Acupuncture is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick". In Standard

Acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world. As part of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture aims to restore and maintain health through the stimulation of specific points on the body. In the United States, where practitioners incorporate healing traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries, acupuncture is considered part of complementary and alternative medicine.

According to traditional Chinese medical theory, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. There is no known anatomical or histological basis for the existence of acupuncture points or meridians. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice. According to the NIH consensus statement on acupuncture, these traditional Chinese medical concepts "are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information but continue to play an important role in the evaluation of patients and the formulation of treatment in acupuncture."

The earliest written record that is available about acupuncture is Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), which suggests acupuncture originated in China and would explain why it is most commonly associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Different types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.

How Acupuncture Works

Acupuncture has helped billions of people and has been the primary source of health care in China for more than 2,500 years. This system of health care is based on the principle that to be healthy, tissues and organs need proper supply of blood and the oxygen and nutrients the blood carries. Over 2,000 specific points have been mapped out where a block in the flow of blood can occur. These points often are where nerves and blood vessels meet. A method of diagnosing which points to treat to increase the flow of blood allows the trained acupuncturist to get results with all types of health problems.

The best analogy to explain acupuncture results would be to compare a plant that was deprived of water.

Without water a plant would wither and slowly die.

If you tried to water that plant with a hose that had a kink or blockage that prevented water from getting through, then the plant would die. Remove the blockage or kink in the hose and give the plant water it will recover. You probably have seen this yourself if you had household plants.

Acupuncture finds where the blockage is in your body that is stopping life-giving blood and oxygen from flowing to your cells, organs, or tissues.

Acupuncture needles are so thin that they do not stimulate enough nerve endings to cause pain.

Acupuncturists are trained to find and remove the blockage in the flow, which then allows your tissues and organs to heal. Two billion people worldwide and twelve million Americans use Acupuncture to solve their health problems.