Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine

What is Acupuncture? Acupuncture is a healing modality within the spectrum of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In Acupuncture we insert very thin needles into specific acupuncture points, that create balance in the body for optimal health. The earliest written documentation of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine is the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor Cannon of Internal Medicine,) which was originally written in the second century BC, over 2000 years ago.

Qi - Yin and Yang

Traditional Chinese Medicine starts with Qi (Chi) or Energy. Everything living or unliving contains energy, or Qi. Living entities such as plants, animals, humans contain more Qi than a rock or a dead branch, but each contains energy inside whether kinetic or potential energy.

Yin Yang Symbol

Qi can be broken into two kinds, Yin and Yang (the opposing forces in nature.) In our body each organ has generally a Yin or Yang Function. If they go out of balance, then we have disharmony in the body and we experience a variety of different symptoms depending on the imbalance. In TMC Diagnosis, each symptom is generally yin (deficient), yang (excess) or sometimes a mix (yin and yang imbalance.)

5 Element Theory

Chinese Medical Scientists found that this World contains 5 Elemental properties they are Earth, Wood, Water, Fire, and Metal/Air. They also were able to classify the major organs, and tissues of the body into these different categories. Each Element has a yin and yang organ, based on the qualities of the Element. They were able to find cycles of balancing within the organs, to understand the functionality of the entire human body system based on the 5 elements.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis

Through the years, chinese scientists started to understand the body as a whole. They put together a list of different types of organ imbalances and the symptoms associated with each imbalance, and an organ as a whole. These Ancient Scientists, developed several forms of diagnosis including: Pulses, Tongue, Face, Eye, and others. An actual categorization of 4 Diagnosis Method came to:

Treatment with TCM

Different Method of treatment within TCM including: Dietary & Herbal, Acupressure, Acupuncture, Moxa & Heat Therapy, and Lifestyle Modifications. All these treatment methods are based off the diagnosis to treat the imbalanced condition. For Acupressure and Acupuncture the scientist developed different acupuncture points based in the meridians of the different organs.

Chinese Meridians and Acupuncture Points

The ancient Chinese Scientists were able to understand the circadium cycles, and energetic pathways of the body, as to develop which ones were related to each organ. They found the different pathways of each organ. They also identified points on the organ pathways that when stimulated could bring organs into balance, and they were able to categorize all the characteristics of the points to create this advanced point system for healing.

Chinese Acupuncture

In Chinese Acupuncture we insert very thin needles in different acupuncture points. The acupuncture point acts as a trigger to release different nerve impulses to the brain to regulate functionality of the body. In an acupuncture treatment, you are in a soothing environment with moderate lighting and relaxing music.

Due to the combination of the environment and the Acupuncture your breathing patterns also regulate to homeostasis. When our body is at homeostasis we stay healthy, our body does not malfunction in any way. In Acupuncture treatment the goal is to bring the body back to balance. In many conditions, Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese medicine has been found to be very effective.