For over 3,000 years Chinese
and other Asian countries used acupuncture to
restore, promote, and maintain good health. Acupuncture or Traditional
Chinese Medicine was not developed by any one individual but it grew on
necessity by Oriental Medicine doctors over generations. In process they
found out that the benefits of taking herbs, inserting needles in the body,
eating the right foods, massaging the body, and exercising, et cetera.
However, there is an very old book "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal
Medicine" which many acupuncturists still consult. The book
explains the two most fundamental concepts of Chinese medical philosophy
of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang can be thought of as the two most general
categories into which everything is divided. They are the basic way in which
Qi energy and everything else manifests. These are some of the examples:
Yin is passive or receptive while Yang is active. In regard to gender Yin
is
female and Yang is male. Yin is dark and Yang is light. These pairs of
opposites always change in relation to each other, like see-saw. The main
task of Oriental Medicine practioner is to balance those two forces in balance.
It is thought that the development
of Traditional Chinese Medicine began
more than 5,000 years ago in somewhere in Eurasia, 4,500 years before
the scientific traditions of the West. Ancient practitioners had to rely on
their power of observation and trial and error to develop a medical system
and terminology. As a result, they had a different understanding of the
body and disease than we do in the West. But after centuries of assessment
and evaluation, TCM brings different perspectives to modern medicine. TCM
practitioners receive the same amount of education and training and are
important part of medical team.
Today, traditional Chinese medicine is practiced in China side by side with
modern Western medicine. Many Chinese values TCM over Western medicine.
For acute problems such as heart attack or automobile accident, they will
go to a hospital emergency department for Western-style health care. For
chronic conditions, such as arthritis, migraine headaches, they will usually
consult a TCM practioner. Western science has proven that acupupuncture
works quite effectively in some cases and yet it still cannot explain how
it
works. Although Meridian pathways or Qi(vital energy) cannot be seen or
explained scientifically, they are considered useful metaphor and abstraction.
Many Western medical practioners dismissed Qi as only philosophy, bearing
no tangible relationship to modern physiology and medicine. Traditional
Chinese Medicine can be alternative or complementary to Westertern
medicine and is useful way to bring Eastern and Western medicines together.
You can find acupuncturists
in the West as well as in Far Eastern countries.
They provide important and useful services to people who are seeking for
relief from their conditions.