Acupuncture Demystified
Acupuncture has evolved over 2 millennia, both through refinements based on treatment responses and through adaptations to changing social situations. The language in classical Chinese medicine texts reflects nature and agrarian village metaphors and describes a philosophy of man functioning harmoniously within an orderly universe. The models of health, disease, and treatment are presented in terms of patients’ harmony or disharmony within this larger order, and involve their responses to external extremes of wind, heat, damp, dryness, and cold, as well as to internal extremes of anger, excitement, worry, sadness, and fear. Illnesses likewise are described and defined poetically, by divisions of the yin and yang polar opposites (interior or exterior, cold or hot, deficient or excessive), by descriptors attached to elemental qualities (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), and by the functional influences traditionally associated with each of the internal organs. The classical anatomy of acupuncture consists of energy channels traversing the body. The principal energy pathways are named for organs whose realms of influence are expanded from their conventional biomedical physiology to include functional, energetic, and metaphorical qualities (eg, Kidney supervises bones, marrow, joints, hearing, head hair, will, and motivation; Spleen oversees digestion, blood production, blood-related functions such as menstruation, and nurturing and introspection). Acupuncture anatomy is a multilayered, interconnecting network of channels that establishes an interface between an individual’s internal and external environments, permitting energy to move through the muscles and the various organs.
The most superficial of these pathways are the tendinomuscular meridians, which serve as an interface between the organism and its external environment. They provide the first defense for the body’s response to climatic conditions and external traumas. The principal meridians travel through the muscles and provide nourishment to all tissues and vitality for animation and physical activity. The distinct meridians go directly from the surface of the body deep to the organs, and allow the nourishment and the energy produced by the organs to circulate throughout the body. Finally, a system of pathways called the curious meridians create connections among the principal acupuncture channels and serve as energy reservoirs for extreme conditions of emptiness or fullness. The network of energy circulation is organized into three bilaterally symmetrical plates that divide the body into six sagittal territories of influence. Each plate manifests the energy derived from four organs as it circulates in their anatomical territory of influence.
Figure 1 (not present) represents the schematic organization of one plate in the acupuncture energy circulation. The core rectangle is the principal meridian subcircuit, from which the subdivisions of energy circulation are derived: tendinomuscular meridians on the surface, distinct meridians going to the organs, and curious meridians creating connections among several principal meridian subcircuits. Figure 2 (not present) shows the bilateral surface tracing of one principal meridian subcircuit. Figure 3 (not present) provides the organ associations, and thus the names, for these energy channels: Kidney-Heart (shao yin) and Small Intestine-Bladder (tai yang). Figure 4 (not present) shows the surface location of the Kidney and Bladder tendinomuscular meridians, associated with two of the four organs involved in the shao yin-tai yang principal meridian subcircuit. Figure 5 (not present) shows the deep pathways of the distinct meridians for the same two organs. Each of the three bilaterally symmetrical subcircuits has a similar schematic organization. The anatomical territory of influence shifts with the location of its sagittal plate and the organs involved in its energy circulation.
The classical physiology of acupuncture involves a dozen internal organs that interact to produce basic energy and blood from ingested solid and liquid nourishment, then mix in the energy from inspired air and propel the transformed energy and blood through all the body’s organs and tissues. The organs are divided into six parenchymal, energy-producing organs (solid, yin), and six visceral, substance-transporting organs (hollow, yang). These organs are coupled into groups (one yin and one yang) to make up the three symmetrical energy circulation plates. Pathology in acupuncture involves an early manifestation of disharmony associated with the subtle influences of an organ, a disruption of the qi flow in one of the subdivisions of the circulation network associated with an organ, or a frank disturbance in an organ’s metabolic or transport function.
Diagnosis in acupuncture involves recognizing the level of manifestation of a disturbance. Premorbid symptomatology is organized according to the organs’ subtle spheres of influence, where early energetic and functional symptoms are linked to the organ that supervises the disturbed anatomical region or physiological function (eg, Kidney energy supervises head hair; premature graying or balding reflects a deficient Kidney vitality). Obstruction of the flow of energy or blood through the principal meridians manifests as musculoskeletal pain in the territory of the channel (eg, the Bladder principal meridian passes through the lower back; lumbar pain reflects an obstruction of qi and blood flow through that channel). Organ pathology is identified either in conventional biomedical terms or as a disturbance in the organ’s physiological activities according to acupuncture terms (eg, nephrolithiasis is a disturbance in both Kidney and Bladder organs and spheres of influence). Treatment in acupuncture involves the insertion of needles along the channels of the involved organs to stimulate energy circulation that can influence the problem at its level of manifestation, thus restoring energetic balance and organ function in the organism.For more information on acupuncture visit our site at www.DoctorGendron.com
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