Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest complete holistic primary systems of health care on our planet with a long history of usefulness and service. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are two of the main components of TCM. Others include Qigong (pronounced chee-goung), Tai Chi, massage therapies (such as Tuina, Do-in, and acupressure), dietary intervention, exercise recommendations, and other life style modification recommendations. They share the goal of creating and maintaining health as well as the treatment of pain and disease. TCM is a natural, preventive system, which has been in continuous use, in close to its present form, for over 2,500 years, and is highly effective today. The oldest acupuncture needles ever discovered are approximately 10,000 years old. We encourage you to read on and you will learn what Chinese Medicine is really good for!
TCM seeks to use, stimulate, or restore the body's innate healing system through the manipulation of a system of vital energy underlying the physical body. The energy that flows through this system is called Chi. An actual scientific understanding of how this system works is an undertaking that will take careful study. The unraveling of the meaning in modern scientific terms of the concepts of TCM are steeped in the natural observations and the cultural bias of three thousand years.
Complications, Safety, and Toxicity of Acupuncture
There have been approximately 124 reports of complications (50% in Europe and Asia) related to acupuncture in 29 years worldwide. By any standard, that is a phenomenally low number compared with the number of complications and deaths reported that are related to conventional medical therapies and surgeries (tens of thousands a year). Granted, it is likely that most complications of acupuncture may not be reported, yet an understanding of the likelihood of complications from these techniques would give one a clear picture that most are very minor in nature. An excellent article on the reported complications of acupuncture will be found here.
People in the United States receive approximately 14 million acupuncture treatments per year. Complications in the United States have been very rare. His is the list of reported events (very rare: most are two or three case reports; extremely rare: reported once or twice).
