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PRACTICE |
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SPECIALTIES |
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Female Health
Pain Management
Stress and Chronic Illness
Facial Rejuvenation |
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Important Links |
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History of Acupuncture.
Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used systems of healing in the world, originating in China some 3,500 years ago. Although practiced for thousands of years, it is only in the last three decades that it has become popular in the United States. In fact, acupuncture was brought to the United States as an acknowledged medical practice after Nixon's visit to China in 1972, when a member of the media team received an emergency appendectomy with only acupuncture as anesthesia.
Just twenty years later, In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration estimated that Americans made up to 12 million visits per year to acupuncture practitioners and spent upwards of half a billion dollars on acupuncture treatments. Today, most states license acupuncturists as primary health care practitioners.
Traditional Chinese medicine holds that there are as many as 2,000 acupuncture points on the human body, which are connected by 20 pathways (12 main, 8 secondary) called meridians. These meridians conduct energy, or qi (pronounced "chee”), between the surface of the body and its internal organs. Each point has a different effect on the qi that passes through it.
Yin and Yang.
Qi is believed to help regulate balance in the body. It is influenced by the opposing forces of yin and yang, which represent positive and negative energy and forces in the universe and human body. Acupuncture is believed to keep the balance between yin and yang, thus allowing for the normal flow of qi throughout the body and restoring health to the mind and body. When the flow of qi in the body is interrupted, we develop symptoms, also called "dis-ease". Generally, acupuncturists use 365 main acupuncture points throughout the body and insert filament-like stainless steel needles to stimulate energy that is blocked or congested to initiate the smooth flow of qi. The aim of acupuncture is to activate a patient’s vital energy to allow the body to balance and heal itself.
Acupuncture stimulates our brains to release beta-endorphins, thereby controlling pain, elevating mood, increasing serotonin, elevating white blood counts and stimulating local tissue healing.
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