ACUPUNCTURE

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is a well known alternative therapy due to its unique nature of ‘sticking pins’ into your body. Acupuncture is one of the tools used in oriental healing going back nearly five thousand years. The belief in oriental medicine is that we have meridians (invisible lines) which flow throughout our body. It is through these meridians that the body’s life force/energy flows. This body’s life force is known as ‘chi’. To get an understanding of what chi means a Chinese acupuncturist who I visited said ‘that you can go for days without food and water; however you can’t live for a second without ‘chi’.

According to Chinese philosophy, disease occurs when we get a blockage of chi or when chi doesn’t flow properly along the meridians. Therefore the aim of acupuncture is to correct this problem by stimulating the flow of chi and remove blockages. Therefore by restoring this flow of chi the body is able to heal and repair itself. The main key idea in Chinese medicine is that the body requires harmony and balance. I agree with this idea (which I have continually repeated throughout the book), that it is this balance and harmony throughout the ‘whole’ body that we need to try and achieve.

Most people will not like the idea of having needles inserted into their skin. However I can safely say that it is not really painful at all as you only feel a slight pinprick. After treatment, it has been reported that people feel a variety of sensations such as feeling very tired. I felt quite energised after my treatments so obviously these sensations may vary from person to person. It must be said that it is possible to see a worsening of your symptoms before an improvement is seen.