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| Introduction |
A cupuncture is one of the oldest forms of
healing known to mankind. It originated in China nearly five
thousend years ago . The fact
that it is still being practised after thousend of years, speaks for
the efficacy of this treatment for the laws and principles it is
based.Acupuncture treatment is usally carried out be inserting very
fine niddles in specific points in the body. |
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The needles
vary from half an inch to several inches in length and depth of
insertion together with the way in which they are twirled and
vibrated, effects the treatment. Acupuncture sets out correct any
imbalance that is in the body or in the mind and restore harmony and
equiliburium, thus eradicating the causative factors of the
sickness.
The name Acupuncture is derived from the Latin words i.e. Acus
meaning needles and Punctura - To Penetrate. The discovery of
acupuncture is rather interesting. It was accidently discovered when
a warrior, struck by an arrow in a battle became aware of numbness,
that had nothing to do with his wound. From this it was sumerised
that by penetrating the skin at certain points a number od diseases
could apparently be cured spontaneously. Later on it was discovered
taht it was not the size of the wound that mattered, but rather the
precise points where the pin prick should be made to bring the
relief to the sufferer. This led to belief that a needle inserted at
various points on the body when manipulated, could cure
disease. |
What is Acupuncture: The treatment
of various disease of the body carried out by inserting very fine
needles into the specific points of the body is termed as
acupuncture. It comprise two parts-to needle and to heat. In latin,
acus means neddle and pungue mean pricking. The
whole body is endowed with a number of spots- the acupuncture
points. These points, when stimulated either by needles or by
warming, bring about the cure. The source of needle stimulation
either by needles or by electricity. The heating is done by burning
a kind of herb Artemisia vulgaris and the technique is
called moxibustion. The two technique needling and moxibustion can
be used separately or in combination.
The Story of the Needles : In the ancient
days when people had no knowledge of metal, the so called needles
were pointed stone, sharp bones, they were termed as 'bain'(sharp)
stones, Shuo Wen Jie Zi(analytical dictionary of
character) of the second century explained the world 'bain' as a
sharp stone used to prick at body surface in order to cure diseases.
These bain stones used to be of various shapes like a knife, a
sword, a needle, etc. In the latter years such bain stones were
replaced by the needles made of bone or bamboo. In some
races(Eskimo, for example) the pointed stones are still being
used to cure the diseases. During the shang Dynasty (16-11 century)
it became possible to manufacture bronz. In the course of evolution,
needles of iron, silver or gold came into use.
Myths and Legends :How old and worshipped
this art of acupuncture is can imagined from the findings of a
recent excavtion carried out at Liang-Cheng mountain, Wie-Shan
county of Shandong province. The four tablets of Han
Dynasty were unearthed on which the carved design of a
supernatural being half-man half-bird holding a large needle trying
to puncture the body of a patient was found. This is an evidence of
the prevaling knowledge of acupuncture in the primitive society.
Another interesting legend partains to some worriors, wounded by
arrows who recovered from their chronic illnesses on account of
the acupuncture effects brought about by the arrows. According
to the legends, acupuncture and herbal therapy was started by two
ancient gods of Chinese people . They were known as Huang Di and
Shen Nung(3737-2697 B.C.) the second and third of the three August
emperors, preceded by Fu Hsi, the legendary discoverer of the Pa
Kau. The existence of such legendary gods has not been proved. Shen
Nung, and Hung Ti. It appears from the history that Huang Di, the
yellow emperor, stand next to Fu Hsi and Shen Kung as the Father
of Acupuncture
Nei Jing: It is said in legend that Huang Di
took the throne of China from Shen Nung in 2697 B.C. He was a man of
great wisdom. He formulated the classic of Chinese medicine and his
conclusion and principles of anatomy, medicine and health were
written down in the Nei Jing , popularly calles the Huang
Di Nei Jing Su wen, the yellow emperor's classic of internal
medicine. Chi Po, chief minister and physician, helped him in
accomplishing this task. The book is written in two parts. the first
part, known as Su Wen or simple question, contains the principles of
medicine and the theory of the universe as it relate to the human
health. Acupuncture is described in the second part known as Ling
Shu, or magic gate. This deals with the preventation and cure of
illness and the actual ways an acupuncturist may adopt to
achieve this.
