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  • Acupuncture
  • Does It Hurt?
  • Documentaries
  • In The News
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Acupuncture Video

Check out this great video to help explain the amazing healing benefits of acupuncture.

Acupuncture Greensboro nc

Ankle bone of Otzi Mummy - 3300 BC.

Oriental History - Classical Chinese Medicine

Oriental medicine are the oldest known medical canons and were found about 200 years before the birth of our LORD Jesus Christ.  While these ancient texts survived the test of time, they may have not been the first written by the Orientals, leading scientist to speculate even older canons have yet to be discovered.

  

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine  (Huang De Neijing) dates from the second century BC, and has a profound influence on acupuncture practices of today. The first Acupuncture needles were made from bone and date to 1,000 years before the canon was written.


Classical Chinese medicine is based wholly on the original classical medicine texts written in China as early as 3000-5000 years ago.  Archaeologists have found both acupuncture needles and divination bones on which medical discussions were inscribed dating to the late Shang Dynasty (~1000 B.C.).


In 1991, a mummified man scientist named Otzi who lived around 3300 B.C. was found in the Otztal Alps with tattoos on either side of his spine, behind his knee and around his ankle. These tattoos represent acupuncture points. Scientists speculated from a CT scan he may have been suffering with arthritis and published their finding in the Lancet:


"a treatment modality similar to Acupuncture thus appears to have been in use long before its previously known period of use in the medical tradition of ancient China (c. 1000Bc)."


For further details about Classical Chinese Medicine go to http://www.jungtao.edu/index.php/classical-chinese-medicine.  

Healing Therapies

Acupuncture

The Eastern theory regarding acupuncture is much more complex. There are 12 primary channels throughout the body that run vertically, bilaterally and symmetrically. Each channel is named after a primary organ (Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Urinary Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, San Jiao [a chinese system], Gallbladder, and Liver). When an acupuncturist speaks of these organs they may not be talking about the literal organ, but more of the organ pathway. 


There are hundreds of points on these channels. Each point is considered to be where Qi is known to collect. Qi, blood and fluids are supposed to flow smoothly throughout the body. Disease occurs when there is stagnation. When stagnation occurs, a nodule, pain or heat may be felt at that point, and inserting a needle will unblock the stagnation. Sometimes points are empty or feel hollow, so a needle is inserted to supplement the point by bringing Qi to the area.  In each of these cases a different needling technique is used. 


Based on your intake, a good practitioner will know which points and technique to use. Your initial intake form will give your practitioner information to start treating you, but you should report any changes or additional concerns you have at follow up appointments.

What Is Qi?

Acupuncture fine tunes the energy in our bodies known as "Qi." Qi is a fundamental unit in East Asian Medicine that has not yet been explained by Western Scientists. There are entire books written about Qi. It has been loosely defined as energy or life-force, but most scholars will say this too is wrong. 


During an acupuncture treatment, a practitioner and their patient will feel something when the needle has stimulated Qi. For the patient it can be best described as a dull achey heavy sensation, but each acupuncture point has a different Qi sensation. Many people will say it's a nerve sensation, but if a needle hits a nerve, it is very painful. So while Western Scientists catch up with the East, we will have to wait for a more solid definition that better explains Qi.   


Physics may offer more insight in the understanding of Qi (chi).  The findings of modern physics are now translating to those of Chinese Medicine. Both suggest that our bodies are essentially a composite of trillions of frequencies.  These frequencies are communicated as Qi and Jing.  This Yin and Yang behavior plays out in the form of cells, organ and tissues which are constantly vibrating and communicating with one another along with the external environment. 


It seems that in addition to being physical beings, on a more basic level we are beings of energy whose chemical processes are dependent upon the flow of energy throughout our bodies.  The scientific field of physics has confirmed the principals of Chinese Medicine beginning with Einstein's discovery that energy and matter are interchangeable. 

 


Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture

How Does It Work?

