Body Health

Chinese Acupuncture

What is acupuncture? Stated most simly, it is a therapy developed by the ancient Chinese that consist of stimulation of designated points on the skin by insertion of needles, application of heat, massage, or a combination of these.

Observation of hypersensitive skin areas in the presence of disease led to recognition of a series of such points existing concurrently during a specific illness that could be linked to organ dysfunction. These points were seen to follow a definite, invariable topographucal pattern rather than to be scattered haphazardly over the body. Because they were well defined and constant in topographical presentation, these point could be used for diagnosing organ involvement in a variety of disorders. The line that could be drawn linking a series of points associated with a particular organ was called a meridian, and these meridians were identified with the various organs.

Fundamental to the concept of meridians in Chinese medicine is not only theit function as imaginary lines linking a series of points on the skin that become sensitive in the presence of organic or functional disorders, but also their fuction as actual "energy pathways".

Acupuncture was introduced to the West in the seventeenth century by Jesuit missionaries sent to Peking. Since that time several attempts have been made to promulgate this form of therapy in the Occident, with varying degrees of success. But not until the French Sinologist and diplomat Soulie de Morant published his voluminous writings on acupuncture in the 1940s did Western physicians have a sound basis for study and application of this ancient system of healing.

Under the impetus of de Morant's work, acupuncture associations and study groups were established in many Western countries. These organizations are composed of physicians practicing a variety of specialities.

(From "The Layman's Guide to Acupuncture" by Yoshio Manaka, M.D., and Ian A. Urquhart, Ph.D.)