Techniques
How a point is stimulated: needles, current, heat, suction, pressure and light, and what each looks like in a trial.
The following 14 pages are in Techniques. Clear filters
Techniques pages
Acupressure
Pressing points with fingers or wristbands, what Cochrane reviews and trials found for nausea, labour and self-administered routines, and how shiatsu and tuina relate to it.
Modern research · Anyone · 7 min
Bloodletting
Pricking points to release a few drops of blood: the instruments, the points it uses, what reviews of gout, stroke, shingles and styes report, and the infection controls it needs.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 6 min
Cupping
Cups that draw the skin up by heat or a pump: the styles, what the round marks are, and what systematic reviews and a sham-controlled trial found.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 7 min
Dry needling
Needling of myofascial trigger points by physiotherapists and others: where the method and its name came from, how it overlaps with acupuncture at ashi points, the scope-of-practice disputes, and what systematic reviews and adverse-event surveys report.
Modern research · Anyone · 11 min
Ear acupuncture
Where the ear map came from, how its points are named and stimulated, the NADA and battlefield protocols, and what reviews of ear trials found.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 10 min
Electroacupuncture
Current passed through needles or through skin pads over the points: frequency, intensity, devices and their regulation, how it differs from TENS, and the trials that used it.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
Laser acupuncture
Low-level laser applied to points without a needle: the wavelengths, power and doses trials use, why it allows a blinded sham, and what trials and reviews found.
Modern research · Anyone · 6 min
Moxibustion
Burning mugwort on or above the points: the forms it takes, what the Cochrane review found for breech presentation, and what studies measured in burns and smoke.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 7 min
Needling and de qi
The filiform needle, the angle, depth and time it is left in, how it is moved, and what trials found when one group was meant to feel de qi and the other was not.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 10 min
Point application
Herbal pastes left on acupuncture points for hours, including sanfu summer application for asthma and allergic rhinitis: what goes in the paste, when it is applied, what the reviews and placebo-controlled trials found, and the skin reactions they recorded.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 9 min
Point injection
Injecting vitamins, saline, drugs, herbal extracts or bee venom into acupuncture points: what is injected, how one US state regulates it, what reviews of the trials found and what their comparisons can show, and the adverse events reported.
Modern research · Anyone · 7 min
Press needles
Press-tack and intradermal needles left in the skin for days: what they are, how long trials leave them, the needle-free placebos that make double-blind trials possible, what those trials and the reviews found, and the adverse events recorded.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
Scalp acupuncture
The fourteen international standard scalp lines, the schools that map the brain or the body onto the scalp, and what reviews of scalp acupuncture trials report.
Classical and modern · Anyone · 8 min
Thread embedding
Catgut and absorbable sutures implanted at acupuncture points: how it is done and repeated, the threads used, what reviews of the obesity trials found against sham, and the nodules, granulomas and infections reported.
Modern research · Anyone · 9 min