As medical theory, the description in Nei Jing were far ahead of
times. the circulation of the blood in blood vessels was
well-described which was discovered in the West thousends of years
later. Nei Jing was again complied later by Wang Oing of Tang
Dynasty. It has always received the favour of China's emperors, and
long before the Sung version, about 49 editions of Nei Jing had
already came into the medical field.
Systemetisation: The acupuncture points were
first systemetically desvribed during the Tisn Dynasty(A.D. 25(-420)
and about 349 basic acupuncture points and about 649 in all were
listed on the human body. In the Tang Dynasty(A.D. 618-907) a strong
need was felt to start an acupuncture centre and a special
department was established at the Imperial medical college of China.
During A.D 960-1297 acupuncture was further systemetised and it was
not untill 1026, that acupuncture was officially recognised and an
official manual was complied in this regard. It contained the
description of 657 total acupuncture points (including 354 basic
points). The human body model made of bronze for the teaching
purpose was also made in the same year.
Pulse Diagnosis:Huang Fu-Mi (215-282 A.D.)
wrote a book called Chia Ching on moxibustion and acupuncture.
Curiously enough while the teaching of Shun, the famous contemporary
physician, were disregarded, acupuncture continued to flourish
amongst the clinicians. Wang Shu wrote Ne-Jing, a treatise on pulse
diagnosis, at the very and of the Han era. This book was later
translated into Arabic, Persian, Tibten, Japanese and the art
migrated to the Middle East and Europe. Two books were published in
Germany in the Seventeenth Century-one in 1682 at Frankfurt and the
other in 1686 at Nuremberg.
Westernisation of the Chinese Medicine: During
the Ming acupuncture Dynasty(1368-1644) China had started using the
knowledge of western medicine while acupuncture, China's own art,
was becoming popular in the Western Europe. During both the ching
Dynasty(1644-1911) and the nationalist China (1911-1949) acupuncture
lost favour of the rulers and it remained suppressed with little or
no progress at all. Chinag Kai-Shek and the Kuomingtang also
popularised and favoured western medicine. The chinese doctors
started studying western medical theory and technique. Many Chinese
doctors who studied the western medicine, had no real desire to give
up their ancient healing art of acupuncture and moxibustion but they
did not want to take the risk of being labelled as communists and
showed no ostensible interest.
Renascence of Acupuncture: After the dawn of the
People Republic of China in 1949, the development of traditional
culture was associated with patriotism and thus acupuncture also
became cynosure of medical science. More recent development took
place in 1958. Many different methods of treatment were
development such as the needling of hands, nose, ears, face
and head, the nedling with long fine needles, hot needles, warm
needles and the injection of distilled water into certain points, an
instruction for detecting the points and a glass figure marked with
acupuncture points were made.
In the same year, acupuncture anaesthesia was first successfully
carried out and a few operation were performed. Of course, this came
after a long experimental period of trail and error. Today
acupuncture anaesthesia is extensively used in many hospital of
China.
In 1970, when China opend her doors to the West again,
acupuncture started achieving new height. An ever increasing number
of medical practitioners in the various countries started studying
and experimenting on the subject seriously. Today many medical
institution have recognised it as a method of thearpy and numerous
achievements have been registerd.
The Origin of Moxibustion: Moxibustion
originated in northern China. As this region is mountainous and
frequently attacked by piercing cold winds, and surrounded by
scathing, in the primitive races, when people used to warm
themselves with fire, they accidently discovered that applying heat
or scorching the abdominal region at relieved the symptoms of
abdominal pain, distension and fullness. Based on these observation
hot pressing and moxibustion methods were developed and used for the
treatment of illness and pain.
