ABSTRACT
Acupuncture as an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been in clinical use to treat human illnesses for at least 3000 years, and some archeo-logical evidence dates acupuncture to be extant almost 5000 years. The term “acupuncture” was coined by Jesuit missionaries who observed this treatment during their travels to China in the 1600s and is derived from the Latin terms “acus” and “punctura”. Acupuncture treatments stimulate rather precise anatomic locations by a variety of techniques in order to produce clinical effects, including pain relief. Pain in TCM can be approximated as “stuck” blood or energy in one or more of these meridians, and needles are placed to restore normal, unimpeded circulation of blood and qi in the affected channels. As an example, a temporal migraine headache is located in the distribution of the Gallbladder meridian. The Trigger Point Manual provides contemporary evidence of TCM’s findings in treating pain.
