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Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine
What is Acupuncture and how does it work?
Acupuncture is an ancient art of healing and health care that has been around for over 5,000 years. Though it has traditionally been practised more in China and Japan, as we enter the 21st Century, it is now becoming a widely accepted and primary health care choice for many people in the Western World and here in New Zealand. For many though, acupuncture is a word they may have heard of but the understanding of what it is and what it does is vague.
What is Traditional Chinese Medicine?
Traditional Chinese Medicine has its origin in ancient Taoist philosophy which views a person as an energy system in which body and mind are unified, each influencing and balancing the other. Unlike allopathic medicine which attempts to isolate and separate a disease from a person, Chinese Medicine emphasizes a holistic approach that treats the whole person. The ancient Chinese believed that there is a universal life energy called Chi (Qi) present in every living creature. This energy is said to circulate throughout the body along specific pathways that are called meridians. As long as this energy flows freely throughout the meridians, health is maintained, but once the flow of energy is blocked, the system is disrupted and pain and illness occur. Imagine an electrical grid short-circuiting that causes blackouts. Acupuncture works to “re-program” and restore normal functions by stimulating certain points on the meridians in order to free up the Chi energy.
When receiving Acupuncture and Chinese medicine treatment, each patient is regarded as an individual whose state of well being is immediately affected by his or her lifestyle which includes diet, habits, emotions, attitude and environment. Thus, each person’s health needs will differ from that of another. Acupuncture can treat people on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level, depending on what the patient wants. This may include anything from ‘back-ache’, arthritis, musculo-skeletal problems, stress, digestive problems, asthma, hay fever, premenstrual tension, painful periods, infertility, insomnia, depression and so the list goes on.
People may choose to avoid acupuncture as a form of health care because of a fear of needles. However, not only are the needles incredibly fine (about the width of a human hair!), the correct sensation is not one of pain, but more of a tingle or dull throb, which is the sensation of qi being mobilised in the meridian. In addition to this, there are a variety of techniques that can be applied which include moxibustion (heat produced by burning herbs on a specific acu-point or area), cupping (applying suction through a glass jar, in which a partial vacuum is created), acupressure/ ‘Tui-Na’ (pressure applied to the acu-points) and Acutonics™ (specific frequency sound waves applied to the acu-points). Thus, any person, young or old, can receive the benefits of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine without necessarily having to have needles at all!
Acupuncture works well in conjunction with many other forms of holistic health care including massage therapy, physiotherapy, osteopathy etc. As Acupuncture works on a multitude of levels, it can often enhance other treatment methods and create a more long lasting treatment effect ie Massage and Acupuncture work extremely well together for a deeply therapeutic and enduring treatment combination. Patients love it!
Today, the curative effects of TCM are widely acknowledged and have attracted the respect of Western Medical Science. Many practitioners in this field are choosing to enrich their clinical expertise with TCM, bringing modern medicine into a new era. More and more people are seeking natural methods of healthcare which do not involve chemical medications, so a future career in TCM offers excellent rewarding and prosperous possibilities.
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