Moxibustion
Moxibustion
means to stimulate acupuncture points by heat. The heat is
created by burning of herbs. The herbs may or may not directly
contact the skin. If the burning herbs do not touch the skin, it
is called indirect moxibustion (Fig. 1a and 1b). If it touches
the skin or touch the skin through a
piece of something, such as ginger or garlic, or salt powder or
something else, which is located between the herbs and the
skin (Fig. 2a and 2b), it is called indirect moxibustion.
Fig. 1a. Indirect moxibustion on leg.
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Fig. 1b. Indirect moxibustion on knee. |
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Fig. 2a. Moxibustion herbs are put on fresh ginger piece
that touches the skin (on stomach). |
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Fig. 2b. Moxibustion herbs are put on fresh ginger piece
that touches the skin (on stomach). |
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The function of moxibustion is still, as
for the mechanism of acupuncture, unknown. It seems that the
heat is not the only explanation of the moxibustion in the
healing, since what we know is that the healing effect would be
replaced by burning of a cigarette. Also, the healing effects of
a moxibustion is largely affected by the quality of the herb
(its brands and the geographic area of growth).
Moxibustion needs only several minutes to
several ten minutes each time but needs to be repeated tens of
times usually.
Moxibustion is good for the treatment of many clinic conditions
that belongs to weakness and cold
conditions, according to TCM diagnosis. For example, it is good
for arthritis, paralysis, post stroke syndrome, menopause
syndrome and muscle weakness. It is also very useful to save life
if one is very weak in the heart beat, and with poor
circulation. It should be emphasized that the function of
the moxibustion can not be completely replaced by acupuncture or
herbal therapy. In practice, the combination of these three
healing methods is quite common in daily clinic work.
In current Chinese Medicine, doctors may also apply the
moxibustion herbs at the end of the acupuncture needles. It is
called acupuncture-moxibustion (Fig. 3a and 3b). It increases clinic healing
effect in many cases.
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Fig. 3a. Moxibustion column is put on the top of
acupuncture needles. |
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Fig. 3b. Burning of the moxibustion herbs. |
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The use of moxibustion might be limited in most acupuncture
clinics for the fact that they have no good ventilation facility
in the clinic rooms. Though there is so called no-smoke
moxibustion in the market, we found that it does not at all work
as good as traditional moxibustion herbs. Scientific research
also further indicated that, the healing effect of traditional
moxibustion can not be replaced at all by use of different
burnings, such as cigarette or burning of other herbs.
In our clinic, moxibustion is also used mostly to change
body constitutions of clients who suffered from frequent
allergic reactions year by year. It is definitely also useful in
people who fear acupuncture needles.
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