Does Acupuncture work?
Does Acupuncture Work?
Maybe your co-worker is raving about it. Maybe your chiropractor thinks it would be a good addition to your treatment plan. Maybe you saw something about it on TV or your grandmother swore by it. No matter the reason, you curiosity is piqued. With all of these people raving about this treatment you considering trying it for yourself, but you are skeptical. You wonder: is it just a fad, or does acupuncture really work?
Here are the facts:
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine have been used to alleviate pain and disharmony in the body for thousands of years. It is the oldest complete system of medicine, first used between 2600 and 2200 BC. Acupuncture was first described in detail in Ling Shu (“Spiritual Pivot”), the latter half of the ancient Chinese book, Huang Di Nei Jing, which is believed to have been written around 215 BC. In Ling Shu, the author writes:
“I prefer to use those fine needles to penetrate the channels, harmonize the blood and Qi energy, manager the current and countercurrents, and assemble the exits and entrances.”
This same methodology is still employed today by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as they use a combination of their body of knowledge and their intuition to stimulate points along the body’s meridians to restore balance and health.
Some of the maladies that acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment of are headaches, sleep disturbances, pain, infertility, and ischemia. Relevant articles related to the topic can be found below:
History:
Insomnia:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3041619/?tool=pubmed
Ischemia:
http://www.jcimjournal.com/articles/publishArticles/pdf/jcim20120104.pdf
Western Science:
Demystifying Myths:
http://chriskresser.com/chinese-medicine-demystified-part-i-a-case-of-mistaken-identity
