How Acupuncture Developed

In this ancient Chinese therapy, patients are treated by sticking needles into their skin at particular points. These acupuncture points lie along invisible energy channels called "meridians", which are believed to be linked to internal organs. The needles are said to unblock, increase, or decrease a flow of energy through the meridians.

The word "acupuncture" is a European term meaning "to prick with a needle". It was coined by a Dutch physician called Willem Ten Rhyne, who introduced the practice to Europe following a two-year stay in Nagasaki, Japan in 1683.

Acupuncture has been practiced in China for some 3,500 years, but the exact date of its origin is unknown. A legend says that this complex healing system developed when it was noticed that soldiers who survived arrow wounds in battle sometimes also recovered from other long-standing ailments.

The first medical textbook on acupuncture was the Nei Ching Su Wen, which dates from about 400 BC. The first therapeutic success with acupuncture appears in records of around the same time, when a physician named Pein Chueh used it to revive a dying patient in a coma.

The practice was gradually developed and refined until the Ching dynasty, when Western medicine became more popular. Since the Communist revolution, however, acupuncture has been revitalized and is now widely used throughout China.

Acupuncture was used extensively by British doctors in the early 19th century for the relief of pain and treatment of fever. In 1823, the first edition of The Lancet, the famous medical journal, carried a detailed report of the successful use of acupuncture in treating rheumatism.

Acupuncture points can also be stimulated by a low-frequency electrical current applied with a probe, or with finely tuned laser beams. Electro-acupuncture may also be used to detect acupuncture points, and to give a greater stimulation effect to acupuncture needles.