The Ancient Philosophy: The ancient philosophy
theory of the five elements and the concept of Yin and Yang has been
extensively used since the spring and autumn period (770-467 B.C.)
of Chinese history. The theory of meridians and Luo connection and
flow of 'Qi' through them is the nucleus of the theory of
acupuncture. Two types of forces are believed to exist; life essence
and semen. The life essense of latter heaven helps in the
information of life energy which is known as 'Qi' and nourishes the
child after birth. Each and every act of the universe is brought
about by 'Qi' which functions by bi-polarity. The whole universe is
polarised into two opposite forces, positive and negative , and the
system of meridians, pulses, organs, mother and son law,
husband and wife law, day and night law are the examples of this
concept.
The whole world is divided in to five elements - wood, fire,
metal and water - which transform into one another and this process
is perpetual.
The Old Indian Technique: In India burn marks of
counter-irritation are often found on the bodies of villagers. Red
hot iron rods are put on the body for treating diseases and
surprisingly many of these marks are located on the classical
acupuncture points. Pricking the auricle is also done by some old
styled practitioners for curing asthma. A hole is made and some ring
is worn on that point. This point concides with the soothing asthma
point of auricular therapy.
Future of Acupuncture: In the light of modern
science, the mechanism by which it operates is not properly
understood, although many theories have been enunicated. Scholars
have tried to explain the sucess of acupuncture on the
neurophysiological basis, hypnosis and the Darwinian theory of
evoltion. The outstanding contributions have come from Ronald
Melzack and Anton Jayasuriya who put forward the gate control theory
of pain relief and motor gate theory of late motor recovery. Kirlian
photography too has unveiled new dimension for the research in the
field.
Only future would be able to tell us what heights this method of
curing human disease will rise to. If safety, inexpensiveness,
convenience, ease of learning and practising, and a high percentage
of success are any augury, a bright and glorious status awaits this
ancient art of healing |
Principle of Yin and
Yang
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The practice of acupuncture is based on the theory
of Yin and Yang and principe of five elelments i.e. water, wood,
fire, metal and earth. |
The traditional Chinese medicine states
that the vital force or the so called life - force in the
bodycontrols the working of the main organs and system of the body.
This vital force is known as "T-chi". The belief is
that all objects, both animate and inanimate have a built -in factor
of energy. This stabilises the chemical composition of matter and
when this matter is broken down, energy is released. For example,
man is made-up of matter and he also has a life. This comprises his
two sources of energy. One is electrical energy, created by the
biophysical and biochemical changes in his cells and the life part
is given to him at birth. |
There is also the belief that there exist
in the body, two forces of energy known as "Yin" and "Yang". Yang is
the positive stimulation force in man and nature. Yin, by contrast
is passive and almost negative in influence. Acupuncture treats the
body as a human circuit and for good health and well being, the
"T-chi", or life force, must circulate through this circuit in a
balanced manner and the equilibrium of "Yin" and "Yang" must also be
maintained.
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Influence of Taoism
It was in the han dynasty that the spread of taoism
throughout china led to systemetisation of acupuncture and herbal
medicine. Taoism taught the theories its peak between the third and
seventh centuries. During this period doctors found effective cures
for serious ailments. The most eminent physician of the Taoist era
was Ko Kung, who was born in Kiangsu Province.
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System of Meridians
The theory of the traditional Chinese medicine
maintains that inside the body there is a net-work of channels which
connects the internal organs with surface of the body, known as
"Ching-Lo" or meridian.
There are fourteen meridians all over the
body. Each meridian has internal and external pathways; this
internal pathway has is origin in a viscera. It travels inside the
body and it is kind to the external pathway, at the starting of the
acupuncture points, and is then linked to the other internal pathway
leading back to the viscera of origin. This way the whole pathway of
meridian is a closed circuit, which provides the basis of Chinese
explanation why a needle in certain points can sure a disease of the
other part.
Along these circuit of energy there are about nine
hundred acupuncture points, each having a special function. Some
sedate, some stimulate and still others will trasfer energy from one
circuit to aother.
