In 1996 the Food and Drug Administration approved acupuncture needles as "safe and effective medical devices." This was followed in 1997 by a consensus statement issued by the National Institutes of Health, which recognized acupuncture as an effective treatment for a variety of conditions. Furthermore, the World Health Organization has recommended the use of acupuncture for 29 conditions. Of course, Asians have been successfully treated with acupuncture for thousands of years, with millions and millions of "clinical trials" demonstrating its effectiveness. And now theWHO, the NIH, and the FDA have all conceded that acupuncture does indeed work, and a good deal of exciting research is underway to discover more and more uses for this traditional technique.
Some Western researchers think that acupuncture activates endorphins (the body's own pain- killers), while others think that acupuncture medles somehow manipulate the body's own electromagnetic current. According to the Chinese, however, acupuncture is just one ray of controlling and redirecting Qi (chee), the vital energy that fills the universe and also animates all living creatures, driving all of our bodily functions. Qi fills the channels or "meridians" that run all throughout our bodies, much like the nervous or circulatory system. Sometimes, the Qi can get stuck along one or more of these channels or become excessive or depleted. By placing acupuncture needles at specific points along the major channels, the Qi can be moved, decreased (if excessive), or increased (if deficient), depending on vhat's needed.
In a typical acupuncture treatment, extremely thin, sterile, disposable steel needles are inserted into specific points along certain channels to produce an effect.The effect may be immediate, such as in the reduction of headache or joint pain and muscle tension, or the effect may be more subtle, noticeable only after a series of treatments, such as in the gradual healing of a chronic illness.
Due to the frequency of blood work, vaccinations, and other injections, many Westerners have become afraid of needles and assume acupuncture needles hurt as well. There is a great difference in size, however, between hypodermic needles and the hair-thin needles used in acupuncture. Furthermore, acupuncture needles are solid, with a rounded tip, and cause much less tissue damage -- and thus less pain -- than the larger, hollow needles used in conventional medicine. The Chinese consider acupuncture to be bu tong, a painless procedure. The sensations one may experience during the course of a treatment often include mild cramping, heaviness, distention, "electricity" or tingling at the point of insertion, feelings of extreme, full-body relaxation, mild euphoria, and warming or cooling sensations. Patients become accustomed to these sensations quickly and often enjoy them after the first treatment.