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Acupuncture Points Are Usually, But Not Always, Found On the Meridian
Acupuncture points, also known as acupoints or tsubo, are locations on a person’s anatomy that are the center of
attention of acupuncture, acupressure, sonopuncture as well as laser acupuncture treatments. More than a few
hundred acupuncture points are distributed along a meridian and there are also many other extra points that do not
have any association with a particular meridian. Today, a lot of research is taking place in China and acupuncture
points that are used in various acupuncture treatments may or may not be located in the same part of the body as
the targeted symptom.
Almost 400 Basic Acupuncture Points on the Meridian
The different acupuncture points that are located on a person’s body are generally found through a technique of
measurement that is calibrated according to the distance to a number of different landmark points on the body. It
is believed that there exist almost 400 basic acupuncture points on the meridians though many are never used while
some are considered valuable for therapeutic reasons and are most used for a number of different health
conditions.
To locate an acupuncture point, the acupuncturist may need to do so by palpation for tenderness and points may be
located through feeling for minute differences in temperature on the surface of the skin as well as through changes
in the skin’s tension or stickiness. To identify a particular acupoint, its traditional name or the name of the
meridian on which it is located, are used.
Some of the acupuncture points are given different functions that correspond to different systems and these include
Five Transporting Points, Five Phase Points, Xi-cleft, Yuan-source, Luo-connecting, Back-shu, Front-mu, and
Hui-meeting. In addition, there are also microsystems of acupuncture points that are not generally located on the
meridian.
This is shown by auriculotherapy which uses the outside of the ear microsystem exclusively, even though there are
thousands of points that do not lie on the meridian but are still located on the outer ear’s surface. Even the
Korean version of hand acupuncture makes use of acupoints on the hand and there are also some extra points that
neither lie on the meridian nor are they part of a microsystem.
The clinical use of acupuncture points has very often been heavily dependent on the conceptual framework of
traditional Chinese medicine and this has led some scholars to call it pseudoscientific. These points are also used
in martial arts to inflict pain as well as attack a muscle to cause it to contract and also to apply pressure in
the carotid artery to make the body be able to control blood flow into the brain.
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