Acupuncture is an element within the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) health system which also includes herbs, acupressure, laser, electro and magnetic therapy, exercise and diet. Acupuncture has been used successfully on animals and humans for nearly 4000 years. There are many theories as to how and why it works. Western medical acupuncture practice believes it may work by releasing pain-killing endorphins, or that it triggers ‘gate control’, so that nerves carrying pressure messages reach the brain faster than pain messages, which stops the brain registering pain.
Traditional acupuncturists believe that all acupuncture points are connected together to form a complete circuit covering the body, creating an integral web-like system called meridians. Energy or Qi circulates around the body via these meridians connecting organs and tissues. The ancient Chinese held that illness was a state of imbalance or blockage in the healthy energy flows of the body and that acupuncture, by acting on these channels of energy flow, restored them to normal. A body of scientific evidence now exists to support the use of acupuncture to treat certain conditions.
Light has been used as an aid to healing for thousands of years, and Laser Therapy is the use of light of a particular form and wavelength for this purpose. It is the application of light of narrow spectral width over injuries or lesions that stimulate healing within these tissues. The reaction with tissues during laser therapy is photochemical not thermal.
Herbalism is an holisitic medical system that seeks to restore the body’s self-healing mechanism. Remedies are tailored to the patient, supporting the body’s vital force in its efforts to restore homoeostasis. Much of the herbalist’s skill lies in knowing the actions of different plants on specific body systems; for example, a plant may stimulate the circulation or calm the digestive system. Herbal ‘synergy’ is a key factor in medical herbalism. According to this theory, parts of whole plants are more effective than the isolated constituents used in synthetically made drugs.
The history of the principle ‘like cures like’ can be found in the writings of Hipporactes, which date from the 5th Century BC, and has been echoed through the ages in folk cures, such as rubbing chilblains with snow. A German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann rediscovered this principle in the late 18th century. His starting point was the contemporary use of quinine to treat malaria, allegedly due to its bitter qualities.
Using himself as a guinea pig, he took regular doses of quinine and developed malaria-like symptoms. He concluded that it was quinine’s ability to cause malaria-like reaction that made it effective against the disease. He then set about to prove that a poison that causes symptoms of illness in a healthy person can treat the same symptoms in someone who is ill.
Substances are diluted many times to make a remedy that is safe to use, yet has enough ‘likeness’ between the remedy and the illness to stimulate the body’s self-healing abilities. Homoeopathy is one of the most popular complementary therapies. Well established in Europe, Australia, India and South Africa.