Research On Copper And Its Application In Acupuncture

Copper is one of the metals that were earliest used by human. It has good electric and heat conductivity, is able to endure causticity. It is also able to be tractiled easily. Copper, its alloys and its compounds are widely used in industry, agriculture, communication, carrying trade, architecture, electric industry, medicine and national industry.China is one of the countries that applied copper earliest in the world. She had the ancient culture of copper and copper civilization. The culture and civilization of copper affect directly on the application of copper in traditional Chinese medicine.The application of copper in acupuncture and moxibustion had a long time. Now copper is made for needles, moxibustion instruments and models of acu-mox. Copper is good at conducting electricity and heat, so it is used to make needles'handles to enhance there ability of conductivity of electricity and heat. But now there is no idea that using copper in needles is whether able to increase there conductivity of electricity and heat or not. The clips which are made by different materials can also affect the effect of the electric acupuncture. Now the clips are usually made by copper and iron. Moxibustion instruments that are made by different metals (copper and iron) can affect the sense of moxibustion too.This research gains some results as follows through contrasting acupuncture instruments made by copper with that are made by iron:(1)The volunteers in the group that was acupunctured with needles had copper handles felt more numbness than the group that acupunctured with needles had iron handles when the electrical acupuncture finished, the difference was notable. There wasn't notable difference between the two groups of volunteers'other feels, but the figures of most of the feels'intensity in the first group were higher.(2)Most of the volunteers'feelings in the two groups were the same, but the figures of most of the feelings'intensity in the group was acupunctured with moxibustion with needles had copper handles were higher. And the volunteers in the group that was acupunctured with moxibustion with needles had iron handles felt more numbness than the group, but the difference wasn't notable too.(3)The volunteers in the group that was electric acupunctured with copper clips felt more soreness than the group that electric acupunctured with iron clips at 20minutes after electrical acupuncture, the difference was notable between the two groups. There wasn't notable difference between the two groups of volunteers'other feels, but the figures of most of the feels'intensity were higher in the copper clips group.(4)The volunteers in the group that accepted moxibustion with moxibustion Instruments made by iron felt more warmness than the group that accepted moxibustion with moxibustion instruments made by copper at 10minutes and 20minutes after moxibustion, the differences were notable. And the intensity of the figures of warmness of the volunteers in the group that accepted moxibustion with moxibustion instruments made by iron was higher than the other group. The difference may be caused by the difference of types between the tow kinds of moxibustion instruments.Conclusions:In most instance, the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion instruments made by copper and made by iron are the same if types of these instruments are the same too. There just a few of the effect of acupuncture and moxibustion instruments made by copper is better than that made by iron.