Table Of ContentAbout the Author
ANGELA HICKS has been an acupuncturist since 1976. She is the co-founder
and joint principal of the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine in Reading,
one of the largest colleges in the UK, which is affiliated with Kingston
University. She is the author of The Principles of Chinese Medicine, The
Principles of Acupuncture, Five Secrets of Health and Happiness and co-author
of Healing Your Emotions and Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture.
COPYRIGHT
Published by Hachette Digital ISBN: 978-1-405-51228-2
Copyright © 2005 by Angela Hicks All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the
publisher.
Hachette Digital
Little, Brown Book Group
100 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DY
www.hachette.co.uk
Contents
About the Author
Copyright
Author’s Note
Introduction
1. Introducing Acupuncture
What is acupuncture?
Diagnosing and treating with acupuncture
Current research into acupuncture
Acupuncture in practice
2. Who Has Acupuncture? What Does it Treat?
The benefits of acupuncture
Common conditions treated by acupuncture
The different types of patients helped by acupuncture
3. What Is it Like to Have Treatment? Needles and Moxibustion
Finding out about you and your health
In the treatment room
4. The Landscape of the Body: The Network of Qi Channels
The 12 main channels
The acupuncture points
Restoring your health
5. Why Do We Get Ill? Our External and Internal Climate
Why we become ill
The external causes of disease
The internal causes of disease
The miscellaneous or lifestyle causes of disease
6. The Theory of Chinese Medicine: Our Internal Map
The theoretical framework of Chinese Medicine
Yin and Yang
The vital substances
Qi
Essence
Blood
The Body Fluids
The Shen or mind-spirit
The Three Treasures
7. The 12 Organs and Officials: In the Emperor’s Court
An introduction to the Organs and Officials
The Organs and their functions
The Five Elements and the Organs
Treating your constitution
8. How Your Acupuncturist Forms a Diagnosis
Coming for a diagnosis
To ask and to hear
To see and other observations
To feel
Putting it together – how the acupuncturist thinks of you
9. Common Ailments Seen the Chinese Way: Keeping Yourself Healthy
Anxiety and panic attacks
Asthma
Back pain
Colds and flu
Constipation
Depression
Diarrhoea
Headaches and migraine
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Indigestion and heartburn
Insomnia
Joint problems
Menopausal hot flushes
Obesity
Period pains
Post-viral syndrome
Pre-menstrual tension
10. Additional Treatment Methods: Auricular Acupuncture, Electro-
acupuncture, Guasha and Cupping Therapy
11. Children and Acupuncture
12. Specialised Uses of Acupuncture: Childbirth, Drug Dependency,
Animals and Facial Rejuvenation
13. Finding the Right Practitioner
Notes
Bibliography
Useful Addresses
Index
The Reiki Manual
Acupressure
The Reflexology Handbook
Author’s Note
This book is written as an informative guide to acupuncture and is not meant to
be a self-help book for treatment.
I have capitalised all Chinese medicine terminology in order to differentiate it
from standard English terms. For example, the Kidneys in upper case signifies
the Chinese medicine term (i.e. the Kidneys and its Chinese medicine functions).
The kidneys in lower case represents the kidneys as they are described in
Western medicine.
My thanks to all of the people who have helped me to write this book. First,
thank you to all of my own patients, the patients of Susan Tosoni, Sandy Steele,
Michael Pringle, Vanessa Lampert and Jill Glover and patients of third-year
students that I supervised, who talked with me about their experiences of
acupuncture. The names of all patients have been changed to protect
confidentiality.
Second, thanks to the practitioners who discussed information about
specialised treatments: Beth Soderstrom, Soreh Levy and Carolyn MacDonald –
drug dependency; Julian Scott and Celene Kershen – the treatment of children;
Ann Hutchison and Geraldine Worthington – veterinary acupuncture; Diana
Griffin – auricular acupuncture; Xiao Yang Zhang – guasha; David Mayor –
electro-acupuncture; Jamie Hedger and Qing Zhang – facial rejuvenation; Jill
Glover and Sally Blades – treatment in childbirth. Thanks also to Mark Bovey of
the Acupuncture Research Resource Centre who directed me towards relevant
research. Also Persis Tamboly at the BAcC who helped me with the list of
professional bodies and societies, to Liong-Sen Liew for providing the Chinese
characters and to Peter Eckman and Neal White for the drawings.
Third, thanks to all those who have helped me by reading this book, most
notably Judith Clark for her brilliant proofreading, Peter Mole who helped me
with the ‘big picture’ and Jane Grossfeld who made so many helpful comments.
