n using it in China for over two thousand years.
Acupuncture involves pushing needles into the skin at Especial points around the body. Ancient Chinese philosophers believed these points were connected to different organs - such as the heart or lungs - and that
the needles could cure diseases.
Today, acupuncture is used in many countries, and studies show that it works - especially for headaches, backaches and addiction to smoking. Since the 1950s, doctors in China have also been using acupuncture as an anaesthetic in major operations. Patients are awake and know what is happening in the operation but they feel little or no pain.
Chinese philosophers believed that the needles helped to balance forces that they called yin and yang. Today, scientists think that the needles make the body produce a chemical called endorphin. This helps to reduce the feeling of pain.
Biofeedback
Can you control your heartbeat? Can you control your body temperature with your mind? For hundreds of years, holy men in India have been saying this is possible and that they can do it. Scientists used to laugh at these claims, however, until experiments in the USA in the 1950s showed that it is possible. Today, control over our own internal processes is part of a new type of medicine called biofeedback.
Biofeedback uses new technology to help people control their own internal organs. For example, if a person has problems with sleeping, he or she is connected to a special computer that shows the activity of the brain. The person then does mental exercises to try to relax. When brain activity falls, the computer makes a noise. Slowly, the person learns what type of mental exercises can reduce the activity of the brain.
Doctors in many parts of the world have been
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