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The Mechanics of Acupuncture Spokane

Traditional Chinese Medicine’s (TCM) main goal is to keep harmony among the forces interacting inside the body using the body itself rather than external factors (like using fertility drugs to achieve fertility) to achieve this purpose..

According to TCM, meridians, which are network channels that deliver chi energy throughout the body are sometimes blocked due to emotional, physical and environmental factors resulting in restricted movement of chi in the body. This means that energy (chi) is concentrated too much in some areas and too little in others. Acupuncturists claim that pain in an area signals that chi is blocked in that area.

In order to achieve balance and harmony in the body, acupuncturists use needles to stimulate the nervous system to regulate blood pressure, temperature, chemicals and hormones flowing through the body, like fine-tuning the body to work optimally.  By triggering the brain to release hormones and chemicals, acupuncture Spokane guides the body then into healing itself.  For those worried about acupuncture needles, please remember that the width of these needles are no thicker than a strand of hair which is about .02”.

Acupuncture pressure points are all over the body, and each point relates or connects to a specific body area for treating illnesses. While the traditional known energy channels were 14 energy channels or meridians, today 20 meridians have now been discovered and with around 400 to 2,000 acupuncture points running through them.

These acupuncture meridians have no visible tangible structure and are not recognized as a body system like the circulatory and nervous systems by western science.  This lack of empirical evidence elicits a typical skeptical knee-jerk reaction from Western science regarding acupuncture.

The traditional 14 meridians correspond to the 12 organs, including the spine and the abdomen.  Besides these meridians are also “ghost points” that do not correspond to any meridian. Only in TCM that different parts of the body possess unique attributes, such as temperature and electrical conductivity, which aid acupuncturists in identifying acupuncture points.

Acupuncture points are sometimes recognized by anatomical markings such as eyebrows, hairlines or folds in the skin. Conventional measurements do not apply regarding the distance between acupuncture points because of the uniqueness of each person’s bodily dimensions. However, distances between points are measured by a system called the “body inch” – which corresponds to the distance between the distal joint, which is the knuckle nearest the fingernail, and the middle joint of the middle finger.  The western conventional way of thinking does not apply when talking about the science and mechanics of acupuncture or TCM, in general since the language parlance used by the Chinese have not changed for thousands of years and has not been updated ever since.  As acupuncture keeps on rising in popularity and gaining more adherents, the metrics will probably be standardized in a more westernized scientific format.

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