By Erica Blodgett

Some people say the world is getting smaller. But as people and cultures migrate and merge and technologies expand to link us to the other side of the globe, it seems more accurate to say that the world that is open to each person has never been bigger.

Nowhere is this truer than in medicine. While scientists make new discoveries at a fascinating rate, some people are turning to ancient, simple yet elegant forms of healing that focus on connecting the body to what science still cannot explain ? the mind and the spirit.

Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the concept of vital energy, or qi, that is believed to flow throughout the body. Qi regulates a person?s spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance. Diseases are a result of a disruption in the flow of qi.

In addition to herbal and nutritional therapy, restorative physical exercises, meditation, and remedial massage, one of the key treatments in traditional Chinese medicine is acupuncture. According to a 2002 National Health Interview Survey an estimated 8.2 million U.S. adults had ever used acupuncture, and an estimated 2.1 million U.S. adults had used acupuncture in the previous year.

Acupuncture originated in China more than 2,000 years ago. It involves stimulation of anatomical points on the body by a variety of techniques including penetrating the skin with thin, solid, metallic needles that are manipulated by the hands or by electrical stimulation.

Temple City acupuncturist Karen Wang describes acupuncture as traffic control for the body. Chinese medicine recognizes 14 channels of energy, or qi, flowing throughout the body. Wang says that the needles police the body along these channels and get the traffic moving.

As to how this works, Wang believes that the needles act as stimuli to the body?s immune system. The body interprets the needle as a foreign body, the immune system responds to protect the body and at the same time recognizes patient?s original symptoms.

?Sometimes the body needs help and it will let you know through symptoms,? Wang explains. ?The needles remind the body to pay attention.?

According to the website of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health, acupuncture may produce its effects through regulating the nervous system and aiding the activity of pain-killing endorphins and immune system cells.

Wang explains that in most cases needles are placed according to formulas that have been developed over hundreds of years to treat a variety of ailments.

Wang, who was trained in modern medical science in Taiwan to the level of a medical doctor, sees the 21st century as a time when the two traditions will go hand-in-hand. She says that in most Asian countries acupuncture is immediately considered as a symptom relieving treatment in hospitals along with other modern therapies.

She would also like to see more regulation of herbal remedies. She advises people to seek a medical professional?s advice before taking herbs.

For more information on alternative therapies visit the NCCAM?s website at www.nccam.nih.gov.

Source:?Arcadia Weekly