A Life So Far Away

Some patients regard acupuncture needle pricks as pain. In China, a doctor would be thought of as incompetent if the needles did not cause a certain degree of discomfort. The fact that this discipline has survived thousand of years, through so much change and so many upheavals is regarded by many as proof of its efficacy. The Chinese method of healing is more than 2,000 years old, and, like the rest of China’s history, meticulously recorded; its discoveries, methodology and application being handed from generation, making Chinese medicine today the sum total of the accumulated experiences of past masters of the art. The earliest medical classic in China, now extant, is the Huangdi Neijing, or Canon of Medicine, dating back to 500 – 300 B.C. It states the Chinese belief that imbalances in the body’s circulatory system are the cause of all diseases. The body says Chinese tradition, is mapped by meridian lines (or channels) which carry energy and are connected to 1000 pressure p...

Massage plays an important role in treatment for maladies as varied as fractures and arthritis. Massage seems to have been commonly used even in the Sui and Tang dynasties (158 – 907 BC). During the Ming dynasty, it was considered one of the 13 major branches of Chinese medicine, and its numerous therapeutic qualities were widely enumerated in many texts. According to Chinese records, massage was introduced to the West as a method of healing only about 1,000 years ago. Cupping and bleeding are other widely-used procedures. Cupping uses vacuum suction to activate the functions of the organs, while those with excess yang are made to bleed with a seven-star needle to restore balance. The doctor also may suggest changes in the food the patient eats and even the place he lives in. Summer diseases are treated in winter and vice versa. Once the balance is restored the patient is fully cured, but future imbalances may call for a fresh round of treatment. How much of a scientific b...