A hands-on medicine that is at least a few thousand years old, acupressure evolved as a blend of massage and acupuncture (see following page). It is designed to unleash or lift the restrictions that injury has placed on the body’s flow of energy. It is also used for preventive health.

While it is based on the same principles of energy flow as acupuncture, acupressure uses fingers, knuckles or blunt-edged instruments instead of needles. Pressure is applied to specific locations on the body, called meridian (or acupressure) points, which correspond with the patient’s diagnosis. Both specific, easily located symptoms, such as neck and shoulder pain, or nonspecific symptoms, such as menstrual problems, may be treated with acupressure.

The pressure can be extremely light-just the weight of the finger-or deeper, like a massage. The touch will encourage the free flow of the body’s energy, or chi, in places where it is blocked. Sometimes called shiatsu, this type of massage includes pressure applied to specific areas of the body also targeted in acupuncture.

One advantage of acupressure is that it can be a form of self-care-that is, it can be administered at home, which is important to many people who suffer from chronic pain. Perhaps most important to acupressure practitioners and Americans unfamiliar with alternative remedies is the fact that acupressure is immediately understandable. It makes sense: When we bash a toe or burn a thumb in the kitchen, we instinctively grab the painful parts and hold on, tightly, in order to blunt the hurt. And you don’t have to know anything about meridians or endorphins to know that this works, at least temporarily.