Acupuncture and Acupressure are associated with each other and are traditional techniques of Chinese Medicine. This treatment heals while keeping the body healthy and stress free; the procedure involves inserting fine needles within the skin on predetermined points or meridians, considered energy pathways similar to acupressure. When a person experiences sickness or injury the chi gets blocked and positive energy stops flowing. The exterior surface of the human body has 365 acupuncture points across 14 main meridians.

Trapped energy or Chi is stimulated and released by inserting special needles at specific locations or through acupressure depending on the nature of the illness. This can be compared to a river blocked with debris; removing the blocking debris allows the river to freely flow without obstruction. Acupuncture regulates the flow of 'chi' so it flows at a steady pace, not too fast and not too slow.

Within China, this particular form of medicine has been being practiced for a minimum of four thousand years, with all of these needles being found within archaeology digs of the late Shang Dynasty. The three types of acupuncture methods are the Five Elements method, Yin/Yang Theory and Medical or Western Acupuncture. Though the diagnostic approach used by all the three methods is similar, the causes attributed to the illness and the treatment of the illness varies from one method to the other.

As the name suggests Five Element Acupuncture follows the five element cycle of Chinese medicine and it also takes the relationship between the mind and body seriously in the diagnosis of illnesses as much as the physical causes. The inner stress has to be treated and eased in order to heal and alleviate the physical symptoms. Treatment of the underlying causes of illnesses in the five element treatment is a time consuming slow process to reach total recovery. The theory based on the traditional yin/yang theory mainly focuses on the restoring of overall balance of the yang and the yang within the body. More than one acupuncture energy meridian is stimulated at a given time to trigger more than one element simultaneously.

Western Acupuncture treatment by nature is short-term and this combines both Eastern and Western approaches. Out of the two sub categories, anesthetic acupuncture is the first and it is mostly used in surgical and dental procedures. Again it is used as a temporary pain reliever or as an analgesic for immediate effect. Problems like allergies, asthma, arthritis, depression, gynecological problems, and high blood pressure, infertility, and migraine have found effective cures in this line of treatment according to research done. This therapy has been very successful in treating illnesses that do not go away with normal medication; it has also helped in treating psychological disorders that are related to a person's wellbeing.

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