Introduction

THIS BOOK IS DIRECTED at both health professionals and individuals seeking to take control of their own health. Some of the techniques are quite convenient for home use, while others—generally those directed at more serious conditions—will require the guidance of a trained practitioner.

I have selected only the most common illnesses and disorders for inclusion and have arranged this book in a way that should make it easy for the reader to use regularly. Each condition is accompanied by a brief description of its symptoms and the conventional treatment normally applied to them. I then describe for each ailment the acupuncture points that Chinese medicine would commonly recommend for such a condition, as well as any additional points that I have found to be particularly effective in my own long experience as a practitioner. The points are then divided into principal and secondary points. As a general rule, stimulation of the principal points is enough to provide an active therapeutic effect. The secondary points are used to reinforce or adjust the effects of the primary points.

HOW THE POINTS ARE STIMULATED

While acupuncture with fine stainless steel needles is still the most well-known method of stimulating acupoints, there are many other ways, several of which can be accomplished easily by lay readers. This book focuses on two simple methods that are safe and easy to practice at home.

Simple Manual Massage

Place the tip of your thumb or index finger on the point indicated (this can even be an approximate placement) and lightly vibrate your finger or rotate it clockwise while pressing down sharply. More precise pressure can be applied on a point by using the eraser end of a pencil or a small thimble. Success is obtained when the symptom—the pain or disorder or sick feeling—disappears. For treatment of chronic illnesses you should perform this same massage twice a day for two to ten minutes at a time.

Electrical Stimulation

For many years, researchers have sought to develop alternate ways of stimulating ­acupoints. The application of electrical current began in China in the 1930s; today, this effort has been expanded by the advent of newer, simpler, and more reliable machines. Whereas the original devices required that electrodes be attached to needles inserted in the skin—and therefore could only be used by professional ­acupuncturists—some of the more modern stimulators can be applied directly to the skin and can thus be used by nonprofessionals.

THE EVOLUTION OF ACUPOINT THERAPY

Acupuncture appears to be the oldest system of medicine on the planet. Its origins are lost in the dawn of time, but archaeological discoveries and subsequent extensive research performed in China show evidence of acupuncture’s use more than two thousand years ago. In written works dating from before the birth of Christ, researchers have discovered clear discussions of acupuncture needling.

Acupressure—the stimulation of acupuncture points by hand—may even have predated the use of needles. Without clear written documents, however, it is hard to know exactly how these styles of medicine evolved.

How is it that we have no written documents recording the origins of acupuncture or acupressure? The major reason is the draconian laws established by a Chinese ruler, Emperor Huang-Ti, around 200 BCE. This sovereign ordered all the books existing in China at this time to be destroyed, because he wished for no evidence to survive from the time preceding his rule.

On the other hand, he did take pains to see that medical treatises were written. He literally imposed the method of their creation when he wrote: I desire to put an end to the use of medicines that poison. . . . I wish only the mysterious metal needles to be used.

If these needles were a mystery to him, just imagine how much greater their mysteries are for us!

Following the death of this terrible autocrat, those who outlived his reign compared what they remembered of the documents he had destroyed and wrote the first acupuncture books, primarily the Nei Jing and the Su Wen. While the instructions in these books sometimes match, they often diverge and even contradict each other. For this reason the contradictory nature of traditional Chinese medicine is one of the first stumbling blocks encountered by the Westerner seeking to master its principles.

Here is the second obstacle for a Westerner: Chinese medicine is a philosophical medicine. In fact, the Chinese strove to integrate their medicine not in an anatomical or biological context but in accordance with their philosophy; this means that basic medical principles include discussions of the forces of nature, balance among the elements, treatises on heat and cold, and so on. In addition, sacred aspects of numerology were also employed in the study of medicine.

The Chinese have always been and remain fascinated by figures. One need only mention the hundred flowers, the band of four, the four modernizations, and so forth. To the Chinese mind, the harmony of the world is based upon the combination of numbers. Five, nine, and twelve each have a range of esoteric associations, for instance, as well as correspondences in all the other domains of life: astronomy, agriculture, daily tasks . . . and medicine.

Corresponding to the five fundamental elements and the five cardinal directions (North, East, South, West, and the Center) are the five flavors, the five odors, and the five primordial organs of the human body. Everything combines this way in a perfect harmony that the Chinese mind finds to be the summit of satisfaction.

But this veritable osmosis of medicine and philosophy, satisfying as it may be to the Chinese mind, is not readily acceptable to the Western mind. In fact, its application brings into play rules of thought and reasoning that are quite different from the analytical and logical form of reasoning to which we are accustomed.

