The ancient treatment of acupuncture is gaining a new-found popularity as a beauty secret in Japan about one and a half millennium years after it first came from China. As aesthetic sessions nowadays go natural or utilize conventional remedies or procedures, many women at the "Beauty World Japan" Exhibition this week lined up to try acupuncture, long acknowledge for its benefits to the human body. Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating tiny needles into various points on the body to ease pain and also for therapeutic purposes. The earliest written evidence of acupuncture is the Chinese's Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) with the explanation of its history in the second century BCE medical manuscript Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Cannon). Different kinds of acupuncture are practiced and taught all over the world. Acupuncturists these days use disposable stainless steel needles of fine diameter (0.007 to 0.020 in (0.18 to 0.51 mm)), which are sterilized with ethylene oxide or by autoclave. These needles are far smaller in diameter, and therefore less painful, than injection needles since they do not have to be hollow for purposes of injection. The upper third of these needles is wound with a thicker wire which is commonly bronze, or sometimes covered with plastic, to stiffen the needle and provide a handle for the acupuncturist to hold while inserting. The size and type of needle used, and the depth of insertion, depend on the acupuncture style being utilized. Therapist Takeshi Kitagawa, who is the owner of the Yojo spa says that inserting tiny needles into faces can boost its natural healing powers. Kitagawa, who is also an acupuncture therapist, added that this is not a type of medical or surgical procedure. "We use the healing powers that a person's body naturally possesses, and within the general trend toward a more 'natural beauty' our acupuncture is very well accepted." Japan is rated as the world's second highest market for beauty products and services. Their sales with such products and services were estimated at over $15 billion last year alone. The licensing for acupuncturists began during Japan's Meiji Era. And that was about 130 years ago. Kitagawa said that his clients, mainly in their 30's, are increasingly pinning their hopes on the treatment, seeing cosmetics or facelifts pricey and not healthy. Rie Hayashida, an acupuncture patient, stated that it is different from plastic surgery; it does not have the risk of failure. Besides, it uses the innate power of human body to create beauty, and that's the reason Hayashida and many other Japanese likes acupuncture. An estimated 40,000 registered acupuncturist and over 150 schools are all over Japan, mainly focused on the traditional uses of acupuncture. Cosmetic acupuncture has been a popular form of acupuncture treatment over the past 5 years in the US.
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