Acupuncture

ACUPUNCTURE
Simply defined, Acupuncture is a treatment method used to elicit a response such as pain relief through the usage of very fine needles inserted in the body surface at sites called Acupuncture points. Acupuncture has been a part of China and Japan for centuries. Currently it is also one of the most widely utilized forms of alternative therapy in the United States. Surprisingly more than 10 million Acupuncture treatments are administered annually in just the US alone.
Acupuncture began its life as early as 1000 BC. Primitive Acupuncture needles dating back to around that time have been discovered in archeological finds of the Shan Dysnasty in China. But Acupuncture didn’t reach its golden age until perhaps the Ming Dynasty in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. However in the US, Acupuncture was virtually unheard of and unavailable until 1972 when President Nixon mad his historic visit to China. A well-known journalist, which accompanied Nixon to China was hospitalized while in China and received Acupuncture anesthesia. It was this occurrence that caused the journalist to write about Acupuncture when he returned to the states. His article stimulated new interest in this practice among the public and the medical community. Acupuncture schools began to open in the late 1970s and 1980s and ever since then, there are as many as thousands of certified/licensed acupuncturists in the US today.
Acupuncture has different forms. For example, practice in Japan is much different in China, where they take a more or less traditional style called Traditional Chinese Medicine. Slight alternate techniques are acupressure (or shiatsu), which uses pressure rather than needles on Acupuncture points. A related therapy where electricity is applied to these points much similar to STIM is called electroacupuncture, where an electrical current is sent from one needle to another. Also heat can be added to needles to stimulate Acupuncture points as well....