The rules for using Chinese medicine appeal to notions that seem purely speculative to us: points and meridians, wonderful vessels, ancestral or perverse energies; these are all words that bring to mind the animal spirits and malefic virtues of our medieval doctors.

Then there is a third shoal for the Western mind to negotiate: Chinese medicine is an esoteric medicine. Point selections and treatment strategies are often based on abstract, esoteric principles like the name of a specific point or astrological calculations.

So how could a style of medicine with these three distinguishing features (contradiction, philosophy, and esoteric nature) not be antithetical to the Western medical mind, which is so specifically keen on deductive reasoning and scientific knowledge? How did things develop to allow a medicine like this to get a strong foothold in our part of the world?

The answer is simple: it is effective. This medicine with all its original features has traveled through fifteen hundred years of history unchanged and has survived this way until about the 1960s. It was in this way that it was able to reach the West by several successive channels. When used following the Chinese rules, acupoint therapy attacks illnesses and can improve or cure pathological states with an ease that is often disconcerting. More impressive is the fact that this medical modality is performed almost without any pain, toxicity, or medication. It has therefore gained the adherence of many Western doctors. But criticisms and sarcastic jibes have not been lacking. Let me just say that fifty years ago you needed a thick skin and a lot of belief in yourself to admit to being an acupuncturist. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. And this change came—as it should have—from China, its land of origin.

The reasons for this transformation are threefold: First, there was the attitude the Chinese authorities began displaying toward their own native medicine; all at once, a lot of time and energy went into rehabilitating it. Next, the medicine was taught to a maximum number of practitioners—the barefoot doctors charged with the distribution of treatments to the smallest villages in a population of one billion human beings. The last thing was the interest in seeing this medicine progress into domains that the ancestors could not even imagine. A program of practical and scientific research was developed, which prompted Chinese medicine to evolve considerably in the past several decades.

Although science still does not understand how or why acupuncture works, substantial insights into some of its features have been gained. These insights have occurred in four broad areas:

1. Discovery of some of the scientific mechanisms in acupuncture’s effects

2. Discovery of new acupuncture points

3. Greater specialization of each point

4. New methods of working on the points

While these discoveries are still quite piecemeal, they are nonetheless fascinating and well worth exploring in some detail.

1. The Discovery of Some of the Scientific Mechanisms in Acupuncture’s Effects

I have already examined the essential points of this progress extensively in two of my earlier books: How to Give Yourself Relief From Pain by the Simple Pressure of a Finger and How to Safeguard Your Health and Beauty by the Simple Pressure of a Finger. I will therefore confine myself to providing a summary here, with particular emphasis on the most recent developments.

It is in the field of pain that the most important advances have been made. It has also been demonstrated that the stimulation of the points trigger reactions on two levels:

•One is the level of the spinal cord, where the painful sensation is blocked by a veritable gate that prevents its passage toward the brain. It was first believed that this blockage was electrical in nature and occurred at a specific level of the spinal cord, but this is not at all the case. There are several intermediary stages that are involved, during which the nervous system releases a chemical substance known as substance P, whose purpose is to reinforce the sensation of pain. The stimulation of acupressure points blocks this release of substance P and therefore reduces the size of the pain message.

•Furthermore, a large number of neuropeptides are released in the brain by the nervous system; these mediators transmit the orders of one nerve cell to the next. Among these are the endorphins—a kind of natural morphine that blocks the sensation of pain. It happens that acupuncture releases these endorphins, which explains part of its pain-mediating effect.

The phenomenon of the gate

The transmission of the nerve impulse from one neuron to the other and the release of neuropeptides

In addition to this now well-established mechanism, there are no doubt many more that remain to be discovered. What we still don’t understand about acupuncture includes:

•What passes through the mysterious meridians that crisscross our body?

•How do the acupuncture points communicate with brain receptors?

•Why do some points have an ipsilateral effect (on the same side of the body) and others a contralateral effect (on the opposite side of the body)?

•How does acupuncture act directly on the organs?

Acupuncture therefore opens an immense field of exploration across every aspect of our being. In this sense, you could say that it will be one of the royal ways of medical knowledge for the third millennium.

2. The Discovery of New Acupuncture Points

In traditional Chinese medicine, there are as many acupuncture points as there are days in the year. But there are also hundreds of empirical and extra points that coexist with the classical meridian points. Some of these even have a very specific effect at specific times.

In addition to the classical points and empirical points, there are countless subsystems of acupuncture derived from different historical lineages—ear acupuncture, for instance, or Korean hand acupuncture.

