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Acupuncture
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| Acupuncture |
Acupuncture is a treatment used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years, came to Sweden in the method in the 1960s.
The word acupuncture was created at the end of the 1600s when the method is reached Europe via China-missionary Jesuits. It comes from the Latin words acus (needle) and pungere (to knit). The original name of acupuncture, Chen Chin, means stick and burn, and the method could also be called "aku-Moxi-therapy."
Acupuncture involves the specific points on the body stimulated. Today there are several different types of acupuncture, which is partly based on different theoretical explanations, but which is also characterized by various means of stimulation of the points used: signal processing, which is the usual form of acupuncture, örtbränning (moxibution), vacuum (vakupunktur or cupping); sound vibrations (sonopunktur), laser acupuncture, electro-acupuncture, etc. Special variants are ear acupuncture and munakupunktur. This is mainly traditional Chinese acupuncture is described as well as the Western version, and electro-acupuncture. Moxibution, laser therapy and cupping are described under separate headings. Ear acupuncture can be found under the heading auriculotherapy.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture
The Chinese discovered long ago that the stimulation of certain points on the skin could affect various organs and functions in the body, and that in this way could regulate various disorders. (The same discovery has also been made elsewhere in the world, resulting in different therapies.) To date, approximately 2000 points, so-called stimulation or acupuncture points, detected. Of these, 360 are relatively common in treatment.
Based on this experience to point the effect was produced the theory of management courses between them, the so-called meridians (Chin). In these channels flowing chi or qi, life energy. Chi is everywhere in the body but is concentrated in the meridians. When acupuncture points to reach this energy the body surface and is more accessible to treatment.
The purpose of acupuncture is to influence the flow of energy in the body: dissolve energy blockages, dissipate excess energy from certain areas to areas with too little energy. The goal is to achieve energetic balance.
The earliest known acupuncture needles were made of stones or sticks. Later bone, bamboo, porcelain and various metals such as gold. Today, cultivated mainly thin needles of stainless steel with a small handle of copper. Sometimes also used a small hammer with several small needles attached to the head.
Acupuncture needle inserted to the depth at which the "qi" sensation occurs. The qi means something to reach the qi (chi) and is a special feeling that arises when the needle hit the acupuncture point. Depending on what the treatment aims - dispersering (dissipation) or tonifiering of energy - the needle may be stimulated by various rotational or vertical movement. Sometimes the needle is removed as soon as the qi occurred, sometimes it may remain for some time.
Treatment with acupuncture is given after diagnosis based on Chinese medicine diagnostic methods (see Chinese diagnostics) and the theories of yin and yang, the Five Elements, etc. There are different ways to treat with acupuncture: from pure symptom treatment using local points to an overall balancing of the body's energies, which is the form of treatment is known as classical acupuncture. Traditional acupuncture is used for the prevention and treatment of a variety of physical and mental problems.
Non-traditional acupuncture
Caption non-traditional acupuncture refers to the modern explanation of acupuncture effects in particular, pain management that are currently accepted in conventional medicine. Acupuncture in pain relief purposes is used in Sweden since 1982, to some extent in health care and should not really be included in this compilation of alternative methods, but it may be appropriate to emphasize the difference with the traditional Chinese acupuncture.
This latter explanation does not use concepts such as energy flow, yin and yang, etc. Instead, explain acupuncture effects with a local inhibition of pain signals in the spinal cord, the inward leading nerve fibers activated by which transitions in different pain inhibitory control system within the nervous system is achieved. Endogenous pain-relieving substances (endorphins) may be formed or released and have an analgesic effect. It is also assumed psychological mechanisms trigger signaling activity in certain nerve pathways.
Acupuncture Treatment according to these theories operate on the basis of the usual diagnostics in conventional medical care and can be described as symptoms of treatment.
Electro-acupuncture
Electro-acupuncture was first used in China in the 1950s. The needles used as electrodes: through the stem applied electric current to enhance the stimulating effect. The current spreads in the tissues and may trigger nerve impulses in nerve fibers even at some distance from the needle.
The instruments available today for measuring skin's electrical resistance can also be used to find acupuncture points - these have been shown to have a different electrical resistance than the surrounding tissue.