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| Home > Origin and Concept > Warnings
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| | Warnings in Acupressure
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Do not use acupressure to replace standard emergency procedures or licensed medical treatment. If you are seriously injured or have persistent symptoms seek urgent medical treatment
Acupressure should not be used:
As the only treatment for illness; if you are sick, see a doctor
If you have a heart condition
Just before or within 20 minutes after heavy exercise, a large meal, or bathing
If the point in question is under a mole, wart, varicose vein, abrasion, bruise, cut, or any other break in the skin
If you are pregnant, especially if more than 3 months
In general, acupressure is safe and effective. However, some individuals experience heightened sensitivity to the environment after a treatment. This may manifest as mild body-aches or headaches. These aches can be the result of enhanced lymphatic drainage and other detoxification processes of the body and typically resolve within two days. An individual should drink plenty of water the day of an acupressure treatment, and particularly afterwards, to help cleanse the tissues and flush the system. Care should be taken by the practitioner to avoid using acupressure techniques over areas of open wounds, rashes, boils, scar tissue and other skin problems.
Avoid practicing acupressure right before a big meal or on a full stomach. Wait until at least an hour after eating a light meal and even longer after eating a heavy meal. Practicing a complete acupressure routine when your stomach is full can inhibit the flow of blood and may cause nausea. However, simply pressing one or two points to relieve indigestion or hiccups is perfectly safe. Avoid iced drinks (especially during the winter months), because extreme cold generally weakens your system and can counteract the benefits of acupressure. A cup of hot herbal tea would be good after an acupressure session along with a period of deep relaxation.
Before beginning, try to accurately classify your problem. For example, if you have a backache brought on by stress, you might be better off treating the stress rather than the backache itself.
When you have found the point, apply pressure for 15 to 30 seconds. Repeat using the same point on the other side of your body. You should feel immediate relief. You may feel a release of tension, sinus drainage or perspiration. Sometimes points on opposite sides of the body will have different effects. If symptoms increase, do not use that side or point.
If the first point doesn`t work, try the next point or points until you find one that does. There may be more than one approach to your symptoms, such as "kidneys" vs. "backache." When you find a point that helps, use that point. If the relief is temporary, re-stimulate the point. Sometimes a pain will go away and return three or four times, lesser each time.
You are trying to harmonize your inner environment, so isolate yourself from the external environment as much as possible. Find a quiet place, sit down, and try to relax. Avoid loud music, exercise, food, and any drugs, including alcohol, while stimulating your acupoints.
Once you are familiar with using acupressure on yourself you can try it on others, but be cautious. Most states have laws against the practice of remedial massage, or medicine of any kind, without a license. I suggest that you only attempt to use it on your family and friends.
Acupressure is a gentle, noninvasive form of the ancient Chinese practice of acupuncture. In acupuncture, thin needles are inserted into the body at specific points along lines called meridians. In acupressure, thumb or finger pressure is applied at these same points, but the body is not punctured. In both practices, the aim is to effect beneficial changes and achieve harmony within the body`s systems and structure.
Conventional Western medicine typically pinpoints and directly treats only the affected part of the body. Chinese medical philosophy encompasses the entire universe. Everything that affects the patient is considered, including emotion, environment, and diet.
Chinese philosophy proposes a way of life based on living in accordance with the laws of nature. This profound connection with nature is reflected in the language used to describe illness. For example, a patient may be diagnosed with a "wind invasion" or "excess heat." Acupuncture (or acupressure) points may be chosen to "disperse wind," "remove summer damp," or "disperse rising fire."
In acupressure, there are twelve lines called meridians that run along each side of the body. Each pair of meridians corresponds to a specific organ. For example, there is a pair of Lung meridians, Spleen meridians, Stomach meridians, and Liver meridians. Acupressure points are named for the meridian they lie on, and each is given a number according to where along the meridian it falls.
In general, Chinese medicine has been slow to gain acceptance in the West, mainly because it rests on ideas very foreign to the scientific model. For instance, Western scientists have trouble with the idea of chi, the invisible energy of the body, and the idea that pressing on certain points can alleviate certain conditions seems sometimes too simple for scientists to believe.
Western scientists, in trying to account for the action of acupressure, have theorized that chi is actually part of the neuroendocrine system of the body. Celebrated orthopedic surgeon Robert O. Becker, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize, wrote a book on the subject called Cross Currents: The Promise of Electromedicine; The Perils of Electropollution. By using precise electrical measuring devices, Becker and his colleagues showed that the body has a complex web of electromagnetic energy, and that traditional acupressure meridians and points contained amounts of energy that non-acupressure points did not.
Potent Point holding is an acupressure technique that requires multiple acupressure points to be held at the same time by the fractioned for duration of a period of time, designed to achieve emotional release and balance the flow of energy within the meridians.
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