Acupuncture Flashcards
Acupuncture
is a practice in which needles are inserted into various traditionally determined points of the body and then manipulated
- claims to relieve pain, treat infertility, treats disease, prevents disease, promotes general health, or can be used for therapeutic purposes
Dry needling
-one type of acupuncture but can be practiced by PTs in 26 states
Yin Yang
- Extreme opposites
ex. male/female, night/day
zang-fu organs
- Describes 5 organs with specific functions and pathological changes
- heart controls mind
- kidney controls bone ( metabolism or vitamin D)
Qi
energy- light force
- need food and air to get energy (rice and vapor)
Theories based on chinese philosophy
- Yin yang
- zang-fu organs
- five elements
- qi, blood, and body fluid
- meridians
Five elements
used to describe symptoms
- Fire
- Earth
- Metal
- water
- Wood
Fire
- comes from water, gives birth to metal
- Yin Yang examples
- yin: heart (HT) Yang: small intestine (SI)
- Yin: heart constrictor Yang: triple heater (TH)
Earth
- comes from wood, gives birth to water
- Yin Yang example:
- Yin: spleen (SP); Yang: Stomach (ST)
Metal
- Comes from fire gives birth to wood
- Yin Yang example:
- Yin: lung (LU); Yang: large intestine (LI)
Water
- Comes from earth gives birth to fire
- Yin yang example:
- Yin: kidney (KI); Yang: Bladder (BL)
Wood
- Comes from metal, gives birth to earth
- Yin Yang example:
- Yin: liver (LIV); Yang: gall bladder (GB)
Yang in the body
- Exterior: skin, flesh, hair, meridians
- excess (shi): disease preventing forces (-), pathogenic factors increase
- heat: yin deficiency or excess heat
Yin in the body
- Interior: organs, bone marrow, qi, and blood
- Deficiency (xu): disease preventing forces decrease, pathogenic factors (-)
- Cold: yang deficiency or excess cold
Pattern recognition
- Five elements
- interconnections between patterns
- TCM eight principles
Acupuncture meridian chart
- includes everything (vascular, cardio, etc)
- high correlation between pathways of nerves and meridian system
examination in traditional chinese medicine
- Inspection (whole body including tongue)
- Palpation including pulse which would include feeling strength, rhythm, depth of pulse
- Auscultation
- Percussion
- History taking
Diagnosis in TCM ( pattern recognition)
- eight principles
- Zang-fu organ system
- Qi, blood, body fluid system
- Meridian system
- ie. kidney yang deficiency
Acupuncture treatment
Treatment via tonifying deficiencies and dispersing excesses
- release excess fire
-tonify deficient water
- use acupuncture and chinese herbs in combo
Treatment based on modern biomedical understandings
History of acupuncture: middle ages
- acupuncture spread from china to korea, Japan, and Vietnam, and elsewhere in East Asia.
- Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century were among the first to bring reports of acupuncture to the West
History of acupuncture: modern era
- acupuncture became better knonw in the US after an article appeared in the NY times by James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy while visiting China
- while standard anesthesia was used for actual surgery, he was treated with acupuncture for post-op discomfort
- National Acupuncture Association (NAA) introduced acupuncture to the West through seminars and research presentations
Modern understandings of Needling in Musculoskeletal pain: myofascial pain
summarized as tight cord, nodule or band that can be accompanied by radiating pain and localized muscle twitches
Modern understandings of Needling in Musculoskeletal pain: Trigger points
90% of pain will be gone within 2 minutes with acupuncture
Modern understandings of Needling in Musculoskeletal pain: stretch- like effects
- Acupuncture acts like stretch
- stretch activates fibroblasts to secrete inflammatory mediators that dilute pain mediators and activate 2nd messenger systems that increase protein production to help with recovery
