Moxibustion is defined as an external method of preventing and treating diseases by igniting moxa, a traditional Chinese herb, to stimulate the points of the body. Moxa leaf is easy to ignite. The ions of the herb when at a certain temperature can go into the body to warm channels, expel cold, activate the blood, neutralize viruses, regulate Qi and blood, dispel wind and dampness, induce meridians to relieve excessive menstrual bleeding, improve the health, dredge the channels and collaterals, and keep the balance between Yin and Yang, to cure diseases.

The discovery of Moxibustion Classic with Eleven Foot-Hand Channels and Moxibustion Classic with Eleven Yin-yang Channels in the Changsha Mawangdui Tomb, the earliest record of Moxibustion, and the discovery of Carved Lacquerware of Channels on the Twin Mountain of Mianyang, the earliest human channel model are both closely related to Moxibustion. The earliest complete record is the book of Plain Questions, which mentions that the “Northern part of China is very cold, and people who would hunt in this climate, would contract serious internal diseases of the body. Moxibustion is very helpful to cure these diseases.” So Moxibustion may have originated from the northern part of China. At that time people liked having cold dairy food, which may easily result in abdominal distension and parasites. At that time, Moxibustion was the best way to cure these diseases. Therefore it is apparent that people since ancient times have understood that Moxibustion can warm the channel, repel the cold, activate the stomach to improve digestion, and strengthen the vital energy to clear away the pathogenic factors. A book named Important Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces for any Emergency written by Sun Simiao mentioned several moxibustion methods ranging from preventive healthcare to clinical medicine. It is said that the units of moxa for treatment shall increase with age. When people age, more units will be used accordingly.
Medical literatures including Important Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces for any Emergency, Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library, An Official, Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and the present-day work Research of Ancient Moxibustion written by Wang Xue-tai all stress that “moxibustion can cure what acupuncture can not do; neither is good by using acupuncture only or moxibustion only; and a doctor who knows medicine only but nothing about acupuncture cannot basically cure the disease, and also the one who knows Moxibustion only but nothing about acupuncture cannot balance the changes of the inner and outer body”. So from the perspective of preventive healthcare, “If you want to keep healthy, you need to frequently use moxibustion on the point of Zusanli (ST 36).”

According to medical literatures, moxibustion was found in the northern part of China and doctors through the ages usually use burning moxibustion (Fig. 1-1), which is also called “direct moxibustion”, “burning moxibustion”, “blister moxibustion”, “scar moxibustion”, “Lei Huo Shen Zhen ()”, or “Tai Yi Shen Jiu ()”. After moxibustion, there may some possible inflammation
happens, such as turning red on the skin, growing up blisters, generating some secretions, getting scars and other conditions which are normal reactions following moxibustion. If you want to keep healthy, frequently do moxibustion above the point of ST 36. Although with burning moxibustion, after versus moxibustion (or indirect moxibustion) only a flush of the skin may be observed, there is no blister. It takes one thousand sessions of over moxibustion to have the same results as those observed in burning moxibustion. Based on 40-year of clinical research on tens of thousands of cases, we found that the effect of over moxibustion is similar to that of direct moxibustion. The difference between them is that over moxibustion takes longer while direct moxibustion is easy to operate. While both have the possibility of producing blisters, over moxibustion is much more likely to reduce blisters than direct moxibustion. In clinical treatment, we choose between different methods as required by the patient’s needs.

Noteworthy is that some present-day people and doctors do not have a general knowledge of acupuncture and moxibustion. Acupuncture and moxibustion as they know usually emphasize acupuncture. They know a little or nothing about moxibustion. Even some books when translated into foreign language only use the word Acupuncture instead of Acupuncture & Moxibustion. Even worse, some people have a prejudiced understanding of moxibustion and tend to connect it with burns and infection. They think that moxibustion is related to high levels of heat, and using such heat easily to burn the skin. As a result, they inappropriately think of moxibustion as something related to burns. They rashly apply the above extreme case to moxibustion, totally denying the positive effects of the thousands-year-old moxibustion therapy. We hold that traditional moxibustion should not be thrown out indiscriminately. Based on a large number of clinical cases, we have proved the following findings: 1. there is more erythrocytes produced in the patient’s body after moxibustion. 2. The volume of secretion from the blister has close relation to the effect of treatment. In clinical treatments, we found that whether blisters would be generated, whether secretion from the blister came out, as well as the volume of secretion were all having close relation to the effect of the treatment. We also found that the quantity of neutrophil (neutral WBC) in the secretions
greatly affected the effect of moxibustion. After moxibustion, a part of patients with a little inflammation in the secretion would have best desirable effect; patients with medium inflammation in the secretion would have secondary effect; patients with much inflammation in the secretion would have little or no effect at all, other patients observed with no secretion would have very bad effect. According to clinical treatment we also found that the visible teardrop erythrocyte in the blood is the external testimony of the curative effect of moxibustion. If teardrop erythrocyte appears immediately, the curative effect will be the most effective, and vice versa. Some say that teardrop erythrocytes are the heteromorphous form of erythrocyte, but others say that it is a newly produced erythrocyte. Either way, the appearance of teardrop erythrocytes are related to the function of marrow. The above phenomena following moxibustion can be found at every age, indicating that moxibustion can produce teardrop erythrocytes, which may have relationship with the strengthening of marrow. But all of these findings are subject to further research.

The present development of acupuncture and moxibustion is like the following: many people think acupuncture and moxibustion relates solely to acupuncture, and are not aware of the existence of moxibustion. Some doctors treat their patients only with acupuncture, or with more acupuncture and less moxibustion, or other methods instead of moxibustion. All this leads to the habit of paying little or no attention to moxibustion in clinical practices.

In fact, moxibustion can work magic on a lot of diseases, especially serious diseases. If a disease cannot be cured by western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture or physical therapy, it is possible that astonishing effects can be obtained by adopting moxibustion.

Acupuncture and moxibustion are the chief methods to treat diseases in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and have been mastered by famous doctors for a long time. Aside from some specific works on acupuncture and moxibustion (such as Important Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces (Fig. 1-2), Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library), most TCM works mentioned acupuncture and moxibustion. Especially notable is that moxibustion was not only mastered by professional doctors, but also popular among the ordinary people. Since the introduction of Western Medicine was introduced in the Qing Dynasty, the methods of treating diseases have been enriched. However, acupuncture and moxibustion, as a natural way to cure diseases, remains popular. In the West China Medical School of Sichuan University (China’s largest Western Medical college boasting more than 4000 patients’ beds), we have been engaged in teaching, researching, clinically treating and consulting hypochondriasis for more than forty years. How do we apply acupuncture and moxibustion
in clinical practice? Some hypochondriasis cannot be cured by West Medicine, but can be effectively treated by acupuncture and moxibustion, which indicates that acupuncture and moxibustion plays an important role in curing difficult diseases, yet, what is the status quo of acupuncture and moxibustion?