A Short History of Acupuncture

There’s controversy as to exactly when and where acupuncture was first practiced. It has been theorized that sharpened bones found as early as 6000 BCE in China were first used for acupuncture, but without any accompanying documentation, their actual purpose cannot be conclusively determined (White & Ernst, 2004). The first mention of acupuncture in any documentation was in the Huangdi Neijing (also seen as Haung Di Nej Jing), or The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, which thought to have been recorded sometime between fourth century BCE and second century CE (The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine, 1995). This further complicates the issue of the origin of acupuncture as The Yellow Emperor is more of a legendary figure in Chinese history, but supposedly reigned sometime in the second or third millennium BCE. This being the case, most agree that the Neijing was likely compiled over several centuries (White & Ernst, 2004).

A page from Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing

The Neijing contains two books: the first is the Suwen (or Su Wen), which contains information on the fundamental nature of Chinese medicine, and the Lingshu (or Ling Shu), which is basically a technical manual on acupuncture and other Chinese medical practices. In 260 CE, another manual, called the Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (A Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) was compiled and is the first known manual exclusively dedicated to the practice of acupuncture. The Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing clearly outlined all the acupuncture points and their purposes, and increased the known points to 349 from the 295 which were listed in the Neijing (Ma, 2000). However, it was the Zhenjiu Dacheng (The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion) published during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) that forms the basis of the modern practice of acupuncture (White & Ernst, 2004).

Reston's article as it appeared in the New York Times

Acupuncture spread to surrounding countries around sixth century CE, coming to Korea and Japan first. Jesuit missionaries took the knowledge back with them to Europe and the practice began in France sometime in the sixteenth century CE, spreading into the rest of Europe afterwards. Though the popularity of the practiced in Europe waxed and waned through several centuries, acupuncture did not see common practice in the United States until the 1970’s. In 1971 a member of the US press corps named James Reston received treatments in China and published an article about his experience in the New York Times (White & Ernst, 2004). After the article, acupuncture began to gain popularity in the United States.

Works Cited

Ma, K.-W. (2000). Acupuncture: its place in the history of Chinese medicine. Acupuncture in Medicine, 18(2), 88-99. doi:10.1136/aim.18.2.88

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine. (1995). (M. Ni, Trans.) Boston: Shambhala.

White, A., & Ernst, E. (2004). A brief history of acupuncture. Rheumatology , 43(5), 662-663. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keg005

The Dry Needlers

During my appointments, Paula has talked to me about several subjects, including details about the acupuncture profession in general. Looking back on some of these chats made me want to explore a few of these topics in greater detail.

Image from doctorgetwell.org

One of the things Paula has mentioned more than once was the threat the acupuncture industry faced from what she called “dry needlers.” Apparently, dry needling is a practice some physical therapist and chiropractors use that is similar to acupuncture, but typically has far less training and expertise. By taking only a class or two over a few days, a chiropractor or physical therapist can start offering dry needling and many may advertise it as acupuncture since it is a far more recognizable name. She said her training consisted of 4,000 hours of classes and practice while most dry needlers consider themselves trained over a weekend. As she explained, she wouldn't attempt to take a weekend course on physical therapy and start taking physical therapy patients, so why would it be OK the other way around?

According to Paula, these practitioners often cause injury or other harm to patients and no only give true acupuncturists a bad name, but also cause government agencies to crack down on the practice by increasing regulations.

I was curious, so I did some quick internet searches to see if I could get a feeling of how other practitioners felt about the practice. Looking at sites from WISCA and a funny (but mocking) video, I could see that other acupuncturists share Paula's disdain for dry needling. What I was even more surprised to find was a physical therapy education company (www.kinetacore.com) offering a three day "level one" training for dry needling, claiming that "Successful completion of the Level One Dry Needling course will provide you with skills and knowledge to begin utilizing the treatment immediately" -- pretty much confirming exactly what Paula had told me.

Long Term Effects

It's been a week and the cupping marks have finally disappeared. Overall I cannot say that I really feel much different than I did when I started treatments, but looking back, there were definite analgesic to the first treatment. They only lasted a few days, but it’s rare I have enough relief to consider myself "pain free" for any amount of time, even with Western medicine.

The second treatment had some minor relief, but nothing close to the first. And the cupping did even less. So I can say with some certainty, acupuncture does seem to be effective in treating nerve pain and it’s possible with repeated treatments it could have a lasting effect.

The only other effect I noticed from all the treatments (more so the first two than the last) was a nice sense of calm and relaxation, both during and after the treatments. However, I could not say whether this was attributed to the treatments themselves, the scented oils used, or the atmosphere of the clinic. From my experiences, acupuncture could also be used for stress and stress-related illnesses, which could explain why it seems to have a positive effect on so many different types of aliments. In the coming weeks, I'm going to delve into the history of acupuncture, try to get an idea of how it works from both an Eastern and Western perspective, and review some of the literature and research available that speaks to its effectiveness as a medical treatment.

3rd Treatment

Today we didn't actually do any acupuncture -- at least not with any needles. Today's treatment was biomagnetic cupping. It is much like the cupping that I had experienced in previous visits (as in use of a glass cup which is applied with suction), but each cup had a charge. Also instead of just two cups, thirteen cups were used and arranged in a line on my back. Paula told me that they help align and balance minerals inside the body and can help restore the flow of energies.

The procedure did not exactly hurt, but it didn't feel very pleasant. Unlike the acupuncture (which was calming) and the cupping done previously (which felt like a massage), biomagnetic cupping was uncomfortable and I was glad when the twenty minute period of "waiting" was done.

Afterwards, my back looked like I was attacked by an octopus.  The marks left by the cupping burned a little but did not have much continuing pain or discomfort.  Unlike the acupuncture appointments, I did not really have a sense of calm afterwards.

Though I searched, I could not really feel any lasting effect from the cupping (other than the marks of course), but maybe it was more subtle than I realized. Either way, this marks my third treatment in three weeks and now I need to focus on what (if any) lasting effect the treatments have had and start to dig into what the scientific community has to say about acupuncture and other practices in Chinese medicine.