In 1971, the well-known American journalist James Reston (1909-1995) wrote an article for The New York Times recounting his experience of undergoing emergency surgery for appendicitis while traveling in China as part of an advance team prior to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China the following year.
After the surgery, he reported that he was treated for pain with acupuncture by a Chinese doctor.
His paper was later considered the “trigger” for the introduction of acupuncture to the United States.
In 2003, the World Health Organization released an official report listing dozens of symptoms, conditions, and diseases that acupuncture has been shown to effectively treat in controlled trials.
These include back pain, neck pain, tennis elbow, knee pain, sprains, toothache, acute and chronic gastritis, nausea and vomiting, post-operative pain, stroke, essential and primary hypertension, depression, menstrual pain, etc.
Seven years later, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization included “Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Traditional Chinese Medicine” on its list of “Heritage of Humanity.”
This is nothing new to the Chinese: acupuncture has been used in China for thousands of years to treat all kinds of ailments, long before the advent of modern medicine.
Acupuncture was first officially recorded in the Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic, the oldest known text on the theory and practice of traditional Chinese medicine.
The second of the two-part series is called “Spiritual Arts” or “Spiritual Essentials” and focuses on acupuncture, acupuncture points, acupuncture methods and instruments, and the principles of acupuncture.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are a total of 720 acupuncture points distributed throughout the meridian system along the human body’s meridians. Acupuncture is a treatment that involves inserting needles into various points on the skin’s surface, subcutaneous tissue, and muscles to stimulate the flow of Qi (life energy), restore balance between Yin and Yang, and restore physical and mental health.
Although acupuncture is most often considered an important traditional therapy for treating illnesses, it can also be used as an effective technique for maintaining good health.
For example, in the 55th chapter of the Sacred Text, The Spiritual Eagle, it is said that the most skilled practitioners will give acupuncture to a person as long as the illness has not yet developed.
This seems to mean that the best use of acupuncture is not to treat illness, but to protect health.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that acupuncture can help protect your health in a variety of ways.
For example, proponents of acupuncture for weight loss claim that acupuncture can reverse obesity by stimulating the flow of qi in the body, increasing metabolism, suppressing appetite, reducing stress, and affecting the parts of the brain that sense hunger.
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is also believed that acupuncture can help slow down aging by regulating immune function, enhancing antioxidant activity, inducing the function of the nervous and endocrine systems, re-regulating lipid metabolism, improving blood rheology, and regulating genes related to the organic process of aging.
To receive acupuncture treatment as part of your health insurance, you must first consult with a TCM doctor or acupuncturist. We do not recommend attempting acupuncture on your own.
However, you can always protect your health or treat minor symptoms by self-massaging the relevant acupuncture points.
