Acupuncture

Acupuncture is an oriental medicine that has been helping people maintaining their health for centuries in Asian countries including Japan. To practice acupuncture, acupuncturists use fine needles to stimulate several key points in the body that is called “tsubo” in Japanese. These points (tsubos) were found from hundreds and hundreds of years of practices and experiences. Different points (tsubos) stimulations and their combinations have different effects. Historically there are several acupunctures known in Japan such as “Ogasawara-ryu” in Edo and “Kiyamachi no Hari” in Kyoto. Our body has developed since origin of life and in the middle of evolution to maintain our body to survive as possible. In modern sciences and medicine, it is known that there are homeostasis mechanisms that try to keep our body balanced and consistent. As one result, immune systems might have evolved in animals. We also know that there are massive networks of nerve system in our body. These fields are under intensive scientific researches and we know and accumulated massive knowledge in last a few centuries. Although we know a lot about homeostasis, immune systems, and nerve systems etc. but we do not know more than we know. In another word, we do NOT know everything and we have plenty of unknowns in nature that's why we are now continuously discovering and exploring the nature in our body and our universe. One important “goal in medicine is cure people”. Acupuncture works well with certain diseases. In acupuncture, stimulations in several points (tsubos) in several body parts that could coordinate and stimulate our bodies try to keep balanced and stimulate our homeostatic capabilities. As the nature of acupuncture that could be assisting body's curing power itself, acupuncture may be more natural but may not be almighty (so as modern medicine). For example, against acute infections, antibody and drug treatments could be more significantly effective, although acupuncture may be able to assist immune system and homeostasis. However, it may be wise to take advantages of what could be good for people’s health rather than simply deny everything judging from only what we now know. In future, it is important to find out the mechanisms to fill the gaps between practices and effects what are behind in acupuncture with modern scientific terms that is still lacking or very limited at the moment.