Acupuncture

Acupuncture is part of a comprehensive system of health care known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which has been used to diagnose, treat and prevent illnesses for over 25 centuries. It is widely used by over one-quarter of the world's population. In addition to acupuncture, TCM includes Chinese herbal medicine, moxibustion (heat), cupping (suction), auricular (ear) acupuncture, and Chinese nutrition.

Rather than being based on a biochemical model like Western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine is based on an energetic model involving Qi (pronounced chee). Qi was first understood by the ancient Chinese who recognized that all life forms have inherent vital energy. They referred to this energy as Qi, and documented consistent pathways of its flow throughout the human body. These Qi pathways were referred to as meridians. The wise men also noted that if the flow of Qi in these meridians was disrupted by trauma, poor diet, medications, stress, hereditary conditions, sedentary lifestyles, environmental factors or excessive emotional issues, normal physiological function was affected resulting in pain or disease.

The ultimate goal of traditional Chinese medicine was, and still is, not only to treat pain or disease, but even more importantly, to prevent it. Ancient practitioners had to develop a way to facilitate the flow of Qi within the meridians to maintain health. They documented points

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