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Channels and Meridians
'Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.'
Rumi
Traditional Chinese Acupuncture is based on a medical system many thousands of years old. It works by inserting ultra-fine needles below the skin, to re-balance the body’s energy moving both internally and also externally (near the surface) through a system of channels called ‘meridians’.
After an acupuncture needle (disposable — single use only) is inserted, a not unpleasant tingling or dull aching sensation is often felt. This is a sign that the treatment has affected the movement of vital energy (which could be deficient, excessive, or simply not moving).
The theory of acupuncture is that these channels that flow between the interior and exterior of the body can be affected at specific points along the course of the meridian. There are several hundred acupuncture points, although only around one hundred points are commonly used, and there has been a great deal of research in recent years which has identified acupuncture points as areas of decreased electrical resistance on the skin, and very often areas at or near peripheral nerve pathways.
For practical purposes (that is during a treatment) I often find that (some anyway) of the classical channels of acupuncture (the meridians) frequently correspond to muscle chains and muscle pain referral patterns (as we might call them in Osteopathy). For example, muscles in the lower back and pelvis having relationship (or referral) to muscles in the leg (by referral I mean that pain is also felt some distance way from its origin). Or, for example, pain in the neck or back of the head, may have some relationship to 'tightness' in the shoulders and upper back. These examples could also be explained by the meridian theory - and it is likely that the ancient Chinese we (in part at least) were describing similar clinical phenonenon and symptoms in their own language (even though to us it sounds a little poetic and exotic). The language, and entire theory of Chinese Medicine, is quite specific, consistent and internally rigorous - as one would expect from any medical paraidgm.
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