Jeung Ho Choi - Essentials of Electroacupuncture

Essentials of

Electroacupuncture

Third Edition

Jeung Ho Choi, M.D .

Copyright 2013 by Jeung Ho Choi, M.D.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1490404848

ISBN-13: 9781490404844

Contents

Foreword

The book consists of two parts, one is the technical acupuncture currently practiced in the United States and elsewhere, the other is Asian philosophy. Acupuncture is born from Asian numerology and Five Element Theory. As I treated patients paralyzed from stroke from 2002, people asked me to write a book. The book was written from the summer of 2006, by then I had practiced acupuncture for eighteen years. In those years, I visited many retirement facilities for senior citizens, club house for retired police officers and fire fighters, and other social clubs to talk to them about acupuncture, and to recruit potential patients. Acupuncture was still new to the community. Around 2004, a message was building in my mind that there is a need to rehash the old acupuncture theories in a new format suitable to the present time, compatible to other sciences of commom knowledge, and make over conflicting old prescriptions into a combined prescription.

By definition, with western medicine being the main conventional medicine, acupuncture is called the alternative medicine. The term alternative medicine fills the fairly large void left by the conventional medicine in which, in many functional disorders, the pathophysiological mechanism is not clearly elucidated, therefore clinical solution is not available. Acupuncture uses different approach to dignose the diseases, and offers noninterventional nonpharmacological therapies. In order to provide an effective treatment, we have to approach the clinical problems at two fronts, both conventional and alternative. The status of the diseases needs to be studied and assessed by imaging studies and blood tests. The better the disease is defined and understood, the more effective treatments can be delivered. MRI, X-Ray, Nerve Conduction Velocity Test and Electromyogram are some of the valuable diagnostic tests frequently used to treat the diseases effectively with acupuncture.

The book is written as a textbook of electroacupuncture intended primarily for acupuncturists in practice, and other healthcare services where acupuncture is integrated into the practice. Physicians deal with complex medical problems, and generally they do not treat health problems with acupuncture alone; rather they treat patients with both acupuncture and conventional medicinethus providing the options out of conventional and alternative medicine.

The other reason I wrote this book was to provide prescriptions to treat post stroke patients with mobility impairment. From 2003, stroke researches focus on the subject of neural cell repair in the post stroke brain. There are clear evidences that new electrical activities develop at the infarcted brain cortex to cross connect to the contralesional normal brain. These remarkable researches support the concept of stroke prescriptions in old Chinese textbooks written in early Southern Sung Era (1127-1276 A.D.). This makes stroke a treatable problem. Chinese stroke prescriptions use a pair of bilateral neuro-muscular units as the acupuncture points to treat paresis. Connecting and stimulating bilateral points at the extremity can reactivate and connect the infracted brain to the contralesional normal brain.

We are still very much in the process of integrating acupuncture into conventional medicine. Merging two systems from different roots into one takes a long time. The book does not list experimental prescriptions with questionable clinical effects. The prescriptions come from the well known classic texts. Prescription points are arranged in groups by clinical stages. Some channel points were realigned by the rules of five elements. Practitioners must make their own decision that is most appropriate for each patient under the clinical circumstance.

The book contains categorized prescriptions for stroke hemiparesis and peripheral polyneuropathy. From 1994 to 2004, stroke death rate declined by 6.7%, in 2004 overall stroke death rate was 50.0%. Each year, 700,000 people experience new or recurrent stroke, and slightly more than 50% of stroke survivors were affected by some degree of motor deficit. ( )

Estimated prevalence of peripheral polyneuropathy in the U.S. is about 20 million. Peripheral polyneuropathy of the lower extremity affects approximately ) Motor deficit of stroke paresis and peripheral polyneuropathy improve remarkably when treated by electroacupuncture.

In 1987, I was a student at a local acupuncture schools evening classes for three months. I learned acupuncture theories and its clinical applications. As days went by, I became confused with the acupuncture theories and technical details that did not assemble together. It seemed my evening class instructor was delivering knowledge, which he has not understood well . As more days went by, I felt, behind all these complex acupuncture points and channels, there must be an unified system that holds all the parts together in harmony, especially when the acupuncture system has been used for more than two thousand years as an effective remedy. I imagined the acupuncture channel system is like a magnificent spider web hung up in the air holding all strings together in complete harmony. I knew the source science of acupuncture came from the Confucian and Taoist philosophy such as we see in the Book of Change and the Book of Virtue.

I did not learn acupuncture from a professional school. I had two teachers. First teacher taught me how to read the Chinese literature and write the letters by calligraphy. The second teacher taught me the Asian numerology. I read and wrote memorial stone inscriptions dating back to 200 B.C. and Confucian Buddhist texts, and I studied Sung-Ming Era numerology texts. It took twelve years to go through these two courses. I am still in the study of calligraphy. Readers who are educated by the logics of Western science, thus not accustomed to the thought process of Eastern philosophy, may find it hard to understand the nonlinear logics of acupuncture. But it is my intention to make this learning easier for all readers.

A significant portion of this textbook is dedicated to the Five Element Theory and the Eastern philosophy. Five Element Theory is the fundamental base on which acupuncture channel systems were built over 4000 years. As we are aware, there is widespread interest in the Eastern philosophy in all sectors of Western society with greater attention paid to Buddhism, Yoga and meditation. Every Eastern philosophy: Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Hinduism has its own unique way of seeing the basic elements in the nature. Acupuncture has always been a science of observation. Therefore, developing a skillful observation is a required process in the course of learning and practicing acupuncture.

In closing, an experienced acupuncturist can resolve the symptoms of many neurological and functional disorders, and keep the patients in a long remission. Acupuncture treatment is delivered in safe, less invasive, and above all, in cost-effective way. This alleviates, in some cases, the interventional treatments, which can be costly in terms of expense and the time required for the recovery. Acupuncture is not, by any means, a substitute for an established medical or surgical treatment; it provides, when applicable, an alternative way of treating the diseases with natural, economical and less intervening approach.

In publishing this book, I am deeply indebted to my patients, without whom, I could not have come across the solutions to treat their problems, some of which were rare and unique.

2009 JHC