No need to take medicine, no infusion, no surgery, just take a few silver needles on the skin can be "needle disease removal", the mainland traditional Chinese medicine "acupuncture", as early as 2010 was included in the world intangible cultural heritage list.
According to statistics, more than 180 countries and regions around the world use acupuncture, and more than 20 countries have implemented legislation on acupuncture.
On February 21, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, during which Premier Zhou Enlai accompanied him to watch the operation of thyroidectomy under acupuncture anesthesia, which amazed him.
Later, the Chinese Acupuncture anesthesia Method was published, which was translated into many languages and circulated all over the world.
Acupuncture also has a large number of "admirers" abroad, including many well-known celebrities:
The famous American film and television star "Jushi" Johnson once posted a photo of himself receiving acupuncture treatment from Traditional Chinese medicine.
American actress Kim Kardashian also posted photos of her face receiving acupuncture treatment.
At the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics, traditional Chinese medicine methods such as acupuncture have also become "star projects", and in the comprehensive clinic of the Winter Olympic Village, many delegation members came to experience acupuncture, massage and other treatment methods to alleviate sports injuries, insomnia and anxiety.
Recently, the research team of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine published a research paper "Acupuncture Disease Atlas Based on Clinical Evidence Body" in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), a top international medical journal, which for the first time constructed a clinical evidence matrix for acupuncture and formulated the world's first acupuncture clinical evidence atlas, which solved the problem of unclear classification of the dominant and potential diseases of acupuncture.
Life Times (search for "LT0385" within WeChat to follow) combines the paper and interviews experts to tell you the "magic" of acupuncture therapy.
Experts interviewed
Liu Baoyan, President of the Chinese Acupuncture Society
Wang Dongsheng, chief physician of the Department of Integrative Medicine, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University
Lou Bidan, chief physician of the Department of Acupuncture and Tuina Rehabilitation, the First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Acupuncture can treat a variety of diseases
The study found that more than 10,000 randomized controlled trials of acupuncture have been published since 1975. Between 2000 and 2020, there were 2471 systematic reviews of acupuncture therapies, and the number of systematic reviews is increasing every year.
The study covered 77 diseases in 12 disease areas, with data from 205 outcome measures from 1402 randomized controlled trials, and the authors found that acupuncture had moderate or high certainty evidence for the treatment of 8 diseases:
Improve aphasia after stroke;
Relieves pain in the neck and shoulders;
Relieves myofascial pain;
Relieves fibromyalgia;
Relieves non-specific low back pain;
Promote lactation after childbirth;
Relieves symptoms of vascular dementia;
Improves symptoms of allergic rhinitis.
The authors argue that acupuncture is not recognized and widely used by policy, and that only a few health care systems incorporate acupuncture into guidelines and insurance.
Of these 8 diseases, major Western insurers only cover pain-related conditions: acupuncture for chronic low back pain begins in the U.S. at the end of 2020; Back and shoulder pain are covered in Australia; and most patients in the UK will choose acupuncture for chronic tension headaches, migraines, and chronic pain, but the insurance does not reimburse them.
According to the World Health Organization 's (WHO) 2019 Global Report, acupuncture therapies are widely used worldwide. The United States performs more than 10 million acupuncture treatments each year. More than 4 million acupuncture treatments are performed in the UK each year.
The authors argue that new evidence based on the use of acupuncture suggests that acupuncture needs to be further integrated and applied to traditional medicine.
What exactly is TCM acupuncture?
Acupuncture includes the concepts of "needle" and "moxibustion", the former is mainly acupuncture, and the latter refers to moxibustion. Any method that stimulates the acupuncture points on the surface of the human body to achieve the purpose of disease prevention and treatment can be called acupuncture.
Chinese medicine believes that the human body has 12 main meridians, these meridians are directly related to the human body's internal organs, and stimulating the specific parts of the meridians can play a certain role in preventing and treating diseases, not only with minimal side effects, but also with two-way regulatory effects.
There are generally 4 kinds of "needles":
Triangular needles: mostly used for blood stasis evidence, actual heat evidence, emergency disease.
Skin needles: it has the function of passing qi and blood, adjusting the internal organs, and achieving the purpose of external treatment of internal diseases.
Fire needle: it has the effect of warming the cold, activating the meridian, dispelling saprophysis, and is mostly used for the treatment of cold and wet paralysis, carbuncle, hemorrhoids, etc.
