Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine based on sticking needles into the skin.

Its theoretical basis is that health and sickness are caused by the good or bad flow of chi through the body, in particular along the twelve major meridians of the body (though some authorities list fourteen or even more) which run from head to toe along the body, and which are associated with the bladder, gallbladder, heart, large intestine, small intestine, kidneys, liver, lungs, spleen, stomach, pericardium, and "triple heater". It is necessary to translate this last term word for word from the Chinese because there is no such thing as the "triple heater". However, Meridians and chi have not been found to exist by modern science.

The acupuncturist treats the ailments of these various parts by inserting needles at points lying on these meridians, known simply as "acupuncture points" and manipulating the needles to increase or decrease the flow of chi along that meridian.

Origins

Unlike many remedies which appeal to the New Age, acupuncture is genuinely ancient and genuinely Oriental. The earliest surviving text dealing with acupuncture is the Chinese text The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, dating from about 300 BC.

Acupuncture lost ground in China from the seventeenth century onwards, with the introduction of Western scientific ideas. It regained some of its prestige during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, and is widely practiced in modern China. It became popular in the West from the 1960s onwards.

Although the basics of acupuncture have remained the same since ancient times, the system has suffered the inevitable mutations and accretions: the original system, for example, had 365 acupuncture points: some modern systems catalog as many as 2000.

Efficacy

The current scientific literature shows that acupuncture is not an effective medicinal practice, the placebo effect explaining perceived lowering of pain.