Moxibustion - its History and Uses

Moxibustion has origin in the japanese word "MOKUSA" that means Burning Plant Stick
 

Acupuncture has a well-documented history in China spanning over 2,000 years, but some studies believe it originated almost 4,000 years ago. In fact, examples of the earliest acupuncture needles made of stone (bian) and ceramic predate the development of iron. Hieroglyphics of both acupuncture and moxibustion date from the Shang Dynasty, three thousand years ago.  Acupuncture and moxibustion have both been successful in curing internal disease through external means.

Moxibustion, frequently used in conjunction with acupuncture, places burning herbs near the skin or directly on the acupuncture needles, using heat to stimulate the same meridian points. There are over 300 points and fourteen channels on the human body which are used today in acupuncture.

This method of healing dates back to the Sui dynasty (AD 561-618.) Acupuncture, moxibustion and herbal medicine formed the basis of the curriculum of the first medical college in China, which was founded at this time. Through the centuries, techniques continued to grow and develop. Contact with Europeans in the 16th century opened the West to this ancient medicine. The Jesuits, in particular, collected and disseminated a great deal of traditional Eastern medical information to Europe, while also bringing Western concepts to China.

Missionaries established Western medical colleges at the end of the 19th century in China, and acupuncture was briefly outlawed in 1929. However, under Communist rule, there was a return to traditional Chinese medicine, especially in the countryside, where the remedies were cheap, accepted by the people, and used skills.

Throughout the 1950's, many new clinics were opened in China to provide, teach, and investigate traditional methods of Chinese medicine. The resurgence in interest along with access to Western techniques, led to the development of many new methods of acupuncture, including ear, scalp and electro-acupuncture, which uses small electrical currents to stimulate the needles.

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Moxibustion, like the name suggest, means treatment through the burning of a medicinal plant named ARTEMISIA (Artemisia vulgaris e sinensis), that produces a very particular warming with deep benefit and therapeutically effects in the human body.

Moxibustion
Moxa is a cousin of St. John's Wort. The Latin name is artemesia vulgaris, and this is one of the hottest burning herbs. Moxibustion has been used in conjunction with acupuncture since time immemorial. It is very useful in treating painful conditions, because the sensation of heat, which is passed through the needles, underlines the action that the needles are already having. Moxibustion comes in differing qualities and the treatment can be done in several ways: with a stick, (which looks like a cigar!) directly on to the skin, directly on the needles etc, depending on what would be most useful in each case.


Artemisia, once worked, for therapeutically use, is known as MOXA WOOL or simply MOXA. It can be obtained easily, through the crop of the new (only) part of the plant and let it dry in the sun and after in shadow for a determined time. After it's dry, it is crumbled, with the hands or pestle, and sifted to reduce it to powder, till it stays like an uniform mass that remember the vegetal wool.
As older Moxa is, the better it is, and it's best quality could be determined by the bright yellow color. It as the property to warm deeply and, by the heat, remove the body energetic meridians obstructions, eliminating the humidity and cold that promote dysfunctions in the body.

Moxa is applied over the vital energy (KI) condensation points in the body energetic meridians, the called "TSUBO" points in Japan (Acupuncture points, which allow to contact and act more intensely in the meridians energy).

Moxibustion could be applied in a direct or indirect form. In direct Moxibustion, a small cone of Moxa is made, with the size of a rice grain, that is placed directly in the skin over a TSUBO, lightened after, and then extinguished, pressing above with a finger, when the sensation in the point is very hot. The indirect Moxibustion could be applied in two ways: or placing the Moxa in an appropriate cone recipient (or over a piece of ginger or garlic) which is placed in the skin, not having direct contact between the Moxa and skin; or by approaching a burning Moxa stick to the TSUBO, without contact with the skin.

In the Moxibustion treatment the following order of applying Moxa in the diverse TSUBOS, used in each thickness, should be observed: First we should treat the front of the body and then the back, starting from top to the bottom and from the centre to the extremities. Also, for women, the treatment must start from the left to the right side of the body, and for men, from the right to the left side.

As part of my drive to broaden the Western understanding and scope of moxibustion, I am always on the look-out for Chinese articles which substantiate this point of view. In issue #11, 2002 of the Shang Hai Zhong Yi Yao Za Zhi (Shanghai Journal of Chinese Medicine & Medicinals), Xu Jie, of the Acupuncture & Moxibustion Orthopedic & Tramatology Department of the Jiangxi College of Chinese Medicine, published an article titled, “Lifting the Borders of the Artemisia Moxibustion Method of Treatment,â€