Comparison Of The Theory Of Tablet Point And The Treatment Of Scapulohumeral Periarthritis By Acupuncture And Moxibustion

Acupuncture is an important medicine traditional for Chinese medicine, and through different times, acupuncture was introduced to a number of countries outside of China. In the 16th century, it spreaded to Europe, while acupuncture continues to be absorbed and learnt, different medicine culture and experience were developed in local West Europe. In about the 19th century, British doctors used acupuncture points to relieve muscle pain. During 1970s, Western scholar (Felix Mann) denied the existence of acupuncture meridians, and said that Chinese medicine theories are difficult and complicated, and it will not be recognized in the West. But through multiple experimental studies of acupuncture, it was confirmed that acupuncture can help release endorphins. It was also confirmed that acupuncture can produce analgesia.This study established allowed the West to accept acupuncture, and "medical acupuncture" school was founded later on. In 1942, scholars in United States had developed a western acupuncture theory called "trigger point therapy ", this theory suggested the cause of pain was developed by something call the myofascial pain, which causes tenderness or pain and other adverse reactions. Acupuncture in Chinese medicine is definitely not a new thing, Chinese medicine have been using it as a treatment for various diseases. Such theories have been passed on for over 2500 years. With this new development of trigger point therapy, it is though to be an effective method of treatment for pain in America. An American researcher Melzack made a research between acupoints and trigger points in 1977, and found that the two has up to 71% of similarities between the two. However, some researchers stated that the similarity between acupoints and trigger points cannot be related. Birch, disagreed with Melzack and said that 71% similarity between the two could not be possible. He claimed that the maximum similarity percentage between the two could only be up to 40%, and it is impossible to exceed this limit. He further stated that the similarity level between the two should possibly be only at 18%.Another researcher, Dorsher, used the the 747 acupoints founded by the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine College and compared them with the 255 trigger points stated by Travell and Simons. He used anatomy and clinical research to describe the relationship between the two. From his result, he stated that there are 92% of similarities basing on anatomy level, and clinically they are 79.5% similar. Also, the TCM theories of meridians shares 76% of similarities with the referred pain caused by trigger point. He then stated that, based on the research of trigger points, we can use modern science to prove the existence of meridians. In another later research done by Dorsher, he used Chinese classics and documented theories to reevaluate the research result published by Birch in 2003. Dorsher suggested that from a theorical point of view, the clinical similarity between trigger point and TCM can be matched up to 95%. Thus this will further provide more evidence on the existence of acupoints and meridians.The explanation of trigger point therapies gave muscular pain a much more clear understanding of the internal mechanism of the cause of pain and how the muscle fibre reacts under an inflamed state. Often, the cause of myofascial pain is due to the hyper contraction of muscle fibers and it is tightening the taut band which creates contraction and restricts movements. Through this reaction, it will create what trigger point therapy calls, Local energy crisis, this crisis restricts blood from entering the muscle fibers, and metabolical waste will be stuck in the affected area. A contraction knot will be developed through this process, and this will create further restriction on the movements of the muscle(s). Furthermore, other types of irritation of muscles will be developed in this process. In trigger point therapy, a type of pain know as "referred pain" is commonly found in the diagnose of myofascial pain. This referred pain is a pain pattern that is caused by trigger points, and for different muscles of the body, the referred pain pattern will travel differently base on the located muscles. Referred pain has it pros and cons. Referred pain can help restrict the movement of the muscle, so the muscle can allow itself to heal naturally without more chances of damaging the affected muscles. The negative side of referred pain is that, this pain might distract the physician on finding out where the actual trigger point is, because the pain is scattered in a distances away from the actual affected point. If we look closely at the pain pattern of trigger point and the pattern of its specific referred pain, you will find a unique fix pattern for each muscle. These unique patterns, somehow shares similarity with the meridians of TCM theories. For example, the trigger point labeled TRP1, which is located on the lateral side of the neck, has matching similarities on the travel pattern with the large intestine and lung meridians of TCM theories. Another TRP7 located near the shoulder blade also shows similar patterns with the small intestine meridian. These similarities should not be a coincidence, instead, trigger point therapy help proven the existence of acupoints and meridians.Trigger point therapy was claimed to be unique from the acupuncture developed by Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is said to be more scientifically proven, whereas TCM is thought to be too mythical and spiritual, and it has no scientific facts. However, in recent cases, more trigger point therapist are adapting TCM acupuncture methods for their treatments, and in some research, some therapist also claim they have invented a new needling methods of treatment, but if we pay close attention to these self proclaim new needling methods, we can notice it shares great similarity with a few of the classical TCM acupuncture methods that are commonly used by TCM practitioners today.Trigger point can cure the pain caused by the trigger point, and trigger points can be located in different sections of the body, but these trigger points are indentified differently and individually. However, for TCM, the body cannot be indentified individually because TCM believe the body should be treated as a whole entity. For TCM, frozen shoulder could be caused by multiple factors or malfunction of different bodily organs, the cause and effect could be both external or internally. Thus TCM could treat frozen shoulder in many ways and the common aim would be trying to locate the source of the problem. In contrast, we can see the different approach between trigger point therapy and TCM acupuncture.While some trigger point researchers are trying to deny the relationship between TCM and trigger point therapy. More and more researches were taken to show common grounds between the two treatments. As TCM being the more ancient between the two, it is not difficult to see which side came up with the original idea first. Nonetheless, trigger point did help to thicken the scientific facts of TCM through the multiples researches made by western scientist.The Trigger point theory was used to help analyze and explain the anatomical, biological changes and reactions of all the muscles. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and Western trigger point therapy treatment of frozen shoulder and compare their theories, similarities and differences between the two.Through trigger point therapy in the treatment of frozen shoulder and modern Chinese medicine prescription acupuncture, trigger point therapy elaborate Western treatment of frozen shoulder features to explore the correlation trigger point therapy and pain points of traditional Chinese medicine theory, summarize both Chinese and Western acupuncture treatment of frozen shoulder.