Analysis and comparison of theories of circulation of blood and qi in both eastern and western ancient medicines / 中国中西医结合杂志

ABSTRACT

In ancient Egypt, the theory of circulation of blood and qi was preliminarily established on the basis of cadaver dissection, gradually revised and improved following the progress of anatomy and physiology. However, the "Meridian Theory" of circulation of blood and qi in Chinese medicine had never been established on the basis of anatomical and physiological studies. Thus a suspicion was aroused, "whether the meridians really exist, or artificially assumed by imagination"? Therefore, in recent one half of a century, numerous scholars at home and abroad spent countless financial capacities and human power to study the essence of Meridians in order to find their material or substantial evidence, but with no breakthrough obtained. Nevertheless, in the 70th of the last century, studies on mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia and acupuncture anesthesia won an undoubtedly good result. Hence, the therapeutic effect of acupuncture on pain control was admitted by the "Consensus Statement on Acupuncture" at an international meeting held by NIH in Dec. 1997. Then the old Chinese acupuncture won an international acceptance and application. Therefore, the investigation of mechanism of acupuncture analgesia set up a positive model for future scientific researches on acupuncture mechanisms and essence of Meridians, as well as on other Chinese medical theories.