Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced in China for at least 2,500 years and is an essential component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This practice involves the insertion of fine needles just beneath the skin's surface at specific points along clearly defined paths to treat a variety of different medical conditions. These paths, which are usually called channels or meridians, pass through every organ and are interconnected through a network of branches and collaterals. They all carry intrinsic life energy called qi(pronounced chee). Because of its emphasis on interconnectedness, acupuncture takes a holistic and nonlinear approach to treating health problems. In the past four decades, acupuncture has gained increasing acceptance in the United States and other Western nations and is now used increasingly by itself or as a complementary therapy in combination with Western medicine. Acupuncture is generally used to treat disability in two ways: to alleviate disabling symptoms (e.g., treating nausea in people undergoing chemotherapy) and to strengthen the body overall (e.g., creating an appropriate immune response in people living with HIV/AIDS or lupus).

TCM views the body as an integrated whole, with mind, body, and spirit as one indivisible entity. This medical system stresses finding and healing the underlying cause of ill health rather than treating individual symptoms. For example, while a Western doctor may prescribe the same medication for all of his or her patients complaining of chronic indigestion, an acupuncturist would first seek to discern the distinct energy imbalance in each patient and treat that accordingly. As a result, acupuncture treatment is unique and specific to each individual patient. Many believe that this holistic, patient-centered approach makes acupuncture particularly useful for treating the complex, chronic medical conditions associated with disability.

Fundamental to acupuncture and TCM is the concept of yin-yang. According to this theory, we find the opposing forces of yin and yang in all of nature. Yin energy is dark, damp, cool, earthy, and female, while yang energy is light, dry, warm, celestial, and male. Yin cannot exist without yang and vice versa. In addition to being interdependent, they are also the source of each other's genesis. Yin and yang are often described as “divisible but inseparable.”

Qi arises from the interplay and interdependence of yin and yang. It travels along an interconnected series of 12 major meridians and eight related collaterals called vessels to nourish every part of the body. On the skin, at least 350 points exist that allow an acupuncturist direct access to these meridians.

When yin and yang are in balance in the human body, an individual will be in good health, adaptable to many stresses, and able to fight off most pathogens. When yin and yang are unbalanced as a result of environmental, physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional stress, qi can become unbalanced, weak, and/or blocked. As a result, ill health occurs. According to TCM, people with chronic illness and/or disability are particularly vulnerable because they often face a multiplicity of stressors. For example, the stresses caused by multiple sclerosis, HIV, and type II diabetes typically result in a yin deficiency along one or more vital meridians in most individuals.

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