Wednesday 27 August 2014

A Brief Insight Into The Various Acupuncture Styles

There are various acupuncture styles that are practiced today. While Acupuncture originated in China about 3,000 years ago, the practice spread across the Asian continent and developed its own regional adaptations. Several modern styles of acupuncture have been developed, incorporating Western medical knowledge, to create hybrid systems of acupuncture. These modern systems of Acupuncture commonly focus on biomedical explanations of how acupuncture works and refines many of the more obscure aspects of practice.


While all of the traditional styles of acupuncture are in agreement with the Acupuncture meridians, but the exact location of the Acupuncture points does vary. Each style may employ the acupuncture points with different therapeutic goals in mind, and include an array of extra points that may not exist in other styles of Acupuncture. Styles can also differ in the form of needle size, insertion depth and needling technique. This blog provides you the summary of each major style and highlights of their differences.

Chinese Acupuncture

Chinese Acupuncture is one of several treatment procedures within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This style of acupuncture is the most common form of Acupuncture practiced today.

The creation of TCM eliminates many of the more obscure concepts of Chinese Medicine to focus on methods that could more easily be taught in an institutional setting as compared to the traditional method of long-term apprenticeships.

Chinese style acupuncture employs thicker acupuncture needles compared to other styles, and tends to focus on the “de qi”, or getting Qi, sensation to attain an effective result.

Master Tung Style Acupuncture

Dr. Tung Acupuncture is a unique system of acupuncture developed by the late Master Tung Ching Chang in Taiwan. Master Tung became famous because of his ability to achieve instant results with few needles. While many of the points used by Master Tung were on acupuncture meridians, but they were not the standard points used by most acupuncturists.

In Tung acupuncture, distal points on the limbs are needled that can balance the Qi of the entire body. This method is achieved though an imaging of the entire body onto the limbs, ear, and scalp. Master Tung Acupuncture is gaining popularity and is considered highly effective. Master Tung’s system of acupuncture is also known as Master Tong acupuncture or Tung’s Orthodox Acupuncture.

Balance Method Acupuncture

Balance Method Acupuncture is recognized for its ability to relieve pain instantly. While the style is taught by Dr. Richard Tan, much of the theoretical knowledge formulated from the work of Dr. Chao Chen and Master Tung. Dr. Tan acupuncture system has created and improved on his predecessors’ work by further expanding the system and creating methods to easily train other acupuncturists. This method utilizes distal points on the limbs to image the entire body for balancing of the meridians. In addition to its success at treating pain conditions, Balance Method acupuncture is also effective in treating various other health issues with identically impressive results.