 The Western world has many research supported theories as to how Acupuncture works, here are six:  

  • Immunity Theory - Acupuncture increases white blood cell count and has a regulatory effect on the immune system. Studies were conducted where patients' blood was collected before and after an acupuncture treatment. White blood cells were significantly increased in the acupuncture group verses the control. Many diseases are linked to a weak immune system. If you are immunocompromised or just want to maintain your health acupuncture can supplement your body. 
  • Endorphin Theory - As early as 1977, studies concluded that acupuncture triggers our bodies to release Endorphins, especially Enkephalins. Endorphins are our bodies' natural pain killers. Studies have shown that patients had a significantly higher amount of endorphins in their cerebral spinal fluid after acupuncture.  
  • Neurotransmitter Theory - Research shows that acupuncture increases Serotonin and Norepinephrine. A study conducted with fibromyalgia patients showed that after acupuncture serum Serotonin and Substance P (a neurotransmitter important in pain perception) significantly increased therefore decreasing the patients' pain. Increased Serotonin can also help with depression, anxiety, addiction, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Serotonin levels are affected by sugar intake and low Serotonin levels may cause sugar cravings.  
  • Circulatory Theory - Acupuncture increases blood flow and decreases inflammation. Color Doppler Imaging (CDI) creates images of human blood vessels and quantitatively evaluates blood flow in real-time. Research with CDI and acupuncture showed that blood flow was dramatically increased after acupuncture. A study published in the scientific journal Neurobiology of Disease on treating spinal cord injuries found acupuncture inhibits caspase-3 activation and reduced the expression of proinflammatory factors. Increasing blood flow to an area of injury will help it heal faster.
  • Gate Control Theory - Acupuncture interrupts the transformation of pain being sent, but not received. Stimulation by an acupuncture needle bombards the neuron and stops the passage of stronger pain signals down the same nerve thus producing an analgesic effect. This is how acupuncture anesthesia can allow doctors to perform surgery on patients while they are awake. 
  • Weight Loss Theory - Acupuncture helps regulate obesity related hormones, boosts metabolism and improves digestion. Research measuring the effectiveness of acupuncture on weight loss found that it increased hormones cholecystokinin (regulated diet and satiety) and ghrelin (regulates hunger), while decreasing insulin (regulates carbohydrate and fat metabolism) and leptin (regulates hunger). 

What Does Acupuncture Treat?

Acupuncture treats a wide variety of symptoms, conditions and diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists the following symptoms, diseases and conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture.

Treatment of Various Conditions

  • Adrenal Fatigue
  • Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy     
  • Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)   
  • Biliary colic   
  • CFIDS


  • Dysentery, acute bacillary    
  • Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm     
  • Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)  
  • Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)  

  • Headache    
  • Hypertension, essential  Hypotension
  • Primary Induction of labor    
  • Knee pain    

  • Leukopenia   
  • Low back pain   
  • Malposition of fetus, correction of     Morning sickness     
  • Nausea and vomiting     
  • Neck pain     

  • Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)     
  • Periarthritis of shoulder     
  • Postoperative pain     
  • Renal colic     
  • Rheumatoid arthritis  

  • Sciatica     
  • Sprain     
  • Stroke     
  • Tennis elbow    

 

Additional Therapies

 The WHO lists the following symptoms, diseases and conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown, but further research and study is needed. The tools available to study this type of medicine are inadequate in measuring the outcome of all three elements of our being: body, soul and spirit.

  • Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
  • Acne vulgaris
  • Alcohol dependence and detoxification
  • Bell’s palsy
  • Bronchial asthma
  • Cancer pain
  • Cardiac neurosis
  • Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
  • Cholelithiasis
  • Competition stress syndrome
  • Craniocerebral injury, closed
  • Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent

  • Earache
  • Endometriosis
  • Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
  • Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
  • Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
  • Female infertility
  • Facial spasm
  • Female urethral syndrome
  • Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
  • Gastrokinetic disturbance
  • Gouty arthritis 
  • Hepatitis B virus carrier status
  • Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
  • Hyperlipaemia


  • Hypo-ovarianism
  • Insomnia
  • Labour pain
  • Lactation, deficiency
  • Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
  • Ménière disease
  • Neuralgia, post-herpetic
  • Neurodermatitis
  • Obesity
  • Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Pain due to endoscopic examination
  • Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein–Leventhal syndrome)
  • Postextubation in children
  • Postoperative convalescence


  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Prostatitis, chronic
  • Pruritus
  • Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
  • Raynaud syndrome, primary
  • Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
  • Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
  • Retention of urine, traumatic
  • Schizophrenia
  • Sialism, drug-induced
  • Sjögren syndrome
  • Sore throat (including tonsillitis)

  • Spine pain, acute
  • Stiff neck
  • Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
  • Tietze syndrome
  • Tobacco dependence
  • Tourette syndrome
  • Ulcerative colitis, chronic
  • Urolithiasis
  • Vascular dementia​
  • Whooping cough (pertussis)

 

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