Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

Chapter 11 / Acupuncture and CVD 167
11 Acupuncture in Cardiovascular
Disease
Soeren Ballegaard, MD
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
CONTEMPORARY USE OF ACUPUNCTURE
CLINICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND EVIDENCE
REGARDING USE OF ACUPUNCTURE
EVIDENCE-BASED SUMMARY
REFERENCES
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
What is Acupuncture?
The word acupuncture comes from the Latin words acu (needle) and
punctura. Therefore, acupuncture is the treatment of illness by sticking
needles in the skin.
Acupuncture originated in China, and the first acupuncture needles,
which were made of flint, date back to approx 800 yr BC. Acupuncture
is believed to be based on the discovery of the existence of points on the
body’s surface through which symptoms of illness could be influenced.
A systemization of these points was first described in the second century
BC, in the book Huang-di Nei-jing (1).
At that time, scholarship was flourishing in China. The educated were
individuals who had personally acquired wisdom and who passed it on
to their students through many years of training, following the master–
apprentice model: a model that is still seen in the Far East today. In
addition to observing nature, the educated formulated theories to explain
From: Contemporary Cardiology
Complementary and Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
Edited by: R. A. Stein and M. C. Oz © Humana Press Inc., Totowa, NJ
167