the Oriental thinking and Oriental medicine. Read on to explore more about acupuncture therapy, through this article.

 

 

Most of the people would be surprised to know that Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most practiced medical therapies in the world. It is said to have been originated in China, over 2,000 years ago. However, many acupuncturists are of the opinion that this therapy is about 5,000 years old and was also popular in ancient Egypt. Whatever the truth may be, the modern world came to know about this therapy through James Reston, a New York Times reporter. He wrote extensively about how the medical practitioners in China used needles to ease his post-surgery pain, in 1971. This incident brought great popularity to acupuncture and renewed worldwide interest in this unique therapy of healing. Today, acupuncture is recognized in almost all the parts of the world.

 

The objective of acupuncture therapy, like any other medical therapy, is to encourage health and lessen the pain and sufferings of people. However, the method by which this is done can give strange and inexplicable thoughts to the people who do not have an idea about it. Still, acupuncture has been time tested over thousands of years and continues to prove itself effective in the treatment of several kinds of diseases. The basic premise of this therapy is based on the principle of energy.

 

According to the acupuncturists, health and sickness are caused due to a problem in the energy balance, which acupuncture seeks to correct. The principle of vital energy, energetic balance and energetic imbalance is applied in the therapy. Just like allopathic doctors monitor the blood flowing through blood vessels and the signals traveling through your nerves, acupuncturists checks the course and dissemination of vital energy in your body within its pathways, known as meridians and channels.

 

The treatment in acupuncture does not involve chemical or drugs. Rather, an acupuncturist influences your health and sickness, by stimulating certain parts of your body, along the ‘meridians’. Conventionally, these areas (better known as ‘acu-points’), were stimulated with slender pointed needles. However, in present times, several other forms of stimulation have been incorporated. Herbs, electricity, magnets and lasers are a few of the modern means of this therapy. Still, the basic aspect of acupuncture remains the same i.e. to navigate the ‘vital energy’ in a proper way, so that the required amount of energy reaches the right place, in requisite time duration. According to acupuncture, this navigation of energy helps the body to easily recover from the ailments.