Acupuncture (from Lat. acus, "needle", and pungere, "to prick") or in Standard Mandarin, éÂÂç  (zhÃÂn biÃÂn) (a related word, éÂÂç¸ (zhÃÂn jiÃÂ), refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion) is a technique of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the form with the end of relieving sadness and for therapeutic purposes. According to traditional Chinese acupuncture theory, these acupuncture points lie along meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. There is no physically verifiable anatomical or histological basis for the continuance of acupuncture points or meridians. Late acupuncturists tend to view them in functional rather than structural terms, (viz. as a useful metaphor in guiding evaluation and consternation of patients). Acupuncture originated in China and is most commonly associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Changed types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.
The "gate domination guesswork of pain" (developed by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall in 1962 and in 1965) proposed that pain perception is not simply a direct emanation of activating pain fibers, but modulated by interplay between excitation and inhibition of the pain pathways. According to the theory, the "gating of pain" is controlled by the inhibitory action on the pain pathways. That is, the perception of malaise can be altered (gated on or off) by a number of means physiologically, psychologically and pharmacologically. The gate-control code was developed in Site neuroscience independent of acupuncture, which later was proposed as a mechanism to recital for the hypothesized analgesic action of acupuncture in the brainstem reticular formation by a German neuroscientist in 1976.