History Of Acupressure

Acupressure has been practiced as a healing art for at least 5,000 years. It is the third most popular method for treating pain and illness in the world. This complete health system has been documented for use in treating over 3000 conditions. If you are looking for options to your current treatments or for ways to supplement your current health care, you are on the right track. This is a proven, natural and cost effective self-care system of home treatment that could improve the quality of your life.

Acupressure philosophy is based on the same principles as acupuncture. By using pressure instead of needles, acupressure works to stimulate specific reflex points located along the lines of energy which run through the body, called meridians. There are 14 main meridian lines, each of which corresponds to an individual organ of the body. When the vital energies are able to flow through the meridians in a balanced and even way the result is good health. When you experience pain or illness it is an indication that there is a block or leak in the energy flow within your body.

Acupressure has been around in this world for an unknown number of years now. It is a science that has been existing in different parts of the world for many years, but as of today, it exists mainly in asian countries like India, china, Japan, and Korea. Possibly the earliest evidence of use of the meridian system for health purposes has been found in Europe, of all places. Ötzi the iceman, a 5,000 year old mummy found preserved in an alpine glacier, seems to have tattoos, some of which correspond to points that a modern acupuncturist or tui na specialist would use to treat symptoms of diseases that ötzi seems to have suffered from, including digestive parasites and degenerative bone disease. However, it is difficult to speculate on the meaning of the tattoos as to whether they served a decorative, religious, or a medical function.

In early times when stones and arrows were used in war, many wounded soldiers began to report relief from long standing problems which suddenly vanished. It was first difficult to associate the link between being injured by a piercing object, and the restoration of health. Eventually it was concluded that certain illness could be cured by striking or piercing certain points. The earliest instruments of acupuncture or skin puncture were modified from arrows, stones, bones, bamboo slips and finally needles made of gold, silver and copper.

The nei ching or the yellow emperor`s classic of internal medicine is the earliest known text on acupuncture. It was believed to have been written between 2697 and 2596 B.C during the reign of emperor Huang ti. The nei ching is an extensively detailed manual explaining all treatment methods for a wide range of ailments. It has been used for thousands of years as the foundation of modern acupuncture. The nei ching is one of the oldest know documents written about medicine of any sort. Acupuncture is the oldest known form of medicine, and has more published, practiced and documented about it than any other form of medicine in history.

Chinese medicine was ignored by the western world until the 17th century when Jesuit missionaries were sent to china to introduce and convert the Chinese to Christianity. Instead they returned to the west with unbelievable accounts of Chinese physicians curing illness by inserting needles into the surface of the skin. In 1928 a French specialist in Chinese culture, Souile de Morant, translated many of the documents about acupuncture into French, thus introducing the west to Chinese medicine.

During several periods in recent history acupuncture has been outlawed by the Japanese and Chinese governments. In 1884, emperor tao-kuang prohibited the practice within the imperial palace and strongly punished physicians who used it. Perhaps he had an intense needle phobia. The common people continued to use acupuncture regardless. In Japan, acupuncture which had been in use since the sixth century, was also abandoned during the late 1800`s in an attempt to establish hospitals based on western medicine.

Mao Tse Tung`s army was key in revitalizing the art of Chinese medicine in 1935-35 as the army was living and fighting under conditions which did not allow the practical use of other forms of medicine. Currently, Japanese and Chinese hospitals and medical centers use a combination of traditional acupuncture and herbology along with western approaches such as surgery and drugs. But the country who has surpassed all others in the use of acupuncture is France. There are approximately 6000 doctors using acupuncture and it is a routine treatment in more than 15 hospitals.

In the late 1970s the world health organization, which, did a series of studies and declared acupuncture medicine to be highly effective in 40 major internal disease processes. It is common the find the use of acupuncture in many western medical facilities now, although much of the application of this medicine is limited to pain control and less focused on internal medicine.

The root of the way of life, of birth and change is qi (energy); the myriad things of heaven and earth all obey this law. Thus qi in the periphery envelopes heaven and earth, qi in the interior activates them. The source wherefrom the sun, moon, and stars derive their light, the thunder, rain, wind and cloud their being, the four seasons and the myriad things their birth, growth, gathering and storing: all this is brought about by qi. Man`s possession of life is completely dependent upon this qi. Nei ching chi, (chee) or qi, (key), are two names for the life force energy.

According to Chinese medical theory, a child is born with chi which has been transmitted from the mother`s kidneys. This chi is a fixed amount of life energy which travels through the body along pathways known as meridians. Because the kidneys hold the inherited chi or life force energy, we never want to sedate the kidney meridian or energy circuit. This could create a great loss of vital energy for a human or animal. A mother or brood mare may need a lot of kidney stimulation to restore that chi which has been passed on to her offspring.

Outside of Asian -American communities, Chinese medicine remained virtually unknown in the United States until the 1970s, when Richard Nixon became the first u.s. president to visit china. On Nixon`s trip, journalists were amazed to observe major operations being performed on patients without the use of anesthetics. Instead, wide-awake patients were being operated on, with only acupuncture needles inserted into them to control pain. At that time, a famous columnist for the New York Times, James Reston, had to undergo surgery and elected to use acupuncture for anesthesia. Later, he wrote some convincing stories on its effectiveness.

Despite being neglected by mainstream medicine and the American medical association (ama), acupuncture and Chinese medicine became a central to alternative medicine practitioners in the United States. Today, there are millions of patients who attest to its effectiveness, and nearly 9,000 practitioners in all 50 states. Craniosacral therapy originated in the early 1900`s. It is a science of feeling the motion of the cranial bones and the pulse of the body due to the movement of the cerebrospinal fluids that keep the balance of the nervous system. This unique technique, incorporated with acupressure, is called Acucranio and designed to reduce stress levels and eliminate its related dysfunctions.

Acupressure is practiced as a treatment by Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists, as well as by massage therapists. Most massage schools in American include acupressure techniques as part of their bodywork programs. Shiatsu massage is very closely related to acupressure, working with the same points on the body and the same general principles, although it was developed over centuries in Japan rather than in china. Reflexology is a form of bodywork based on acupressure concepts. Jin shin do is a bodywork technique with an increasing number of practitioners in America that combines acupressure and shiatsu principles with qigong, reichian theory, and meditation