The choice of Acupuncture points for AP therapy

APPENDIX

ACUPUNCTURE PRESCRIPTIONS
1980

INTRODUCTION

These prescriptions have been compiled by the frequency ranking method for points and prescriptions in more than 30 textbooks and many other articles on human AP. Prescriptions are available from such sources for more than 800 human disorders and symptoms, of which less than 10% are listed in this Appendix. This material is presented to students as a guide to the selection of points in the more common conditions.

The prescriptions concentrate mainly on the Channel points and some of the more commonly used "Strange", "New" and "Hand" points. They ignore the "Scalp points", "Earpoints", "Foot Zone points", "Nose points", "Face points" and other valuable reflex points. (Students interested in these methods should consult the relevant texts).

AP therapy is not a panacea, nor is it equally effective for all conditions listed below. Certain condition, such as muscular lameness, vomiting, diarrhoea, anaesthetic apnoea, hormonal infertility and convulsions are said to respond quickly and successfully. Others, such as lameness in severe spinal trauma, osteoarthritis, chronic bronchitis etc require longer courses of AP therapy man may have failure rates of 30-40%. Still other conditions, such as peripheral nerve paralysis, paraplegia, paralysis after cerebrovascular accident, urinary incontinence, severe arthritis (especially polyarthritis) are even more difficult to treat successfully.

Acute conditions often respond in 1-4 sessions at intervals of 12-14 hours. Chronic and more difficult conditions may require up to 14 or more sessions at intervals of 3-7 days. As a general rule, if some improvement is not seen by the 6th session, the probability of success becomes less and less with each subsequent non-responding session.

AP is frequently combined with other forms of therapy, such as hyperbaric oxygen and physiotherapy in nerve paralysis; antibiotic therapy in acute, progressive infections, artificial respiration, transfusion and vasodilator therapy in severe toxaemic shock (Chinese Medical Journal, Beijing, November 1978 p.497); herbal medicine in cough and many other conditions. However, concurrent use of large doses of sedatives, narcotics, opiate antagonists, corticosteroids and analgesics is unwise according to some authorities. These drugs may antagonise the effects of AP at the level of the specific or non-specific receptors in the brain, spinal cord or other target areas. If possible, patients should be weaned off these drugs before AP is used. However, other authorities dispute this claim. Therefore, at this time, the question remains unresolved. In emergencies and in very serious conditions, AP is given despite the concurrent use of "antagonistic drugs". Examples are GV26 + KI01 in narcotic- induced apnoea and the use of Earpoint "Lung" to prevent withdrawal symptoms in narcotic addicts being detoxified by intravenous naloxone injections.

Channel codes used in the Index are: LU= Lung; LI= Large Intestine, colon; ST= Stomach; SP= Spleen-Pancreas; HT= Heart; SI= Small Intestine; BL= Bladder; KI= Kidney; PC= Pericardium, Circulation-Sex, Heart Constrictor; TH= Triple Heater; GB= Gallbladder; LV=Liver; GV=Governing Vessel (Du, dorsal midline); CV=Conception Vessel (Ren, ventral midline).

Z 01-31; Y 01-19; X 01-35; A 01-44; L 01-42 are the "Strange Points" for Head & Neck; Thorax and Abdomen; Loin and Back; Upper Limb and Lower Limb respectively.

NZ01-35; NY01-06; NX01-16; NA01-15; NL01-36 are the "New Points" for Head & Neck; Abdomen; Loin and Back; Upper Limb and Lower Limb respectively, H are the Hand points".

In this system, ST08 (TouWei) is on the temple and BL40 (WeiZhong) is in the popliteal crease.

Thus, the point identification system used in these prescriptions is that adopted by IVAS. The name of each point is listed in the Appendix to the paper on the Study of the Points and Channels.