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moxibustion
Moxibustion
is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves the
burning of mugwort, a small, spongy herb, to facilitate healing.
Moxibustion has been used throughout Asia for thousands of
years; in fact, the actual Chinese character for acupuncture,
translated literally, means "acupuncture-moxibustion." The
purpose of moxibustion, as with most forms of traditional
Chinese medicine, is to strengthen the blood, stimulate the flow
of qi, and maintain general health.
There are two types of moxibustion: direct
and indirect. In direct moxibustion, a small, cone-shaped
amount of moxa is placed on top of an acupuncture point and
burned. This type of moxibustion is further categorized into two
types: scarring and non-scarring. With scarring moxibustion, the
moxa is placed on a point, ignited, and allowed to remain onto
the point until it burns out completely. This may lead to
localized scarring, blisters and scarring after healing. With
non-scarring moxibustion, the moxa is placed on the point and
lit, but is extinguished or removed before it burns the skin.
The patient will experience a pleasant heating sensation that
penetrates deep into the skin, but should not experience any
pain, blistering or scarring unless the moxa is left in place
for too long.
Indirect moxibustion is currently the more popular form of care
because there is a much lower risk of pain or burning. In
indirect moxibustion, a practitioner lights one end of a moxa
stick, roughly the shape and size of a cigar, and holds it close
to the area being treated for several minutes until the area
turns red. Another form of indirect moxibustion uses both
acupuncture needles and moxa. A needle is inserted into an
acupoint and retained. The tip of the needle is then wrapped in
moxa and ignited, generating heat to the point and the
surrounding area. After the desired effect is achieved, the moxa
is extinguished and the needle(s) removed.
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