Acupressure is an ancient Chinese form of therapy that has gained increased visibility in the west in recent years. Acupressure is based on the same principles as acupuncture in that pressure applied to certain key areas is used to restore balance to key energy flows within the body that have become imbalanced thereby causing illness.
Acupressure is based on the framework of traditional Chinese medicine, which is based on completely different theoretical underpinnings than western medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine, the body is not viewed as a machine--rather it is viewed as a collection of processes and energy flows that must be kept in balance. Any disruption of the energy flows can result in sickness, weakness, or even death. Therefore, all forms of traditional Chinese medicine, from acupuncture and acupressure to traditional Chinese herbal therapies are based on the concept of restoring balance to parts of the body that have become imbalanced.
To the uninitiated, acupressure may seem to be completely bizarre since often times the treatments are applied to parts of the body that are nowhere near the disorder or illness. For example, acupressure treatments for a headache might involve treatments that focus on the abdomen, the knee, or the hand. While nonsensical to a traditional western medical practitioner, this practice makes perfect sense to the practitioner of acupressure. Since blockages can occur anywhere in the body and lead to conditions that might not be localized at the point of the blockage, there is no reason to be surprised that an acupressure practitioner might focus on parts of the body that are not located physically near the point of illness or injury.
While practitioners and patients of acupressure are convinced of its efficacy, the western medical establishment has not joined the bandwagon. Numerous tests have been conducted to determine whether or not acupressure has a real, measurable effect on health and wellness and results have, to this point, been inconclusive. However, some would argue that trying to evaluate eastern techniques via western scientific practices is simply begging the question, and any such attempt is doomed to fail. However, western practitioners counter this argument by pointing out that illness or the lack thereof is perfectly measurable and any treatment, eastern or otherwise, can be verified experimentally regardless of its axiomatic underpinnings. And so the debate rages on.
While the issue of the efficacy of acupressure and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine may never be settled to the extent that the western establishment requires, its practitioners and patients swear by it. Only time will tell whether traditional eastern medical techniques will find a place within the culture at large. One could argue that that time has already occurred given the popularity of the practice.
