In acupuncture courses, they usually teach the function of each point to treat the symptoms presented by the patient. In this article, I will follow the commandments of Hippocrates (460 a.c -377 a.c), the father of medicine, that said that “it is more important to treat the patient and not the disease the patient has”. Using acupuncture, we need to treat the patient and not just the symptoms presented by each patient to achieve good results, treating the majority of the patient’s symptoms at the same time.

Keywords: acupuncture, energy, traditional Chinese medicine, Hippocrates

In one of the commandments of Hippocrates (460 a.c - 377 a.c), medicine’s father, he is saying that “we need to not treat the disease but the patient”. However, the majority of acupuncture schools are teaching the students to treat the symptoms and disease and not the entire sick person. What are the main differences in the outcome of all these patients when the doctor is focusing his treatment using acupuncture needles to treat the disease and symptoms of the case that is suffering the illness and not in the energy imbalances presented inside the patient in the “root” tree degree?^1‒4

This tree that I mentioned above is a metaphor that I normally use in every paper to demonstrate the differences between treatment and analysis that conventional medicine is focusing on nowadays (in the “leaf” level of each branch, which means one disease and each medical specialty respectively). But according to the reasoning used by ancient Chinese medicine, which has existed for over 5000 years, the cause of the clinical manifestations of each “leaf” in each branch is not on the “leaflet” level but on the “base” of this tree, that it is invisible by the bared eyes.^2‒3

In the majority of acupuncture treatments, the focus is to treat the manifestations stated by each sick person, for example, when the sufferer is having knee pain or low back pain, the physician usually focused his treatment on the affected organ using anti-inflammatory medications or acupuncture needles focusing on the symptoms (knee or low back pain). But according to ancient medicine such as Chinese medicine, the source of the formation of disease at the level of the “leaf” (symptoms) has as the cause deficiencies in the energy presented at the level of the “root” of the tree, which represents the origin of all disease’s formation, invisible to the naked eye.^5‒7

All this new mode of thinking began in 2006 when one patient went to my clinic. His history will be described briefly to the reader understand what it is important to demonstrate in this article.²

He was a 70-year-old male reporting pain in the legs for the last 6 months without improvement using painkillers medications. He went to my health center seeking one more kind of treatment and I interrogate some queries to see his energy variation.  I concluded that he was suffering from a deficiency in the Yang of the Kidney energy (because he usually perceives Colder in his legs) presented in the “root” of the tree.^2,3

Instead of using anti-inflammatory medications, I used acupuncture and auricular acupuncture to treat the variations in the energy presented in the tree’s “root” (which represents the cause of the formation of the majority of diseases) and did not insert the needles to treat his leg pain symptoms.²

He returned following ten acupuncture sessions and said that the symptoms of pain in the lower limbs improved but he additionally ameliorates one more clinical condition that he did not tell me of. The patient had been treated for glaucoma for 40 years with no enhancement only using the administration of drugs in the eyes and for the first time in his life, the pressure inside the eye reduced from 40 to 17mmHg.²

In the case reported above, I am showing that when we treat the symptoms, using anti-inflammatory medications or using eye drops to treat the symptoms (leg pain and high intra-ocular pressure), all symptoms came from the same energy disharmony presented in the “root” level of this tree.²

This case and the way of thinking was a theory introduced at the Conference of Acupuncture Research that was held in 2015 in Boston, United States, saying that “when we treat the root level of the disharmony of the energy, all the patient’s conditions such as physical or emotional symptoms will ameliorate at the same time, even the physician unknown that the sick patient has such symptoms”.⁸

If the acupuncture doctor focuses his treatment only on inserting needles to improve the symptoms of leg pain, it would not reduce the high intra-ocular pressure in both eyes, because it was only treating the symptoms presented in the “leaf” level of the tree and not the “root” of this tree.²

So, the difference when we treat the entire patient and not just the disease the patient has is that all the patient’s symptoms would improve at the same time when we treat the patient, even emotional or physical symptoms, as I am shown in many articles written by me (2019), one of them titled Is It Possible to Treat Community-acquired and Nosocomial Infectious with the Same Method, Without the Use of Antibiotics?⁹

In the article mentioned above, it was shown that patients with any kind of community and hospital infections have universal energy deficiencies inside the five internal massive organs such as the Spleen, Lungs, Kidney, Liver, and Heart, generating an internal Fire, responsible for the clinical manifestations of infections such as yellowish secretion and redness in the skin.^9‒11

All emotional symptoms such as depression and anxiety have in common, energy reduction inside these organs mentioned above, and treating them replenishing the energy of these organs would treat the cause of the formation of this anxiety or depression without needing to use psychotropic medications, as shown in the article written by Huang (2021) titled Why Patients with Depression do Not Improve the Symptoms with Antidepressant Medications? and in the second article also written by Huang (2019) titled  Why Do Patients Still Have Anxiety Symptoms Despite the Use of Psychotropic Medications?^12,13

In another article written by myself (2023) titled New Global Immunodeficiency. I mentioned that patients nowadays have collective, energy reduction inside the five internal massive organs of the five elements theory of traditional Chinese medicine and for this reason, they are considered immune-compromised and not immune-competent due to the influences of the modernization of telecommunication after the implementation of 5G technology.  Consequently, quite every disease nowadays has in common, energy reduction inside the five internal massive organs (Heart, Spleen, Lungs, Kidney, and Liver), and the treatment of this reduced energy situation using medications diluted in an infinitesimal mode such as homeopathy products created by Hahnemann (1755- 1843) and also using the new theory created by myself (2020) titled Constitutional Homeopathy of Five Elements Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine is of major importance these days.^14‒15

