Myth would have it that around five thousand years ago, a warrior was injured by an arrow - and it hurt! Fortunately, or unfortunately, for this chap, he was struck by a second arrow. The suprise was that the pain disappeared after the second arrow struck. the rest, as they say, is history!

Acupuncture developed in China over the millennia where pictures of cause and effect were built up to the mass of points known and used today. Acupuncture seems to work through the stimulation of specific points around the body. This can be done by inserting a needle into the point (AcuPUNCTURE), by pressing on the point with a digit (AcuPRESSURE), Stimulating the points with an electronic pen or TENS machines (Electroacupuncture - non-invasive).

Traditional acupuncture describes channels around the body which are named after the organs that they seem to affect eg Liver (Li), Lung, (Lu) Stomach (St). The traditional acupuncturists see illness as an inbalance of energies around theses meridians and regain balance through the insertion of needles in very specific points. Their successes are without doubt.

Western style acupuncturists believe that stimulating acupuncture points excite parts of the nervous system and brain to block pain or to encourage the formation and release of the body's own pain blocking chemicals. There are many scientific studies that support this proposition. The pain clinic in which the author practiced saw a seventy three percent success rate with invasive acupuncture.