Moxibustion

Moxibustion (Chinese: 灸; pinyin: jiǔ) is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy using moxa, or mugwort herb. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or process it further into a stick that resembles a (non-smokable) cigar. They can use it indirectly, with acupuncture needles, or burn it on the patient's skin.

The word moxa comes from Japanese mogusa (艾, mugwort) (the u is not very strongly enunciated) blended with combustion "burning", hence literally "burning of mugwort". Yomogi (蓬) is the name of the herb in Japan. Chinese uses the same character as mogusa, but pronounced differently: ài, also called àiróng (艾絨) (meaning "velvet of ài"). The Chinese character for moxibustion is 灸術 jiǔshù.

Practitioners consider moxibustion to be especially effective in the treatment of chronic problems, "deficient conditions" (weakness), and gerontology. Bian Que (fl. circa 500 BC), one of the most famous semi-legendary doctors of Chinese antiquity and the first specialist in moxibustion, discussed the benefits of moxa over acupuncture in his classic work. He asserted that moxa could add new energy to the body and could treat both excess and deficient conditions. On the other hand, he advised against the use of acupuncture in an already deficient (weak) patient, on the grounds that needle manipulation would leak too much energy.

A huge classical work, Gao Huang Shu (膏肓俞), specialises solely in treatment indications for moxa on a single point (穴).

Practitioners may use acupuncture needles made of various materials in combination with moxa, depending on the direction of qi flow they wish to stimulate.

Moxibustion can be applied directly, by rolling tiny pellets or beads and burning them directly onto the skin on designated acupoints, or placing the pellets on small circular shields on the skin; or indirectly using sticks that come in two types – a soft, smokey kind with loosely-packed moxa (pictured above), or hard, smokeless kind with compressed moxa that is shorter in length and requires a holder once the burning tip gets close to the fingers holding it. Although the smoke from the soft sticks can be somewhat of an irritant, some practitioners prefer it, believing it to carry special healing properties.

Source: Wikipedia