History Of Acupuncture

THIS WON’T HURT A BIT The ancient practice of acupuncture, although related to the art of dim-mak, utilizes traditional Chinese medicine to benefit health. “[W]hat are known as dim mak points are really only acupuncture points, most of which are used every day by the practicing acupuncturist without causing death” (Montaigue and Madden). Acupuncture, however, uses a needle rather than the hand in order to more precisely affect the pressure point and allow for natural healing. Acupuncture, like the practice of dim-mak, is a precise art, but it requires even more precision than the strikes of a pressure point fighter. To heal a patient’s ailments, the needles must be at a specific point, which only has a three millimeter diameter for leeway

Bruno states, “Chinese medicine seeks to harmonize and rebalance the entire human system rather than to treat just symptoms. Since proper internal balance is considered to be the key to human health, [traditional Chinese medicine] strives to cure disease by restoring that balance and therefore allowing the body to repair itself” (4388). Due to the body’s unified system, the acupuncturist looks at the whole body when diagnosing the patient. Westerners treat only the pain of a specific body part and rely on drugs to relieve the

“[Acupuncture] addresses the root of the problem. . . . Symptoms [are] the way[s] that [the] body [is] trying to tell . . . there’s something wrong . . . That particular symptom takes [the acupuncturist to] the root of the problem. So [the acupuncturist has] to address the root of the problem [in order to] get rid of the symptoms” (Damdin Interview). Due to the integration of the five elements and the meridians, the source of pain may not be the cause of the problem. According to the Generative and Destructive cycles, another organ or meridian may influence the symptoms by overly supporting or excessively restraining the affected part of the body. Therefore, the acupuncturist must fix the cause of the problem in order to relieve the body of the illness. If the cause is not resolved, the illness will persist due to the continuing imbalance which initially caused the health