Also thank you to Gill Bailey, Anna Crago, Jo Brooks and Helen Stanton at
Piatkus for all of their help and support.
Many people have helped me to deepen my appreciation of Chinese
medicine, especially J. R. Worsley. I am deeply grateful to him for his
inspiration and for teaching me the importance of treating the mind and spirit as
well as the body. Also thank you to others who have taught me, including
doctors in China who were so helpful to me when I was learning TCM.
Thanks as well to all my friends and colleagues in the acupuncture
community – it’s a wonderful community that I deeply treasure.
Finally, my thanks and love to John, my husband, who is always so
supportive and encouraging and to whom I dedicate this book.
Disclaimer
The contents of this book are for information only. The author recommends that you consult qualified
practitioners when considering acupuncture. Do not attempt to self-treat or alter your medication without
consulting your doctor. The author and publisher cannot accept any responsibility for illness or injury
arising out of failure to follow these guidelines.
Introduction
I first started studying acupuncture in 1973. Now, over thirty-five years later, I
run an acupuncture college in the UK and I am still as inspired and excited as I
was when I began studying.
Back in 1973 acupuncture was a little-known treatment and was usually
classified as a ‘fringe’ medicine. I was impressed to see it transform a close
friend’s health and, knowing I would love to help people, I trustingly decided
that this would be my future career.
With no other evidence as to its beneficial effects I embarked on a three-year
course of study and at the same time started a course of acupuncture treatment. I
began the treatment thinking that I had no problems with my health, but that the
experience of acupuncture would make me a better practitioner. It did, in fact,
profoundly improve my health – something I still never forget whenever I treat
other people.
When I started treatment I would not have described myself as being ‘ill’.
Like other ‘healthy’ people I never caught colds and flu and never took time off
work. I felt tired and weak most of the time, but I didn’t think there was anything
that could be done to help that. I was also permanently anxious, but that was
how I’d been for most of my life, so I accepted it. I knew I didn’t always sleep
well at night and I had other minor symptoms such as my terrible memory (at
school I held the record for having the most belongings in lost property in one
week). But poor concentration was not something I associated with poor health.
More than anything else, though, I felt slightly miserable much of the time and
didn’t know why – like many other people, I thought this was my lot in life.
When I initially went for treatment, my practitioner asked me many questions
about myself. She felt some pulses on the radial artery of my wrist and carried
out other examinations to find out more about my health. She then gave me
some acupuncture treatment.
My experience after the first treatment was stunning. I knew something had
changed and I definitely felt much better in myself. There was something else,
though, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Finally, I realised that for a long
time my life had felt totally flat. I’d carried that feeling with me for so long that I
didn’t even know it was there. Now for the first time in my life I felt that it was
positively good to be alive!
Never again since then has that awful feeling returned, and over a period of
time I felt increasingly strong physically and happier in my spirits. I look back at
the younger me and know that without doubt that treatment transformed my life.
My practitioner later told me that she had diagnosed my symptoms to be
coming from my Heart and Heart Protector. This didn’t mean I had a heart
problem in a conventional sense. I’m sure a test given by a doctor would have
found nothing wrong with my heart. In Chinese medicine a Heart problem
causes many different signs and symptoms – some physical and others relating
to the emotions, mind or spirit.
Since that time I have given literally thousands of acupuncture treatments
myself and have seen it transform the lives of many of my patients. The way
lives are transformed is always individual – sometimes there is a rapid change
and at other times a slow, steady but solid shift. Obviously not everyone gets
completely better – but it helps large numbers of people. As you might expect,
an acupuncturist considers each person to be completely unique and all
treatments are tailor-made to suit the individual. Alongside a change in
symptoms, patients almost always experience an increased feeling of well-being.
This indicates that changes in health are arising from deep within. Later on in the
book you will read other patients’ accounts of the differences they experienced
after treatment.
Times have really changed since those early years when I first became a
practitioner. At that time acupuncture was often a last resort for patients; they
only came for acupuncture when all other treatments had failed. Now it is often a
patient’s first choice. I have continued to benefit from treatment and, along with
Qigong (Chinese exercise) and following a fairly balanced lifestyle regime, I
have used it to further improve my health and to deal with any difficulties life
has thrown at me. I have had other patients do the same. One of my patients,
who is now 88, has been coming for treatment, and keeping herself healthy, for
over 30 years. She is remarkably youthful for her age and she swears that
acupuncture has contributed to keeping her from ageing.
Some time after I had finished my acupuncture studies, I started to teach. I
have now been teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students for over
30 years. In 1993 I co-founded an acupuncture college and since then I have
