Acupressure

Acupressure has been around in this world for an unknown number of years now. It is a science that has been existing in different parts of the world for many years, but as of today, it exists mainly in Asian countries like India, China, Japan, and Korea. There are a lot of myths that surround acupressure. One of them is that acupressure is something spiritual and that it is full of black magic. In reality, acupressure has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a science that activates neurons in the nervous system that stimulate the endocrine glands and activate the defective organ. So acupressure is not a magical "thing" and people who practice acupressure are not "psychics". As far as history is concerned, again, it exists in many parts of the world, mainly Asian countries. There is no specific place or country where it evolved. The techniques of acupressure differ not only from country to country, but also from city to city in a same country and in a same state. So there isn't one definite technique that is used by all people. Acupressure once was a very common science that everybody used to treat medical problems, but with the invasion of western medicine and fast working pills, a vast majority of the people switched from acupressure to allopathy. Today, very few people in the world use this science as a source of curing medical problems. The science of acupressure is based on a theory that is totally different from allopathy. The theory states that the human body has fourteen "imaginary meridians" that carry energy throughout the body. These meridians start at the fingertips, connect to the brain, and then connect to the organ associated with the specific meridian. The names of these meridians specify the organ associated with them. For example, the lung meridian is connected to the lungs via the nervous system. Theoretically, a lung problem arises if there is an obstruction in the lung meridian that slows down the flow of energy. If somehow the obstruction is removed or dissolved, the energy flow becomes regular and the lungs start functioning well. How is the obstruction removed? The answer to this question defines the basic concept of acupressure. Usually, an analogy of a water pipe makes this concept easier to understand and visualize. A stone in a pipe that carries water lowers the rate at which the water flows through the pipe. If the pipe is pinched right before the area where the stone is located and the water is allowed to build up, the potential energy of the water that is stopped from flowing rises. When the water that has high potential energy is freed by releasing the pinch, water flows faster than normal, pushing the obstruction alone, with it. The obstruction is thus removed from the area and enables the water to resume its flow. This is exactly the way acupressure works. The theory states that obstruction in meridians cause the energy to flow slower which results in a malfunction or even dysfunction in the organ that is associated with the meridian. The pressure technique is used to remove the

obstruction so that energy can flow with regularity and the organ can be made to resume its normal function. One interesting theory of acupressure states that it is not necessarily the organ that relates to the system the cause of the problem. It is the "root cause" that is the main cause of the disease/malfunction and if the root problem is cured, the external problem is cured as well. This can be explained in an easier way by using, an example. Suppose a person is suffering from asthma. An allopathic doctor would prescribe a medicine or steroid that would give rest to the lungs and relieve the symptoms because an allopathic thinks that the cause for asthma problems is the lungs. An acupressurist on the other hand, will try to find the root cause i.e. the reason why the lungs are malfunctioning. An acupressurist would read the whole body by reading energy pulses located on the arms to diagnose the root cause and once the root cause is diagnosed, the doctor will give points to cure that specific problem, not asthma. A root cause could be anything like poor digestion, excessive heat, bad circulation, depression, or bad hormones. A root cause could even be just the organ that is giving the problem. So a person with asthma could have weak lungs that are the root cause of the problem. There have been cases where people with totally healthy lungs suffer from asthma because of other problems like bad stomach, weak circulation, or even bad hormones, and allopathic doctors give them steroids like cortisone to "cure the weak lungs". The last and the most important concept of acupressure is pulse reading. A pulse as in acupressure is defined as a point in the arm that can be felt to determine the flow of energy in a meridian. Pulses are imaginary, just like the meridians. There are nine different pulses that are located in the lower arm area that connects to the wrist. Each pulse has two phases: superficial and deep. If the pulse is absent in the superficial phase, it can be found in the deep phase. Usually, if a pulse is absent in the superficial phase, it indicates that there is a problem in that particular meridian. Deep pulses are usually very hard to locate and if the deep pulse is also absent, the person is said to be in the most severe stage of the problem. Pulse reading is done by feeling the pulse and following the rhythm, beat, speed, and the characteristic feeling of the pulse. Some pulses have a "spurt" like feeling, while some have a "drop" or a miss in the beat. Some feel like the movement of a snake. Some pulses move fast while others have a slower beat. These are just some of the many things that acupressurists look for when they read pulses. Suppose a person is suffering from a heart problem. The circulation pulse of this person would be found in the superficial phase and there would be a drop found in the pulse after every ten beats. This is just one example of the diagnostic techniques used in acupressure. Problems like arthritis, asthma, menstrual irregularity, indigestion, and many similar problems can be diagnosed by pulse reading. The doctor who taught acupressure and pulse reading to me can even diagnose cancer, and AIDS by just reading the nine pulses located on the arm. Face reading is not a derivative of acupressure, but it helps in diagnosing a problem. Face reading in acupressure, again, is not spiritual or magical. It is backed up by scientific evidence and the WHO recognizes it. The human face can show many signs that indicate

