Acupuncture

A cupuncture is a collection of procedures which involves the stimulation of points on the body using a variety of techniques, such as penetrating the skin with needles that are then manipulated manually or by electrical stimulation. It is one of the key components of traditional Chinese medicine , and is among the oldest healing practices in the world.

Current research suggests that traditional forms of acupuncture are more effective than placebos in the relief of certain types of pain and post-operative nausea. Recent systematic reviews found that acupuncture also seems to be a promising treatment option for anxiety, sleep disturbances, and depression, but that further research is needed in these regards. Although minimally invasive, the puncturing of the skin with acupuncture needles poses problems when designing trials that adequately controls for placebo effects. A number of studies comparing traditional acupuncture to sham procedures found that both sham and traditional acupuncture were superior to usual care but were themselves equivalent; findings apparently at odds with traditional Chinese theories regarding acupuncture point specificity.

Acupuncture's use for certain conditions has been endorsed by the United States National Institutes of Health, the National Health Service of the United Kingdom, the World Health Organization, and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.There is general agreement that acupuncture is relatively safe when administered by licensed practitioners using sterile needles and carries a very low risk of serious adverse effects.

	acupuncture	акупунктура, голковколювання
	to penetrate	проникати
	needle	голка
	manually	вручну
	electrical stimulation	електростимуляція
	relief	полегшення
	post-operative nausea	післяорераційна нудота
	anxiety	тривожність
	sleep disturbance	порушення сну
	invasive	інвазивний
	adverse effects	побічні ефекти

Homeopathy

A therapeutic system founded by the German doctor Samuel Christian F. Hahnemann, Meissen, Germany 1755 – Paris, 1843.

The word ‘homeopathy’ is made up of the Greek words ‘omoios’, meaning ‘similar’, and ‘pathos’, meaning disease.

This system is based mainly on the principle that the cure for a particular disease is achieved through the use of pharmaceutical substances that, when administered to a healthy person, produce the similar symptoms as those of the disease in question. For example, it is well known that Belladonna causes mydriasis , that is to say dilation of the pupil of the eye. In a case of mydriasis the homeopathic doctor will probably give Belladonna, in a highly diluted potency, in order to restore the pupil to its normal state. Another example is digitalis which, whereas it is used in conventional medicine to suppress episodes of paroxysmic ventricular tachycardia is, however, and precisely because of this action, made use of in homeopathy for the cure of bradycardia, with a weak pulse and a tendency to faint, irregular breathing, general exhaustion, anorexia, tendency to vomit, and vomiting that does not relieve sick feeling, sensitivity in the epigastrium., cold skin etc.; this can be a symptomatology that fits not only with heart disease but with a chronic disturbance of the liver or an infectious hepatitis or an asthmatic crisis etc.

This principle was formulated by Hahnemann with the Latin motto ‘simila similibus curentur’. Similars are cured with similars. Hahnemann believed this to be one of the fundamental laws of cure. The idea had first been mentioned by Hippocrates, then by Paracelsus, and later by others.

And while conventional medicine believes that it must fight the disease bearing factor which it sees as the main cause for disease, homeopathy believes that it must strengthen the organism’s defence mechanism in order to be able to fight the imbalance.

1.	cure for a particular disease	ліки від певної хвороби
2.	pharmaceutical substances	лікувальні речовини
3.	dilation of the pupil of the eye	розширення зіниці ока
4.	in a highly diluted potency	в дуже розведеному вигляді
5.	conventional medicine	традиційна медицина
6.	faint breathing	слабке дихання
7.	general exhaustion	загальне виснаження
8.	sensitivity	чутливість