Extracted from The Back Pain Sourcebook by Stephanie Levin-Gervasi

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a unified healing system which has evolved over the past three thousand years. It consists of acupuncture, herbal therapy, massage, exercise and diet. In traditional Chinese medicine, prevention and treatment of disease is stressed by strengthening the body's own self-regulation, thus restoring the body's balance within Chinese medicine postulates that the life energy ch'i or ki flows along invisible body pathways called meridians. The ch'i or kid is the life force that circulates through the body and its balance is considered to be the essence of health When the ch'i or ki becomes blocked at specific pressure points, illness occurs. The following are a few approaches, based on acupressure-finger pressure, to unclog the energy paths by manipulating the pressure points, thus balancing the body.