Electro-needle: The pulse current is output by an electric needle instrument, and it acts on the meridian acupoints in the body through millineeres, and plays different functions according to different waveforms.
There are 4 commonly used methods of operation of "moxibustion":
Moxibustion method: Moxibustion is made of moxa and placed on the skin; or moxibustion is placed on the drug and then placed on the skin.
Moxa moxibustion: Ignite the moxa stick and apply moxibustion to the acupuncture points.
Warm acupuncture method: After acupuncture, the moxa is wrapped on the needle handle and ignited, so that the heat is transmitted to the body through the needle body.
Moxibustion box moxibustion: Ignite the moxa stick into the moxibustion box, and then place the moxibustion box in the moxibustion area to iron the moxibustion.
The indications for moxibustion therapy are mainly cold, yin and false, especially for chronic diseases and yang deficiency and cold.
5 questions about acupuncture
Is acupuncture harmful to the body? What diseases can acupuncture be tried? What are the contraindications during treatment? 5 questions to clarify for you at once.
No.1
Will acupuncture "hurt the qi"?
Acupuncture and laxatives are "actual diarrhea, virtual is supplemented": acupuncture supplementation encourages the body's righteous qi, so that the low function can be restored to exuberance; acupuncture diarrhea method can relieve diseases and evils, so that the hyperactivity function can return to normal.
"Hurt qi" is actually caused by the improper use of acupuncture techniques, for example, the use of heavy techniques for a chronic disease patient with a weak constitution is bound to make him even weaker.
Therefore, acupuncture treatment must be done by a professional acupuncturist, and should not be operated by yourself or non-medical personnel.
No.2
What diseases is acupuncture good at treating?
Acupuncture has its own indications, and in the treatment of the following types of diseases, it reflects the obvious advantages of acupuncture:
Acute and chronic pain: toothache, headache, joint pain, and other causes of pain.
Neurological diseases: facial nerve palsy, lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis, various neuritis, neuralgia and neurodegenerative lesions.
Gynecological diseases: dysmenorrhea, premature ovarian failure, endometriosis, and reproductive assistance.
Skin diseases: refractory skin diseases, such as shingles, neurodermatitis, acne, etc.
Digestive tract diseases: gastritis, stomach bloating, etc., can also alleviate stubborn constipation and diarrhea.
Childhood diseases: children's indigestion, pediatric susceptibility and other common diseases.
No.3
What are the contraindications to acupuncture?
Although acupuncture is relatively safe, it is also necessary to pay attention to the following things when performing.
Avoid excessive hunger, oversatience, and overwork: Acupuncture in the case of drinking alcohol, fatigue, excessive hunger, etc., may lead to pulse chaos.
Avoid excessive tension: when nervous, you will be in a state of pulse chaos and gas dispersion, which can easily cause adverse reactions such as halo needles.
Avoid makeup and perfume: it is easy to affect the doctor's accurate judgment and dialectical treatment.
Avoid holding urine: Avoid discomfort with needles after acupuncture or irritation of the bladder during acupuncture.
Avoid unpastying skin: Attention should be paid to skin cleaning before and after acupuncture to avoid needle-to-mouth infection.
No.4
How long does it take to bathe after acupuncture?
The diameter of the millineele is 0.2 to 0.3 mm, the skin wound is very small, the needle hole can be closed quickly, this treatment method, 2 to 3 hours after the needle can be bathed.
However, there are many acupuncture points, such as needles in the head, limbs, and trunks, and it is recommended to take a bath after acupuncture for 4 to 6 hours.
If it is a three-sided needle pointing bloodletting, fire needle, small needle knife, buried thread and other treatment methods, it is recommended not to wash on the day of treatment, at least 24 hours apart. People with sensitive constitutions, people who have long taken antithrombotic drugs such as aspirin, and people with weak constitutions are recommended to take a bath every other day.
No.5
Who is not suitable for acupuncture?
Diabetics: Even small needles are not easy to heal, and if not carefully treated, they may cause infection.
People with coagulation dysfunction, such as hemophilia and thrombocytopenic purpura, have a long clotting time, and acupuncture may cause the needle to bleed continuously.
Skin infections, ulcers and tumor sites should not be acupunctured, which can easily be counterproductive and aggravate the disease. ▲
Editor: Wang Xiaoqing
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