What is Chinese Medicine?
Chinese Medicine is the backbone of an ancient body of knowledge and wisdom that has its roots in 5,000 years of tradition. It is one of the most subtle and beautiful ways we can allow our body to come into it’s most natural state of being. Traditional Chinese Medicine is composited of four main modalities of treatment. Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine, along with Dietary Therapy and Massage all compliment each other in their dynamic goal of allowing the body to unleash its natural potential towards health. Moxibustion, another form of treatment uses specific warming techniques to help nourish blood flow and realign one’s overall system. Acupuncture is one of our primary methods used to promote wellness, restore internal balance and nourish the body and mind. As of now, it is being strongly integrated into the western model of health care due to it’s noninvasive approach towards healing and wellness. Acupuncture operates by way of balancing the hormonal nervous system through equilibrating secretions that effect blood pressure, pulse rate, sweating, metabolic rate and overall body temperature. According to research, acupuncture boosts the release of integral neurotransmitters that not only diminish perception of pain but also relax and calm the body and increase a sense of tranquility and overall quality of sleep.
What is Qi?
It is important to understand that the human body is an infinitely wise energy system with components that interact with each other in order to create the whole physiological organism. Among these substances, qi is the most essential. Qi can be described as bioelectric energy or vital essence that is part matter and part energy. It is demonstrated to flow within a closed system of meridians throughout the human body. The overall network of meridians allows for qi to reach all tissues and organs, unblocking flow, nourishing, warming and bringing energy to all facets of the body. In cases where flow is obstructed or weakened the relative imbalance will in turn, manifest as illness within the body.
What is Acupuncture?
According to modern Science, Acupuncture is understood to exert an overall homeostatic effect on the body, allowing the body to restore it’s most natural internal environment. In a review article, Acupuncture and the Nervous System (American Journal of Chinese Medicine 1992; 20(3-4): 331-337), Cai Wuying at the Department of Neurology at Loyola University of Chicago, described from a Western Medical perspective how Acupuncture served to exert a specific physiological shift. According to a report of the Shanghai Medical University, cranial nerves, spinal nerves, and their terminals were dispersed in the area surrounding the acupuncture points for a range of 5 millimeters. They found that the nervous distribution of the Bladder Meridian points (which run along the paraspinal muscles and spine) were in the same area of the spine as that of the corresponding viscera. In addition to this in Japanese research, it was reported that when acupuncture points were needled, certain neurotransmitters appeared at the site. In laboratory-animal acupuncture studies, it was reported that two such transmitters, substance P and calcitonin gene-related peptide, were released from primary sensory neurons.
Acupuncture analgesia appears to be mediated by release of enkephalin and beta-endorphins, with regulation of prostaglandin synthesis: all of which have a definitive affect on pain perception. Acupuncture research has largely studied acupuncture mechanisms and it’s effect on endorphins. Endorphins are one of several neuropeptides that have been proven to alleviate pain, and have been described as the body’s own reserve of “opiates.” One reason for the focus on these physiological substances is that they were identified in 1977, just as acupuncture was becoming popular in the West, and they are primarily involved in two areas that have been the focus of acupuncture therapy in the West: treatment of chronic pain and treatment of drug addiction.
According to the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine, one of the elements key to successful treatment is having the person who is being treated experience what is called the “needling sensation.” The sensation can vary with the treatment. It may be explained as a numbness or tingling and warmth. Occasionally, the needling sensation is experienced as the sensation of the traversing of a point from one part of the body to another part of the body.
Acupuncture is seen as a stimulus directed to certain responsive parts of the nervous system, producing the needling sensation and hereby setting off a biochemical cascade which signals the body into healing mode and enhances overall wellness. Some acupuncture points are very frequently used and their applications are quite varied: needling at these points works to try and stimulate a “global” healing response and this is what can affect change in many diseases.
Acupuncture is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and to improve it’s overall functioning. The needles are as fine as a strand of hair. Only disposable needles of the highest and safest quality are used. Needles are inserted into specific meridian points in the body. A healing treatment program will be designed specifically for you according to the guidelines of Traditional Chinese medicine which involve tongue and pulse diagnosis. As of yet, needles are known to be the second largest fear in the US so in the case that you would prefer not having acupuncture, acupressure is also an available for you. Acupressure uses the same meridian points as acupuncture but without needles. Stimulation of the points will be done with the practitioner’s fingers rather than needles.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION:
According to the World Health Organization, diseases for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials demonstrate the definitive success and efficacy of Acupuncture.
The diseases or disorders for which acupuncture therapy has been tested in controlled clinical trials reported in the recent literature can be classified into four categories as shown below.
Diseases, symptoms or conditions for which acupuncture has been proved-through controlled trials-to be an effective treatment:
Adverse reactions to radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Dysentery
Facial Pain
Headache
Hypertension & Essential Hypotension
Primary
Induction of labor
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low Back & Neck Pain
Dental Pain
Malposition of fetus
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Postoperative pain
Renal colic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow