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Acupuncture:
How it works
Recently acupuncture, the ancient Chinese art of
healing has become popular throughout the world in many countries
including Sri Lanka, not only as an anaesthetic agent for operations
but in the treatment of many diseases which have shown resistance to
conventional forms of therapy. Acupuncture treatment has proved
remarkably effective. Beside being free from the side-effects and
the ills commonly encountered in drug surely it is being accepeted
into the mainstream of modern medicine.
The logical question at
this time is "How does it works?" This is not an easy
question which can be fully answered in our present state of
knowledge. After several decades of dedicated research we know very
little of how the normal nervous system functions in health let
alone in a diseased body. Serious research on acuouncture commenced
only a few years ago, and such a short period has been insufficient
to unreval all the mechanism of the complicated neurophysiological
phenomenon which acupuncture evidently is. Part of the difficulty
lies in the fact that acupuncture works in a great variety of
disorders and its action must therfore be assumed to vary to some
extent with each type of pathology. Nevertheless, many aspects of
its action are now being understood in the light of a recent
research and these are being placed together in any attempt to solve
the enigma.
First of all its necessary to be clear about what
really happens when filiform needle is inserted into an "Acupuncture
Points" on the body surface. The effects. The effects observed are
both subjective and objective. One of the subjective effects, may be
slight pain at the pointof needling, but with the use of proper
technique by a trained acupunctureist this is usally negligble.
Another important subjective effect is the appearance of a peculiar
sensation which is called "deqi" in Chinese. There is no exact
equivalent for this term in English but it is usually translated as
"take". Deqi is a combination of slight soreness, heaviness,
numbness and distension. For acupuncture anaesthesia to be sucessful
it is an essential that adequate "deqi" be elicited.
As regards the objective effects produced by
needling, six different effects are
recognised. |
Analgesic (Pain-killing) effect -
This is brought about by a lowering of the pain threshould.
This is the physioological basis of acupuncture anaesthesia and also
explains how acupuncture is able to relieve the pain of arthritis,
toothache, headache, low backache and other painful disorders. Some
acupuncture points are more effective in this respects than others.
this is an example of what is called "the specificity of acupuncture
points".
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Sedation - Some people may
even fall asleep during treatment but wakeup refreashed. It has been
shown that there is a decrease in delta and theta wave acitivity on
the electro-encephalogram during acupuncture treatment. These
effects are utilised in the acupuncture treatment of
insomnia,anxiety states, addiction, epilepsy and behavioural
problems.
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Homeostatic effect - This
means adjustment of the internal environment of the body towards a
state of proper balance. Normally, homeostasis in maintained by a
balanced activity of a sympathetic and parasympathetic division of
the autonomic nervous system and also by the glandular system. In
addition there are numerous homeostatic mechanism in the body for
regulating the respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, urinary
excretion, metabolic rate, sweating, temperature, ionic balance of
the blood and many other parameters. These mechanism are seriosly
deranged in many diseases, and in such cases acupuncture has been
found very helpful in restoring the original state of equilibrium.
Very often the same set of points can be used for treatment for
opposite conditions like high and low blood pressure, or diarrhoea
and constipation. These are example of the homeostatic or
normalising action of acupuncture.
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Immunity enhancing action of acupuncture
- Under this the body resistance to a disease is
strengthened. This has been shown to be due to an increase in the
white corpuscles(leucocytosis), antibodies, gammaglobulins and other
substances which increase the powers of resistance of the body. In
many cases a two to four fold increase in antibody of the
reticulo-endethelial system. Acupuncture is therefore vary useful in
combating infections.
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Motor action - This is meant
for motor recovery in patients who have become paralysed from some
cause or another. Even late cases of motor paralysis respond well to
acupuncture therapy despite previous failure with other forms of
therapy. The explanation which is complex apparently involves
antidromic stimulation of the anterior horn cells and their
reactivation through a biofeedback mechnism operating through the
Renshow and Cajal cells of the spinal cord of their cranial
equivalents(Motor Gate Theory - Jayasuriya and Fernando, Paper
presented at the "World Congress on acupuncture,
Tokyo,1977").
