Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine is a complete medicinal system that has been treating human aliments for thousands of years. The Chinese word for medicine is Yi and the root character is one that means arrows. This radical is also used in other words: known, precision, knowledge, intelligence, student, and sage all to convey an element of accuracy or precision to the character meaning. The other radicals in the character Yi include a phonetic sound for shooting the arrow and hitting the target. All medicines should be based on clinical results that are consistent and reproducible and East Asian Medicine is no different.
Acupuncture – a 5,000 year old science
East Asian Medical practitioners have been employing the scientific method of: Observing a problem, creating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and integrating the results into theoretical thinking for generations. This continued practice and methodology has created a refined medical thinking that describes human physiology. The result of which is that while Eastern and Western medicine will overlap, as they are describing the same system, they also both stand alone.
The continued development of East Asian Medicine has created a range of modalities to meet the diverse needs of people through effective and easily available therapies. There are movement therapies, like qi gong and tai chi, herbal and dietary therapies, massage therapy in tui na, myofascial therapies in cupping and gua sha, heat therapy in moxibustion, pediatric care in shin shin and much more. Some common ailments that acupuncture is known for treating include:
- Pain and inflammation
- Gynecological conditions
- Digestive and respiratory issues
- Mental and emotional
Read more about health conditions that East Asian medicine can help with.