Chinese medicine was ignored by the western world until the 17th century when Jesuit missionaries were sent to china to introduce and convert the Chinese to Christianity. Instead they returned to the west with unbelievable accounts of Chinese physicians curing illness by inserting needles into the surface of the skin.

In 1928 a French specialist in Chinese culture, Souile De Morant, translated many of the documents about acupuncture into French, thus introducing the west to Chinese medicine.

During several periods in recent history acupuncture has been outlawed by the Japanese and Chinese governments. In 1884, Emperor Tao-Kuang prohibited the practice within the imperial palace and strongly punished physicians who used it. Perhaps he had an intense needle phobia. The common people continued to use acupuncture regardless. In Japan, acupuncture which had been in use since the sixth century, was also abandoned during the late 1800's in an attempt to establish hospitals based on western medicine.

Mao Tse Tung's army was key in revitalizing the art of Chinese medicine in 1935-35 as the army was living and fighting under conditions which did not allow the practical use of other forms of medicine.

Currently, Japanese and Chinese hospitals and medical centers use a combination of traditional acupuncture and herbology along with western approaches such as surgery and drugs. But the country who has surpassed all others in the use of acupuncture is France. there are approximately 6000 doctors using acupuncture and it is a routine treatment in more than 15 hospitals.

In the late 1970s the World Health Organization, WHO, did a series of studies and declared Acupuncture medicine to be highly effective in 40 major internal disease processes. It is common the find the use of acupuncture in many western medical facilities now, although much of the application of this medicine is limited to pain control and less focused on internal medicine.

QI or Chi the root of life:

The root of the way of life, of birth and change is Qi (energy); the myriad things of heaven and earth all obey this law. Thus Qi in the periphery envelopes heaven and earth, Qi in the interior activates them. The source wherefrom the sun, moon, and stars derive their light, the thunder, rain, wind and cloud their being, the four seasons and the myriad things their birth, growth, gathering and storing: all this is brought about by Qi. Man's possession of life is completely dependent upon this Qi.
-Nei Ching

Energy is a dynamic force in constant flux that circulates throughout the body. Many practitioners substitute the word life for the word energy or chi, or Qi since life is an indication of energy within the body. All signs of life such as breathing, talking, sleeping, eating, and thinking etc. all can exist only because of the energy within the body. Energy is the basis for the apparent solid structures of the body, for what is a solid structure but a mass of living energized cells.

All atoms once believed to be solid, are actually a pattern of energy which physicist have found to exist. The closer physicists look at an atom the less solid it appears, instead it is predominantly an energy pattern which is 99.99% space. That space is filled with light, which is in a constant state of flux. The pattern of energy seems to appear wherever you look for it and forms a pattern based on the observer's expectations of how it will appear. The laws of particle physics now explain that all patterns are able to exist simultaneously everywhere, and now many of our beliefs about solid matter are really changing!

The body and all matter is therefore made up of electro-magnetic forces which most of us are not yet familiar with. It was ironically western scientists who ingeniously verified the existence of electro-magnetism which provided a logical explanation for the positive results from acupuncture and acupressure therapy, (the discovery of electricity).

In short, electro-magnetism is a high intensity force that permeates the atomic and molecular structures of all objects including the atmosphere, (storms and electricity). It has a rapport with the energy of the body and can travel through the body like other forms of electricity, sound, and wave forms of energy. When needles or pressure are used, they act as antennae that conduct the electro-magnetic energy from the air into the body; therefore electro-magnetic energy can replenish the body's energy that has been depleted by disease or injury.

According to Chinese medical theory, a child is born with Chi which has been transmitted from the mother's kidneys. This chi is a fixed amount of life energy which travels through the body along pathways known as meridians. Because the kidneys hold the inherited chi or life force energy, we never want to sedate the kidney meridian or energy circuit. This could create a great loss of vital energy for a human or animal. A mother or brood mare may need a lot of kidney stimulation to restore that chi which has been passed on to her offspring.

THE MERIDIANS:

Energy, Chi, or Qi circulates throughout the body along pathways called Meridians. Electrical energy travels along these pathways or meridians separate from the nervous system. Not only does the energy travel along the surface of the body, it has connections to every organ, blood vessel, muscle, gland, and portion of the body. (Many individuals also feel these pathways are the link between the emotional, spiritual and physical aspects of ourselves.)

The means whereby man is created, the means whereby diseases occur, the means whereby man is cured, the means whereby disease arises; the twelve meridians are the basis for all theory and treatment.
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The meridian is that which decides over life and death. Through it the hundred diseases may be treated.
-Nei Ching

Meridian is a word borrowed from geography indicating a thin line joining a series of ordered points. There are 12 main meridians, one assigned to each of the five organs, the six bowels, and the pericardium or heart constrictor. The six bowels include the gall bladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine, bladder and the triple heater.

The meridians are channels which are 20-50 millimicrons in diameter. They have a thin membranous wall and are filled with a transparent, colorless fluid. Each of the main meridians intricately develops subsidiary branches, some of which supply adjacent areas with energy while others ultimately reach the surface of the skin. The places at which the branches reach the skin's surface are the acupuncture and pressure points. Several channels may converge at one point, therefore it is possible to affect several meridians at one time.

The meridians cannot be seen with the human eye but scientists have been able to precisely map these energy channels or meridians using sensitive electronic instrumentation. The Russians found both temperature differences and greater conductivity of electricity at the acupuncture and acupressure points.