Sean Mcllvride is trained in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. He has 11 years of experience with acupuncture. In 2002, he graduated with National diploma of acupuncture. He is also an ACC provider in Auckland and a member of New Zealand Register of Acupuncturists Inc. (NZRA). Get to know about what he says about acupoints, one of the most talked about topics in New Zealand.
Acupoints are known as acupuncture points as well. They are basically the locations on body, which are focus of sonopuncture, acupressure, acupuncture & laser acupuncture treatment. Hundreds of acupoints are located along the meridians. There are even many extra points which aren’t actually associated with any specific meridian.
Despite the efforts to understand the physiology and anatomy of acupuncture points, the characterization and definition of these points remain controversial. After all, there isn’t any scientific evidence for either acupoints or meridians.
Acupuncture points in treatment might or might not be especially in the body’s same area as targeted symptom. TCM theory for selection of these points as well as their effectiveness is that they actually work by arousing the meridian system for bringing relief by rebalancing the yang, yin and chi. The theory is basically based on a paradigm of the Traditional Chinese Medicine and has no analog in the western medicine.
Body acupuncture points are usually located using cun, a measuring unit, which is calibrated as per the proportional distances from the different landmark points on body. The location of these points actually depend on particular anatomical landmarks, which can be palpated. Several of these poinst are hardly used. Some of the points are regarded more therapeutically valuable than the others and are frequently used for different kinds of health conditions.
The points are usually located where the nerves enter any muscle, midpoint of muscle or at enthesis where muscle joins with bone. The location by the palpation for tenderness is even a common way to locate the acupuncture points. The points can even be located by feeling for the subtle differences in the temperature on skin surface or over skin surface, and changes in tension or stickness of skin as well as tissue. There isn’t any scientific proof that the method actually works and some of the practitioners even disagree with this method.
The body acupuncture points are usually referred to either by the traditional name or by name of meridian on which they are placed, followed by a number for indicating what order the specific point is in on meridian. A very popular point on hand, for instance, is named as Hegu, and known as LI 4. This means that it’s the 4th point on large intestine meridian.
The acupoints generally have poetic, allusive names, which developed over the source of centuries, involving synonyms to ensure that similar points are located on right limb. Although 360 points are usually recognized, the number of points have changed a lot over the centuries. 2/3 of points are regarded as yang and the remaining 1/3 are regarded as yin.
