Imagine being at work, in your noisy office with all the phones ringing and people talking. You are sitting at your desk with a killer headache that you can't stand anymore. In this case we would probably take out a bottle of aspirin to get rid of the terrible pain, but in other places such as China you might see people going to a acupuncturist to get some needles placed on the surface of their skin to help get rid of terrible pains, such as a headache pain. Sound even more painful? Chinese believe that acupuncture is a cure for pain and some diseases without the use of medication. Acupuncture has been part of Chinese medicine for years, it is a form of medical therapy that involves inserting thin needles into the surface of the body to help reduce pain and cure some diseases.
             The ancient Chinese medical technique for relieving pain, curing diseases, and improving the health of people was created before 2500BC in China. By the 20th century acupuncture was being used in many other areas of the world. Acupuncture grew out of ancient Chinese philosophy's cosmic theory of the yin and the yang (Chang 14). The yin, which is the female principle, is passive and dark represented by the earth. The yang, which is the male principle, is active and light and is represented by the heavens. The forces of yin and yang are very important in the human body. Chinese believed that diseases are caused by an imbalance of these two forces in the body. The goal of Chinese medicine is to bring the yin and the yang back into balance with each other, to restore the person's health (Birch 19). The human body was thought to consist of 12 functional systems, which were associated with a major organ and pathway, or meridian, of energy flow in the body. They believed that through each meridian flowed a vital life force called, the chi, which was thought to circulate according to a daily rhythm. Disturbances in the flow of the vital life force resulte...