Acupuncture: Basics, History, and Uses

Huisheng Xie, DVM, PhD, clinical professor of small animal clinical science at the University of Florida, founder of the Chi Institute of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine, explains the basics, history, and uses of acupuncture.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“The meridians are a base of acupuncture. About 2000 years ago, the ancient Chinese people discovered 361 points. All of these points are located on meridians—there are 14 meridians. For instance, one is called the lung meridian. The lungs start from the chest, then all the way to the first digit there are 11 acupuncture points. The first spot is called Lung 1, the second point on that channel is called Lung 2, and so forth. There are 361 points in total, and there are 14 meridians in total.

Acupuncture, if talked about during ancient times—3000 years ago—they talk about balance. For instance, today if it’s so hot, what do you do? You want cooler energy. In the modern time we use air conditioners, but 3000, 4000 years ago, they didn’t have air conditioning. So, what did they do? They can use acupuncture, they can use a food therapy, they can use herbal medicine actually, because these techniques are able to balance out the hot summers. In the winter time, it’s so cold. So, what do they do? Use some special acupuncture technique to help the body get warmer and help to tolerate the cold winter. But in modern times, we still apply that idea of balance. If there’s an infection or disease. For instance, for horses that have a respiratory infection and high fever and a lot of upper airway infections, then it’s also called hot. So, we use same idea. Use the cooling type of food therapy and cooling type of acupuncture technique to balance out those infections.”