What does traditional Chinese medicine have to say
about the mechanism of acupuncture? the ancient Chinese believed
that disease("Dis-ease") was caused by the imbalance in the body of
two principle, both of which they called Yin and Yang. By "Yin" they
meant the negative or female principle, while "Yang" was the
positive or male principle, both of which are universally present in
all nature. In the healthy state, there was believed to be a
harmonious balance between these opposite but mutually interacting
principles - a state of affairs which today we call "hameostatis".
But when disease supervenes, it is believed that one or other.
Correction of this imbalance in achieved by needling of selected
acupuncture points. While these ideas may look esoteric and
irrational from today's stand points, we must remember that they
were man's first steps in logical thinking. To have formulated these
ideas at the time when the rest of the world was living in caves and
on tops of trees was itself a remarkable achievement which cannot be
denigrated even today. What is known as homeostatic bodily mechanism
has an unmistakeable "Yin-Yang" flavour. If a modern physician
accepts this position, there is no contradiction in practising
acupuncture as on one who is familiar with this discipline has any
doubt that is works, and not infrequently when all other modalities
have failed.
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Psychological effect -This
has a calming and tranquilising action apart from mere sedation.
This is believed to be due to some action on the mid-brain.
Measurable efect have also been reported on the metabolic chemistry
of brain tissue. For instance, there is an increase in the dopamine
content of the brain after acupuncture. This may account for its
effectiveness in certain mental disorders and in Parkinsonism in
which there is a depletion of the dopamine content of the
brain.
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Conclusion
For the last few years acupuncture has become the
subject of world wide interest as well as the subject of criticism.
A lot of research has been done on the subject all over the world
and the ultimate results came out with encouraging reports that
acupuncture is a remarkable, science which certainly provides good
relief in ailments, lik poliomylitis, hemiplegia, and other
paralytic conditions, all groups of arthritis, chronic headache of
unknown origin, mental retardation and cerbral palsy, defness, all
sorts of neuralgias, and many other conditions where morden medical
science has failed to give any positive response.
In recent years
acupuncture anaesthesia has assumed a valuable role in modern
surgery. In major surgery like heart and brain, the mortality rate
is very high due to the complications of anaesthesia. But after the
introduction of acupuncture anaesthesia into this field, such a
hazard or death in such surgical cases has been totally eliminated.
A lot of work has been done in the field of acupuncture analgesia
and acupuncture is today in a position to give relief from pain of
any origin. Acupuncture may even reduce pain due to malignancy,
where practically no cure is available in modern
science.
Acupuncture is still in the state of infancy in India.
It requires acceptance by the doctors and patients. The government
has also its role to encourage practitioners of this therapy for
further research and development. Only after that, this science can
emerge in actual existence and could be benificial to the suffering
humanity. In this respect INdia Acupuncture Research and Training
Centre recemtly founded at Raipur is rendering yeomen service to the
patients and is also joining doctors in this science.
In many
countries like, Canada, France, U.S.A., U.K., Germany, Russia,
Japan, thousend of medical practitioners are involved in researches
on application of this science. Now it is recognised by by many
Western and Eastern countries whereas in India this science is yet
to be popularized. Our research and studies on the origin of
acupuncture show that acupuncture has originated in India. It was
being practised throughout the country from the time of vedas and
shrutis. This science travelled to South-Eastern Asian countries
like, Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, Korea, China and
Japan with Buddhist monks who were Indian missionaries to these
countries for popularising Buddhism.
Some reflections of the
science being of Indian origin can be traced in different cure
methods being practiced by various tribals and such societies all
over India. One such practice is to puncture the ear lobe for
various physical benefits and which is so prevalent all over the
country.
Another practice we generally come across somewhat
near to acupuncture is stamping the patient with hot burning iron
rods for curing certain diseases. This practice is again very much
prevalent in our country which should be considered as a varation of
acupuncture cure looking at the remarkable similarities in the
nature and the results between
these |
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