By Stephanie Tan
Miriam College High School
What is acupuncture? If you think that it's this weird Chinese way of punishing people by inserting zillions of needles in them... then you'd better read this article to straighten that crooked idea.
Acupuncture is a form of medical treatment used for pains and illnesses. It is often times used to cure malaria, ulcer, asthma, rheumatism, arthritis, diabetes, and many others. Acupuncture also restores hearing to deaf-mutes, heals eye diseases, and stomach pains, and induces sleep.
Acupuncture began some 2000-3000 years ago in ancient China. The Chinese believe that illnesses are caused by the imbalance of the yin, or negative force and the yang, or positive force. They believe that the insertion of the needles recreate the lost balance. It is said in ancient Chinese charts that there are 365 acupuncture points on the body. The Chinese also believe that acupuncture influences a life force that flows along 12 paired and two unpaired meridians. Meridians are the lines along the human body where the acupuncture points are found.
Acupuncture is done, traditionally, by inserting hair-line thin and solid, brass-handled, stainless steel needles of different sizes into certain points on the surface of the body. Once inserted, these needles are then rotated, or heated, or stimulated with a weak electrical current to create reactions. These reactions are the messages or impulses that are sent along the nerves of the brain and the spinal cord, where chemical substances are released to relieve pain. Acupuncturists are usually the ones who are allowed to practice the unique healing process. But, nowadays, three year courses can be taken by doctors to be able to use acupuncture as anesthesia.
Acupuncture is also used as anesthesia by some hospitals around the world. Acupuncturists and other doctors say that acupuncture creates an easing pain that relaxes a person or makes a part of his/her body numb, so he/she would not feel the pain of surgery even if they are fully conscious or awake.
Although no one truly knows how acupuncture works, scientists have proposed three major theories about it. One suggests that the meridians connect the body's organs in a special manner and that acupuncture increases the activity along the meridians and influencing organ function. The second says that acupuncture increases the brain's production of endorphins. Endorphins are morphine-like, chemical substances that influence the body's awareness of pain. Lastly, they think that acupuncture may work through the nervous system, by triggering signals that interrupt pain impulses sent to the brain.
What the future holds for acupuncture, we do not know. At our present time, acupuncture is still strange and unexplainable. Doctors and scientists hope that, maybe through operations and experimentations, the mystery known as acupuncture today will be a mystery no more.
For more information on acupuncture, click here.