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Acupuncture has
been in use in China for over 2,000 years although it may
have developed independently in other parts of the world.
There are ancient Egyptian scripts dating 1550 BC which suggest
the use of acupuncture and there is also early evidence amongst
South African Bantu, Arabs, Inuits and South Indians. There
are only legends suggesting how it was discovered that acupuncture
might work and one of these suggests that soldiers injured
in the battlefield by arrows stuck in certain parts of the
body would have relief from a condition elsewhere.
Early acupuncture
instruments were made of stone and latterly bamboo, copper,
iron, gold, silver and finally stainless steel. An early textbook,
dated from 475-221BC and known as the “Yellow Emperor’s
Classic of Internal Medicine” was a compilation of medical
knowledge at that time and is a reference book for acupuncturists.
Acupuncture was
brought to the west by travelling Jesuit priests and also
by doctors working for the Dutch East India Company, notably
Willem ten Rhijne [1647-1700] , Andreas Cleyer and Englebert
Kaempfer. However, enthusiasm for acupuncture met considerable
opposition at the time; this draws an interesting parallel
when in 1628 William Harvey published the conclusions of his
experiments which showed contrary to previously held beliefs
that blood flowed in a continuous circuit. Harvey’s
discovery became gradually accepted.
In the early 1800s
there appeared a renewal in interest in acupuncture in Europe.
In 1816, Berlioz, the father of the composer, published the
first book on acupuncture in France and in 1825 Sarlandiere
was the first to apply an electric current to implanted needles.
J. M. Churchill published two books on acupuncture in 1821
and 1828 in England and in 1912 a respected physician, Sir
William Osler described acupuncture as the most efficient
treatment for lumbago in the eighth edition of “The
Principles and Practice of Medicine”. Nogier is responsible
for the introduction of auricular therapy using points on
the ear. Despite such distinguished exponents of acupuncture
interest in the subject wained until after President Nixon’s
visit to China in 1972.
Traditional Chinese acupuncture
incorporates theories of meridians and energy flows and is
used juxtaposed to principles of culture and philosophy. It
uses points along channels, selected on the basis of pulse
diagnosis and traditional guides which currently have little
foundation to one trained in scientific medicine.
The principles of modern
western acupuncture are based on physiological discoveries
commencing with JH Kellgren’s work in London in1938
where he observed that injecting saline into a muscle produced
pain some distance from that point and at times the maximal
pain was not experienced in the muscle itself but in other
structures. He went on to demonstrate that spontaneous pain
from a muscle invariably originated from trigger points within
the muscle and that pressure on such spots could reproduce
the patient’s pain which could be temporarily relieved
by a local anaesthetic.
This work was further
developed in America by Travell and Simons culminating in
a classic volume on Myofascial Pain in 1983.
Melzack and Wall, in 1965 proposed the gate-control theory
of pain that explained how the sensation of pain might be
modulated by various physiochemical mechanisms in the central
nervous system.
In 1979, Clement-Jones
and co-workers discovered that acupuncture released opioid
peptides. This provided a biochemical example as to how acupuncture
might work.
The jigsaw of how acupuncture
works is far from complete as is convincing proof of its effectiveness.
The answers are being
sought though there are problems in conducting research into
acupuncture.
References are available
on request and further information may be obtained from www.medical-acupunctureltd.co.uk.
One cannot promise a recovery
when the practice is not fully substantiated however acupuncture
demonstrably works and sometimes one needs an open mind.
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