Mawangdui's medical book "Fifty-two Diseases" unearthed in China records the methods of massage treatment, and there are reports of using tools for massage treatment, such as "wooden cone" for treating hernia and "traditional Chinese medicine" for treating sexual dysfunction.
Through the continuous creation and summary of famous doctors in past dynasties, acupoint massage has developed into a clinical discipline with a unique treatment system and has been widely used in theory and practice. Ancient famous doctors, such as Bian Que, Zhang Zhongjing, Hua Tuo, Yang Jizhou, etc., highly praised the treatment method of acupoint massage, which made it widely used in clinical treatment at that time. The Ming and Qing dynasties were the heyday of acupoint massage, and massage monographs came out one after another, forming a unique massage treatment system for children.
During the Republic of China, the government respected western medicine, but did not advocate Chinese medicine and acupoint massage, but acupoint massage was widely used among the people. Huang Hanru, a famous old Chinese medicine practitioner, published Notes on Huang Yi in 1933, which recorded the clinical treatment experience and experience. The author thinks that acupoint massage is better than taking medicine. Generally speaking, drugs will always have some side effects, and even cure this disease, leading to another disease, or drugs will always cause some harm to the body, while acupoint massage has no side effects and is a natural therapy.
According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, acupoint massage can cure diseases because it has the functions of regulating yin and yang, dredging meridians, harmonizing ying and Wei, tonifying deficiency and discharging excess, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and conditioning bones and muscles. The details are as follows:
(1) Regulating the balance between Yin and Yang is the foundation of health, and the imbalance between Yin and Yang is the root of disease. Whether it is internal injury or exogenous disease, its pathological changes are all changes of yin and yang, that is, the rise and fall of yin and yang. Massage is to rebalance the body's yin and yang through meridians and qi and blood according to different symptoms such as abdominal distension and food stagnation. Massage the abdomen and back and the corresponding acupoints can adjust the gastrointestinal function and make it return to normal. At the same time, it can also adjust the gastrointestinal peristalsis and make it return to normal through acupoint massage. Massage regulates the yin and yang of the body and is related to the state of the body. Yin deficiency can replenish yin and yang deficiency can replenish yang, thus restoring the balance of yin and yang.
(2) Dredging meridians will lead to diseases, and meridians can show different symptoms of the body, such as pain and numbness in different parts of the body. Obstruction of meridians can cause muscle tension and spasm, and long-term tension can cause substantial changes in muscles, such as fibrosis and scarring. Acupoint massage can dredge meridians, regulate muscles and nerves, and eliminate the tension and spasm of muscle tissue, thus achieving the purpose of treating diseases. Modern medical research also shows that acupoint therapy can obviously reduce EMG activity until it disappears, thus finding a scientific basis for acupoint massage to treat diseases.
(3) Harmonizing Wei Ying is the main channel of qi and blood circulation. The dysfunction or pathological changes of viscera can be reflected on the body surface through meridians, and the pathological changes on the body surface usually reflect the pathological changes of corresponding organs. For example, tenderness of gallbladder points on the calf usually reflects inflammation or stones in the gallbladder. Pressing gallbladder points can play a role in treating gallbladder diseases. Disorder of meridians, incompatibility between ying and Wei, dysfunction of qi and blood circulation, or internal injury of seven emotions (joy, anger, worry, thinking, sadness, fear and shock), exogenous six evils (wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness and fire), and obstruction of meridians can also be eliminated by acupoint massage to reconcile ying and Wei. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the body surface and the five zang-fu organs are linked by meridians. Massage the meridians and acupoints on the body surface can adjust the functions of the five zang-fu organs and eliminate diseases.
(4) Deficiency syndrome is characterized by low visceral function, while excess syndrome is characterized by hypervisceral function. Acupoint massage acts on the body surface through certain manipulations, so that the qi, blood, body fluid and viscera of the human body change correspondingly, so as to achieve deficiency, supplement deficiency and discharge excess. Low-intensity stimulation massage can activate the physiological function of human body, while strong stimulation can inhibit the overactivity of physiological function. For example, the same stomach disease, for deficiency stomach disease, in the treatment, you can massage the spleen Shu, stomach Shu, Qi Hai and Zhongwan points in the chest and abdomen with small intensity, gentleness and long time; For patients with gastrointestinal hyperfunction, such as gastrointestinal spasm, it is necessary to stimulate the corresponding points for a short time and realize virtual discharge by different methods.
(5) Promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis can cause pathological changes of viscera or body. The function of massage is to accelerate local blood circulation, increase blood flow velocity, reduce blood flow resistance, improve heart function, enhance heart function, accelerate the establishment of microcirculation, promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis, and eliminate diseases.
(6) Tendon regulation and acupoint massage have direct effects on the repair of bone injury and tendon injury. The strain of local soft tissues, ligaments, muscles and tendons can be recovered by certain methods, and the pain caused by joint dislocation and hyperosteogeny can also be recovered by appropriate methods to correct abnormal anatomical positions, dredge tendons, unblock joints and treat diseases.
In a word, acupoint massage is a part of the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine summarized by ancient Chinese doctors after long-term exploration, and it is a widely used medical means in China, which can treat many diseases.