Moxabustion

Moxabustion is the burning of moxa (an herb also known as mugwort or artemisia vulgaris) for therapeutic purposes.

The oldest and most basic type of moxabustion is burning the mugwort over injury sites, to relieve pain and speed the process of healing. When I do moxa treatments, I use a stick of compressed moxa, holding it near (but not on) the skin, so that the skin is stimulated by it but not burned.

This works partly because of the heat that is produced, partly because of the substances that are released as the plant burns, and partly because the process causes the body to produce substances that let the system known that a given area needs healing. This method of healing goes back to a very early date in human history, and is common to the greeks and romans, the Chineses, and the Native american tribes of N. america. It has been rigorously scientifically studied in the last five decades, and has been shown to be quite effective. In my own practice, I have seen cases in which torn cartilage repaired itself, and bones healed much faster than could normally be expected (or healed after many years of staying broken in a couple instances) with the help of moxa.

In addition to being used for injuries, traditional Chinese medicine (and some other systems of traditional medicine) has developed a system of points and "meridians" on the surface of the body for acting on any organ in the body, with the use of moxa. These are similar to (in most cases, identical to) the points used for acupuncture. In china, there are moxa practitioners who use this form of treatment for just about everything. In my own practice, I have found it to be especially useful for endocrine and metabolic conditions, those involving digestion and the hormones. Sometimes it also works well for insomnia.

I first encountered moxabustion while studying traditional medicine in central asia. A few years later, I was talking to an elder of the Blackfeet nation, in western Montana. He described to me the exact same process I had seen used in western China for treating an injury with moxa. When I asked him about other uses, he gave an example its use in promoting fertility in a woman-- using the same points that would have been used by the asian practitioners. So either the process has been developed independently in two places, a world away from each other; or it was developed before the two groups of people went their separate ways, many thousands of years ago, and passed down through time relatively unchanged. Either way, it's a good sign that this form of therapy has been extremely valuable to the people who have benefitted from it.