When the notoriously prudent and serious-minded Chancellor of the Exchequer and his wife, Mr and Mrs Gordon Brown, turned to acupuncture in 2005 while trying (with subsequent success) for another baby, it became clear that acupuncture is becoming mainstream. And there is more and more information available. Most people are aware of the fact that acupuncture originated in China, developed there over 3000 years and is a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Even those who have not experienced this treatment know it consists in inserting very fine needles in precise points in the body, of which there are more than 300.
It is also generally held that the interest in acupuncture and its increasing use in the West began with Henry Kissinger’s visit to China in 1971, and particularly reports sent from China by the New York Times correspondent James Reston, one of the most prominent journalists of his time. Amongst other thoughtful observations of China reported his first-hand experience with acupuncture.
It has taken a while for the Western medical practitioners to start accepting acupuncture. The reasons for this are first that the mechanism of acupuncture is difficult to understand scientifically, and secondly that Chinese medicine uses very different symbols and ideas to discuss the body and health.
In the language of Traditional Chinese Medicine the concept of Qi or Chi (the vital energy, the invisible force that creates and animates life) is paramount. It looks at the human body/mind/spirit as one, all being the manifestation of Qi. Disease appears when the energy flow gets out of balance. Inserting acupuncture needles in precise points helps the body to return to balance.
Chinese Medicine considers many factors as being influential to our health, such as emotions and mental states, work, environment, lifestyle and relationships, as well as the purely physical factors. No two patients or their pattern of symptoms are identical, as each body has its own characteristics of symptoms and balance.
Therefore, from more than 300 acupuncture points available a unique combination of points needs to be prescribed to create the best possible treatment for each patient.
With the newest techniques becoming available, some interesting research is being carried out by Western scientists into the physical effects of acupuncture. Thus, scientists from the University of Southampton and University College London have conducted experiments into the ancient technique by using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans to monitor the patients’ brain responses to acupuncture during treatment.
While the placebo group that received sham acupuncture showed production of natural opiates (substances released by the brain to relieve pain), in the group that received real acupuncture, as well as the opiate centre, another region of the brain, the ipsilateral insular, was also activated during the treatment. The main conclusion of this study was that acupuncture does have physical effects on the body that goes beyond the placebo.
The World Health Organization in 2002 published a report “Acupuncture: Review and 
Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trial”. In this report it listed 28 symptoms and conditions for which acupuncture has been proved to be an effective treatment through controlled trials, including allergic rhinitis (such as hay fever), dysmenorrhoea, gastritis, facial pain, headache, hypertension, knee pain, lower back pain, nausea and vomiting, neck pain, rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, etc.
It also listed around 30 diseases, symptoms or conditions for which the therapeutic effect of acupuncture has been shown but for which further proof is needed, including: Bell’s palsy, bronchial asthma, cancer pain, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, earache, female infertility, fibromyalgia and fasciitis, insomnia, lactation deficiency, male sexual dysfunction, Ménière’s disease, etc.
Olga Fedina has a Bachelor of Science degree in acupuncture from the University of Portsmouth and the London College of Traditional Acupuncture and a diploma Shiatsu from the British School of Shiatsu-Do. She is a member of the British Acupuncture Council, the Shiatsu Society and the Fundación Europea de Medicina Tradicional China. Olga has a practice in the city of Valencia.
To contact her, send an e-mail to info@acupuncturevalencia.com or call 609 42 96 78. You can find more information on Acupuncture Valencia.
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