Types of Acupuncture that we do
The Chinese culture has promoted the prevention as well as the treatment of disease for thousands of years. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) consists of acupuncture, tuina ( spinal adjusting), herbology & nutrition, and chi gong (mind-body exercises). Acupuncture works according to the basic premise that the body is electric. There is a flow of “chi” or “life force” through our bodies on energy pathways called meridians. There are 12 main meridians & 2 extra meridians that are of main concern. These 14 meridians are the primary meridians used by most practitioners in the practice of acupuncture. Along these meridians are 361 points. These points are used to influence the body’s energy flow. Our body’s energy flow can get out of balance and a deficiency or excess in energy can ultimately result in disease. Our job is to find out which meridians are too high in energy and which are too low and then bring them back into balance. There is a two-way communication between the skin and all of the internal organs, glands, and tissues of the body. Eleven of the twelve meridians correspond to organ groups and one to the three metabolic levels. The twelve main pathways are lung, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, heart constrictor(pericardium), triheater, gall bladder and liver. These meridians are all bilateral. There are three different levels of acupuncture practice, which are: pain control, formula, and classical. Pain control uses the “surround the dragon” theory of treating points around the area of concern. Practice by formula uses a prescription index or “cookbook” to decide what points to treat. These formulae were devised from years of practice by many people to see what points worked well to treat specific diseases or conditions. The practice of classical acupuncture is the highest level of energy transfer. It uses either pulse diagnosis (which takes many years to learn) or graphing with an instrument to determine which meridians to treat and whether to tonify or sedate those meridians. The Chinese have been treating as many as 2000 different diseases over thousands of years with acupuncture and TCM. It’s a wonder that it has taken the rest of the world so long to catch on to the wonderful healing abilities of this ancient technique.
