Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese form of treatment. It consists of piercing the skin with thin needles to ease the pain. Today, acupuncture is popular in Europe, the USA, and Australia.
Modern doctors at acupuncture treatment brampton accept that it can suppress the pain and feeling of nausea. Some doctors recommend acupuncture, accompanied by drug treatment, in suffering such as asthma, high blood pressure, poor digestion and stress. Chinese doctors even use it instead of anesthesia for surgery.
People involved in acupuncture should take courses to learn how to use it properly. In many places, only medical practitioners are allowed to practice it.
During the treatment, the patient lies down on a table and the healer inserts special needles at certain points in the body. The needles are made of metal and are about as thick as human hair. They usually enter the skin at a depth of less than 1 cm. There are hundreds of possible points where needles are inserted, each with a different effect.
Doctors are not sure how acupuncture works. According to some, needles cause the body to produce painkillers. Others believe that needles inhibit pain signals from reaching the nerves of the brain. And others suggest that acupuncture has a placebo effect – in other words, treatment only works because the patient believes in it.
Similar healing practices are massages of certain points on the body with stones, as well as resting on similar principles shiatsu massage – pressing of acupuncture points with the tip of the fingers. The modern method is the so-called TENS method or transcutaneous (through the skin) nerve stimulation.
In practice, acupuncture is the introduction of thin needles through the skin, looking for specific points. According to the classical theory of acupuncture, the body is filled with vital energy called “qi”. This energy flows along certain paths or meridians.
These meridians are divided into 14, 2 of which are located in the central part of the body and the remaining 12 – symmetrically on the left and right sides. There are about 400 dots on the meridians, marking the places where they approach the skin. Placing needles is done to restore a disturbed balance by stimulating or inhibiting flow at a given point.
Unlike needles used in medical practice, acupuncture uses only tight needles that end in a fine and thinning tip. The therapists stab the pours at the appropriate points and then leave them for 20-30 minutes. In some cases, the therapist further stimulates the needles by rotating or moving vertically.
The sensations during the procedure are mild heat, pressure or even vibration. Anesthesia is required in cases where the patient feels numbness, heaviness or distension after the manipulation.
Acupuncture is used in a number of diseases – pain syndromes, dizziness, allergies, sinusitis, pain in single joints – elbow, knee, small joints in the hands and feet.
In countries like China and Sri Lanka, acupuncture is used as anesthesia in some local surgical procedures.