that the person has some health problem. Most of us are familiar with signs like blackness under the eyes, oily skin, pimples, lines on the forehead, and bulging eyes. Each of these indicates a specific health problem. Lines on the forehead indicate that the person is highly depressed; bulging eyes indicate hormonal problem (specifically thyroid); oily skin and pimples again indicated some hormonal imbalance. There are a lot of other signs that signify a specific health problem. Face reading cannot be used to determine the root cause, and since acupressurists are interested in the root cause, they have to do pulse reading to get to the main problem. So, in essence, face reading helps the acupressurist to at least guess the superficial problem at the first sight of the patient. How fast does this science work? Acupressure is a science of patience. It is a slow process and it takes a long time ranging anywhere from one day to probably more than five years depending on the problem and it's severity. It is impossible to cure a patient suffering from say a problem like high cholesterol in a week. It might take at least one or two months or even more for the patient to get cured. Problems like polio or mental disability can even take two or three years to subsidize. Well, if acupressure is so slow, can it be used to heal bums or fractures? Can acupressure get a person out of an asthmatic attack? A heart attack? There are certain points located on meridians called emergency points or "Z" points. These points work as quickly as steroids in the body. An asthmatic attack, for instance, can be slowed down in allopathy by inoculating the patient with cortisone (a steroid). Z points activate the adrenal gland so that the gland itself produces cortisone for the body. This does not even take five minutes. This activation occurs in a couple of minutes and the patient can be relieved from the attack immediately. This holds true for almost any emergency situation. In case of bums or fractures, certain Z points can be given to the patient and they act as healers and painkillers. The affected part can be put into anesthesia (using Z points) so that the patient does not feel any pain and then points can be given to heal the area. It is important to know that Z points do not cure a problem, but they just work in case of emergencies. Once the patient is out of danger, regular points are given to cure the patient permanently. Acupressure works only if the treatment is done regularly. The interesting thing about acupressure is that a patient can do the points on his/her own body without external assistance. Nevertheless, if the patient is not regular, the treatment does not do any good to him/her. Once the acupressurist diagnoses the problem, the patient is given some points on the body (mostly arms and legs) and the acupressurist marks them for the patient. Each point has to be pressed hard and the pressure is sustained for fifteen seconds. The pressure has to be given by using the thumb and the direction of the thumb has to be towards the body. The pressure is-then released for a second and the point is repressed in the same manner. Each point is pressed for fifteen seconds every time for three consecutive times. So actually, each point receives a total pressure of forty-five seconds with one-second gaps every fifteen seconds. The points are given in a sequence so that there is a smooth switch from one meridian to another. The sequence is based on the root cause i.e. if the patient's root cause is circulation, the points on the circulation meridian are given first and then other meridians follow up for activating the organs associated with the circulation meridian.

The points are done three times a day regularly until the acupressurist feels that the problem is almost cured. Once the problem is eleviated, the points are not stopped abruptly, but the patient has to continue doing the points for a week. Then the patient is told to reduce the number of treatments from three times a day to twice a day for a few days. Then the points are done only once daily for a couple of days. Thereafter, the points are done once every alternate day for a week and then the treatment is stopped. In essence, the treatment is not just stopped once the problem is cured. Like antibiotics, points also need to be reduced by a downward curve. Has acupressure actually cured any diseases or health problems? We have seen patients with problems like asthma, diabetes, kidney failures, and even cancer being cured or at least made to feel better by acupressure. There is no cure for diabetes in western medicine. Acupressure has the ability to actually cure diabetes. There is no cure for asthma that exists in western science. People with asthma have been totally cured by acupressure. Cancer patients who were rejected by allopaths and were said that they wouldn't live for more than four months, are still alive after four years and the signs of tumor do not exist today in these patients. Proof? Magazines and newspapers do not think that alternative sciences hold any bearing, or they are as superior as the conventional methods used by allopaths. And some acupressurists, like the doctor with whom my mentor was working, didn't allow herself to be famous. She didn't care for publicity, because she used to say that publicity wouldn't heal the patients she with whom she was working. And since none of the newspapers or magazines wrote about her achievements or kept track of the patients' health records, the world thinks that acupressure cannot provide physical evidence and so it is a "joke". Acupressure is a very deep science that has not yet been explored by western medicine. There is something very interesting that happens in these meridians that is still unknown to mankind. The science is explained theoretically, but practical experiments have not yet been done to actually visualize what happens in the "imaginary" energy meridians. The fact that people still think that it is a "joke", or that it is a "waste of time" to sit everyday and do the points, upsets me because after learning all about the power and the depth of the science, people reject my ideas and knowledge about acupressure. I try to give them evidence by diagnosing their problem and giving them points and telling them to do the points, but they do not do the points and come back to me and say that "acupressure is a joke". Society's ideas and misconceptions about acupressure need to be changed. For this purpose, I have decided to study western medicine, and explore acupressure to search for strong physical evidence that would come help me to come back at people and say "You wanted the proof, right? Well, here you go ..............