
Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating filiform needles into various points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes.[3] The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick". In Standard Chinese, acupuncture is called 针砭 (zhēnbiān), or a related word, 针灸 (zhēnjiǔ), which refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion.[4] According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a "life energy"), flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice and continue to inform the practice of acupuncture,[5][6] but there is no evidence to support their existence and they have not been reconciled with contemporary knowledge about biology, physics or chemistry.[7][8]
The earliest written record of acupuncture is the Chinese text Shiji (史記, English: Records of the Grand Historian) with elaboration of its history in the second century BCE medical text Huangdi Neijing (黃帝內經, English: Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon).[9] Different variations of acupuncture are practiced and taught throughout the world. Acupuncture has been the subject of active scientific research since the late 20th century[10] but it remains controversial among conventional medical researchers and clinicians.[10] Due to the invasive nature of acupuncture treatments, it is difficult to create studies that use proper scientific controls.[10][11][12][13][14]:126 Some scholarly reviews have concluded that the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment can be explained largely through the placebo effect,[15][16] while other studies have suggested some efficacy in the treatment of specific conditions.[10][17][18] The World Health Organization published a review of controlled trials using acupuncture and concluded it was effective for the treatment of 28 conditions and there was evidence to suggest it may be effective for several dozen more,[19] though this review has been criticized by several scientists for bias and a focus on studies with a poor methodology.[20][21] Reports from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy (or lack thereof) of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, and that further research is appropriate.[11][22][23][24]
TCM is based on a pre-scientific paradigm of medicine that developed over several thousand years and involves concepts that have no counterpart within contemporary medicine.[11] In TCM, the body is treated as a whole that is composed of several "systems of function" known as the zang-fu (脏腑). These systems are named after specific organs, though the systems and organs are not directly associated. The zang systems are associated with the solid, yin organs such as the liver while the fu systems are associated with the hollow yang organs such as the intestines. Health is explained as a state of balance between the yin and yang, with disease ascribed to either of these forces being unbalanced, blocked or stagnant. The yang force is the immaterial qi, a concept that is roughly translated as "vital energy". The yin counterpart is Blood, which is linked to but not identical with physical blood, and capitalized to distinguish the two. TCM uses a variety of interventions, including pressure, heat and acupuncture applied to the body's acupuncture points (in Chinese 穴 or xue meaning "cavities") to modify the activity of the zang-fu.
Classical texts describe most[dubious – discuss] of the main acupuncture points as existing on the twelve main and two of eight extra meridians (also referred to as mai) for a total of fourteen "channels" through which qi and Blood flow. Other points not on the fourteen channels are also needled. Local pain is treated by needling the tender "ashi" points where qi or Blood is believed to have stagnated. The zang-fu of the twelve main channels are Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Gall Bladder, Liver and the intangible San Jiao. The eight other pathways, referred to collectively as the qi jing ba mai, include the Luo Vessels, Divergents, Sinew Channels, ren mai and du mai though only the latter two (corresponding to the anterior and posterior sagittal plane of the torso respectively) are needled. The remaining six qi jing ba mai are manipulated by needling points on the twelve main meridians.
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