Healing touch is as old as humanity.
We all instinctively soothe ourselves by rubbing painful areas of our bodies with our hands.
Also inherent within each of us is the ability to touch others in intuitive ways that help them to heal.
These various aspects of primal knowledge are the wellspring from which the healing arts of acupressure and acupuncture flow.
It has also led to the invention of tens units, small devices which emits electrical signals to block pain signals.
In China, meticulous observation and practice of this intuitive touch has occurred over thousands of years of recorded medical history.
It has led to many discoveries about particular points on the body and how they can be stimulated to ease pain or to improve the functioning of various physical and mental systems.
Countless practitioners and theoreticians have refined and codified this information.
This process has led to the development of comprehensive Eastern medical theories in order to explain the processes of life, health, and disease, as well as specific methods of treatment.
Intrinsic to these medical theories is the concept of balance.
It is balance of the bodily systems that defines health and illness.
This is one idea on which Western and Eastern medical philosophy concur.
Homeostasis is defined in the western PDR medical dictionary as, "The condition of balance (stability between opposing stresses) in your body regarding different capabilities and also to the element compositions in the body fluids as well as tissues.
" In Chinese thought, the concept of Yin and Yang is used to describe the relationships of complementary opposites within the body.
The idea is the same in both views: opposing forces in the body keep us balanced and healthy.
Despite stories handed down from the past, the origin of the practice of acupuncture is shrouded in mystery.
One tale relates that physicians observed the battlefield experiences of soldiers who, after being wounded with arrows, recovered from chronic disorders that had been plaguing them.
Another account suggested that enlightened seers discovered the acupuncture points and pathways of energy movement in the body.
What is known for sure is that acupuncture was discussed as an established form of treatment in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, thought to have been written about 2000 B.
C.