Everything you need to know about Moxibustion
What is moxibustion?
Moxibustion is a form of traditional Chinese medicine therapy that consists of burning dried mugwort (Artemisia Vulgaris ) on particular acupuncture points on the body. Moxibustion can be applied directly by placing rice grain size moxa, or cones, on the skin or indirectly by holding moxa stick on the area without touching it to the skin.
How do you make moxa from mugwort?
Making a good quality moxa requires a few specific steps.
First, mugwort is collected when it is ripe for the picking and is air-dried, then the stems are removed from the dry leaves.
The next step is to sift and grind the leaves repeatedly.
The final step is aging the floss from a minimum of three years or up to 10 years to have a high-quality moxa floss. The higher the quality of the floss, the better the smell and the less smoke it will create. It will also produce a mellow fire that gives just enough heat to stimulate the appropriate acupuncture points.
If you are interested in the process of making moxa floss from mugwort leaves or making a moxa stick, I would highly recommend these two videos from Lorraine Wilcox, PhD that are linked here.
The most commonly seen moxa method is moxa sticks. The Chinese moxa sticks look more green than gold in color and produce more smoke. At our clinic, we use thinner moxa sticks that are made with high-quality gold moxa.
In Kiiko Matsumoto style Japanese acupuncture, we use rice grain moxa (tonetskyu). This is where tiny pieces of the moxa are rolled using the fingertips to form tiny, rice grain-sized threads. These threads are placed directly onto the acupuncture points on the skin after a small layer of cream is applied to make the moxa stick better and prevent burning. The moxa is then lit with an incense stick. When I do tonetskyu at the clinic, my patients usually report how pleasant the moxa smell is. This is primarily the smell of the Japanese incense that I am using.
What are the benefits of moxa?
Stimulating circulation and improving the flow of qi.
Expelling cold and dampness from the body ("warming the meridians") to relieve back pain and pain from arthritis, menstrual and stomach cramps.
Moving stagnation.
Turning a breech baby's head between weeks 34-36.
I also would like the emphasize that while it makes sense to think that heat therapy via moxibustion would be used for conditions that are aggravated by cold, there are circumstances that moxa can be used for heat conditions as well.
While the use of moxa is proven safe to use by years and years of Chinese medicine, please consult with your Chinese Medicine practitioners. If it is recommended, you can do moxa on certain points yourself. This will be a great way to enhance one's health.