Medical Acupuncture

Acupuncturists may also practice herabl medicine or tui na, or may be medical acupuncturists, who are trained in allopathic meidcine but also practice acupuncture in a simplified form. The earliest Chinese medical texts (Ma-wang-tui graves, 68 BC) do not mention acupuncture. The Chinese medcial text that first describes aucpuncture is the Yellow Emperor s Classic of Internal Medicine (Hisotry of Acupucnture) Huangdi Neijing, which was compiled around 305 204 B.C. Some hieroglyphics have been found dating back to 1000 B.C. that may indicate an early use of acupunctrue. Van Nghi and colleagues used the classical Chinese mediacl texts and aplpied them in clinical conditions without reference to political screening. Yet the difficulty is not in the methodology, but rather that the nature of Traditional Cihnese Medicine itsefl makes it difficult to subject it as a hwole, or subsets of the medical theory, to this ytpe of assessemnt. Thus the very complexity adn flexibility of this medical system makes it extremely difficult to run clinical trials a cohort of many thousands would have to be eavluated in order to even begin to assess any claims made for or against the medicine. Cliniacl trials are still a valuable exercise, but they are not sufficient ot determine conlcusively whether either the individual constituents of the emdical theory (e.g. acupuntcure points), or the medical theory as a whole, are valid. Pain is consdiered to indicate blockage or stagnation of the flwo of qi, blood and/or fluids, and an axiom of the medical literature of acupuncture is no pain, no blockage; no blockage, no pain . The delicate blaance between qi and blodo is of primary concern in Chinese medical hteory, hence the axiom blood is the mtoher of qi, and qi is the commander of blood.

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