Lastly, there are microsystems that envision the whole body holographically reflected in one of its parts—the ear, for instance, or the hand. Many of these microsystems use relatively new points that have been identified by experimentation rather than historical precedent. The new points are often located on preferential treatment sites of the body: the sole of the foot, the palm of the hand, the scalp, the nose, and most particularly the ear.

3. The Greater Specialization of Each Point

This is one of the most important and most interesting discoveries made by contemporary Chinese research.

The starting point for this research was acupuncture-induced anesthesia. In the 1950s, Chinese doctors began to explore this new application of ancient healing methods. During the first operations performed in this way, dozens of needles were used, and a small army of assistants kept the needles moving constantly during the operation. It is not hard to see how cumbersome this would be in an operating room and what kinds of difficulties it could cause.

Little by little, thanks to an enormous amount of experimentation (there have been more than three million operations performed under acupuncture anesthesia up to the present day in China), they were able to reduce the number of points to two, three, or a maximum of four during an operation. These were points that were found to have a demonstrable ongoing effect upon a given organ or region of the body. It was also found that electrical current directed to the needles would increase their effectiveness and eliminate the need for continuous manual stimulation.

Many of the same points that have been demonstrated to work as anesthesia are recommended in this book for the treatment of diseases. They have, moreover, been divided and put into a hierarchy of principal points and secondary points. As I mentioned earlier, stimulation of the principal points is generally enough to obtain the desired effect; secondary points either reinforce or adjust this effect.

4. New Methods of Working on the Points

Traditionally, patients were treated on an ad hoc basis, in brief sessions at varying intervals. While attractive results could be obtained this way, many practitioners found they could achieve even better results with a series of treatments, each session lasting minutes at a time. These sessions could be conducted every day for a period of weeks and even months.

Methods of point stimulation were varied and depended primarily on massage, acupuncture needles, and the application of heat in the form of burning incense—a technique known as moxibustion.

As a further refinement, magnets or tiny seeds could be taped to the skin for more long-lasting stimulation. Nowadays, tiny intradermal needles can be inserted under the skin to remain there during the whole course of treatment. This is only one of the new ways of creating a semi-permanent stimulation; in fact, Chinese researchers have discovered multiple new ways of stimulating acupoints. For example, they now suggest the use of suction cups, little hammers equipped with many points, surgical incisions, or the placement of staples or threads that the practitioner can use to make ligatures.

Moxibustion: an incense cone (mugwort, as a rule) on a protective layer (most often a slice of ginger)

Several surgical incisions made at acupuncture points on the hands

Placement of ligatures at several acupuncture points

Placement of a suction cup over an acupuncture needle

A variety of other methods have also been tried, such as the application of magnetic discs on the points and injections of essential oils or medications at their location.

The most prominent of these new methods is electrical stimulation, which is currently enjoying a considerable expansion. The administration of electrical current can be done in two different ways:

•Small electrodes can be plugged into an electro-acupuncture unit. Then these electrodes can be clipped to needles that have already been inserted into the skin. This is the practice used in surgical anesthesia. After the needles have been put in and connected to the electrodes, the current is turned on and its effect upon the patient lasts through the entire operation. This operation is painless, and the patient remains conscious during it; he or she can even talk, drink, or eat during this time. This is a taxing and intensive method that should be used only by qualified medical professionals.

•Electrical current can also be applied directly to the skin. A number of small appliances have been invented for this purpose over the past several years. Until recently, these instruments were generally unreliable because they were either not sensitive enough or they were, to the contrary, overly responsive, wildly broadcasting their effects. But enormous progress has been made, and the newer models of electrical stimulators are quite accurate. The availability of reliable instruments means there is also now a treatment method available that is both simple and flexible. In addition, piezoelectric and laser stimulators are generally safe for laypeople to use and are widely available.

In short, the power of acupuncture can now be partially harnessed by nonprofessionals using a variety of simple, safe stimulation techniques. These methods require no medications but use only the natural healing reactions of the patient. Treatment is readily available to most people as it presents few dangers and contraindications and is generally convenient to use. It can also be combined with numerous other therapies and modalities.

This book is geared toward the at-home practice of acupressure stimulation, as this is undoubtedly one of the primary paths the practice of medicine will take in the future; it is a path that I believe will take a privileged place in the struggle against disease.

In fact, acupressure stimulation fulfills three conditions that, in my opinion, give it a notable advantage:

1. It prevents, totally or partially, the use of medication—especially the dangerous self-administration of chemical pharmaceuticals.

2. It permits the patient to