Acupuncture

Acuuncture is one of the most common alternative health therapies. The practice consists of piercing the skin with needles at various points on the body, depending on the problem being treated (Guide, 2003, 52). The practice is based on a 5,000-year-old Chinese philosophy of internal energy known as 'chi' and its two components 'yin' and 'yang'. When these two forces are disturbed by disease, the placing of acupuncture needles at specific points along energy lines through the body known as meridians rebalances the yin and yang, realigning chi and restoring health.

Traditional Chinese acupuncture recognizes over 2,000 acupuncture points in 14 groups occurring along the meridians. Each point is identified by a name and a number, e.g. liver 3, bladder 10 (Guide, 2003, 52). It uses 20 to 30 needles at a time, left in place for 10 to 45 minutes per session. Western acupuncture uses about 200 points, and only two to four needles per treatment, left in for short periods of time, sometimes less than a minute. It is preceded by a full history and physical examination. Acupuncture is used to treat a wide variety of complaints including: pain, insomnia, anxiety, hay fever, eczema, sinusitis, labor pains, morning sickness, visceral pain, motion sickness, and hiccups.

In the United States, titles and licensure requirements vary from state to state, as does the scope of practice of acupuncturists: Licensed Acupuncturists (L.Ac.), Registered Acupuncturists (R.Ac.), or Doctors

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very consistent with the World Health organization disease classification criteria. Aryuveda is not yet recognized as a legitimate alternative health therapy in the United States, but in India, Aryuvedic physicians undergo education and training similar to allopathic physicians in India, with approximately 10 years of study and supervised practice. Aryuvedic physicians in the United States can get a doctoral degree in one of the licensable professions such as M.D., D.O., N.D., or D.C., but even then they cannot incorporate the whole of Aryuveda into their practice. Most Aryuvedic medicines are prohibited by the Food and Drug Administration restrictions. According to Aryuveda, the body is composed of five elements: space, time, water, earth, and air. It consists of seven dhatus or tissues: fluid, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow, and reproductive tissue; three malas or waste products (feces, urine, sweat); and agni, the energy of metabolism (Venkatraman and Assefi, 2002, 144). The function and maintenance of the body is ruled by three dynamic energies called doshas: vata, pitta, and kapha whose equilibrium is essential to life. An individual's constitution and personality is determined by a combination of the doshas. Hom

Category: Medical - A