Interested in a brief History of Acupuncture that gets straight to the point?

Originating in China over 10,000 years ago in the Old Stone Age period, knives of stone were used for medical purposes.

These evolved in the New Stone Age period (10,000-4,000 years ago) into "needles" called bian stone and numerous legends cite the use of these stone needles in Acupuncture treatment. Bian needles have also been found at New Stone Age sites in the Shandong Province and at Duolun, Inner Mongolia.

Looks like these could have been painful!!

According to records in Chapter 12 of "Shu Wen" (Plain Questions), treatment using bian acupuncture needles originated in the East Coast region of China. The two men credited with inventing Acupuncture as a therapeutic technique were Fu Xi and Huang Di, both members of the "clan commune" of primitive Chinese society.

3000 years ago, hieroglyphs of Acupuncture appeared in inscriptions on bones and tortoiseshells during the Shang Dynasty (1766-1050 BC).

Following the introduction of iron instruments, bian stone needles were, thankfully, replaced by various metals including bronze, gold and silver.

Still much larger and wider than modern needles of today, they were undoubtedly less painful than using sharp edged stone!

The earliest evidence of Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture dates back to the Sung Dynasty (960 AD - 1270 AD) where the technique was used on the Empress and on the Emperors concubines.

Was this one of the first ancient Chinese spas?

Since then, through numerous Dynasties to recent times, Acupuncture has been evident in well documented records and findings.

We won't bore you with the details.

Whilst Western Medicine was introduced into China after the 1911 Revolution, suppressing the traditional forms of Chinese medicine, Acupuncture remained popular amongst the poor people.

In the 1950's, China then helped Russia and other Eastern European countries in the training of Acupuncturists and training courses spread worldwide after 1975 at the request of the World Health Organisation. So, from its rather grisly beginnings, steeped in what might best be described as crude and petty surgery, Acupuncture has evolved.

The technique has developed from using painful stone, wood, bone and bamboo needles to employing super fine "hair" needles of steel and copper which provide the painless treatments of today.

Some facts:

• The International Medical Journal of Clinical Acupuncture reported in 1996 on 300 case studies of patients treated with Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture - 90% witnessed a marked improvement after only the first course of treatment.
• Over 30% of patients treated worldwide with Facial Rejuvenation are male.
• Acupuncture itself is used in more than 80% of pain clinics in the UK. There are an estimated 3 million treatments per year.
• 40% of UK National Health Service doctors suggest Acupuncture to patients.
• A recent study at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, found that out of 40,000 patients who had used Acupuncture, 90% reported positive results after treatment with half of those finding significant improvement within the first 2 weeks.

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