The use of these types of medications is of primordial importance to treat the cause of the formation of all kinds of pathologies, including persons in any age group such as babies, children, adolescents, adults, and older patients, unimpendent of the diagnosis that the patient is presenting nowadays.^14‒15

All the treatments, including for patients with cancer, can be done by serving the energy alterations presented in the “root” level of the tree and not just treating the symptoms in the “leaf” level of the tree as shown in the article written by myself (2022) titled Energy Alterations in Patient with Malignant Thyroid Tumor and How Can We Treat It without Doing Surgery, Chemotherapy or Radiotherapy.¹⁶

All these treatments are done in my clinical practice using Chinese dietary counseling, using the foods according to their energy properties such as if they are Cold, Neutral, Warm, and Hot. According to Hippocrates (460 a.c - 377 a.c) the medicine’s father, “We need to use our food as our medicine and our medicine as our food”. Another quote said by him is “It is more important to know which patient has the disease than to know which disease the patient has”. In other words, said by him, “We need to treat the patient and not the disease the patient has”.^1,3,17

Many articles written by me on the treatment of diverse pathologies, all of them are focusing the treatment at the “root” of the tree and not treating the symptoms at the “leaf” level of the tree, as I am showing in the article written by myself (2021) titled Energies Alterations and Chakras’ Energies Deficiencies as One Cause of Abnormal Uterine Bleeding in Women, and in the second article also written by myself (2020) titled Energy Imbalances and Chakras Energy Deficiencies Leading to Chloasma.^18‒19

So, when using acupuncture, we need to focus our treatment on the energy disharmony presented in the “root” because using this mode of therapy, all the patient’s disease will improve at the same time, even if the physician does not know that the victim has such a problem.⁸

Is to show that it is prime to treat the case (characterized as the “root” of the energy imbalances presented by the patient) when using acupuncture treatment and not just the clinical manifestations, presented in the “leaf” level of the tree, shown in diverse articles published until today in the treatment of many diseases. According to Hippocrates, “We need to treat the patient and not the disease the patient has”.

None.

Author declares there is no conflict of interest.

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2. Huang WL. The importance of correcting energy imbalances and chakras energy deficiencies in the treatment of patients with glaucoma. Clin Res Ophthalmol. 2019;2(2):1‒9.
3. Huang WL. Why are diabetic patients still having hyperglycemia despite diet Rregulation, antiglycemic medication and insulin? Int J Diabetes Metab Disord. 2019;4(2):1‒14.
4. Lichun H. Auricular medicine (2nd edn) Hardcover – January 1; 2006.
5. Wu Tu H. Manual Terapêutico de Acupuntura. Brazil: Editora Manole Ltda; 2008.
6. Huang WL. Why patients with knee pain still have symptoms despite the use of anti-inflammatory medications. Journal of Clinical Anesthesiology: Open Access. 2020;4(1):21‒27.
7. Huang WL. How do you treat back pain in your practice? Part 2. Med Acupunt. 2018;30(1):46‒53.
8. Abstracts from the society for acupuncture research 2015 international conference reaching across disciplines to broaden the acupuncture research network november 12-14, 2015 Boston, MA. J Altern Complement Med. 2016;22(1):A1‒A46.
9. Huang WL. Is it possible to treat community-acquired and nosocomial infectious with the same method, without the use of antibiotics?. J Appl Microb Res. 2019;2(2):1‒13.
10. Huang WL. Why do patients still catch hospital infections despite the practice of infection prevention and control programs? Acta Scientific Microbiol. 2018;1(4):34‒43.
11. Huang WL. What do we need to know to prevent and control nosocomial infections completely?- Part 2. Acta Scientific Microbiology. 2022;5(4):33‒47.
12. Huang WL. Why patients with depression do not improve the symptoms with antidepressant medications?. J Health Med Res. 2021;3(6):001‒002.
13. Huang WL. Why do patients still have anxiety symptoms despite the use of psychotropic medications? Archives of Neurology and Neuro Disorders. 2019;2(2):13‒23.
14. Huang WL. New global immunodeficiency. Ann Immunol Immunother. 2023;5(1):000173.
15. Huang WL. Constitutional homeopathy of five elements based on traditional chinese medicine. Acta Scientific Medical Sciences. 2020;4(7):57‒69.
16. Huang WL. Energy alterations in patient with malignant thyroid tumor and how can we treat it without doing surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Journal of Clinical Otorhinolaryngology. 2022;4(3).
17. Huang WL. The importance of treating energy imbalances and chakras replenishment for prevention and treatment of cancer. Advances in Cancer Research & Clinical Imaging. 2020;3(1).
18. Huang WL. Energies alterations and chakras’ energies deficiencies as one cause of abnormal uterine bleeding in women. Journal of Womens Health Care and Management. 2021;1(2):114‒121.
19. Huang WL. Energy imbalances and chakras energy deficiencies leading to chloasma. Journal of Dermatology Research Reviews & Reports. 2020;1(2):1‒12.