Side effects and contraindications of moxibustion

Moxibustion is a method often used in traditional Chinese medicine. It mainly involves making dried moxa leaves into long strips and then using fire to smoke the human body to achieve the effect of treating certain diseases. Many people will feel obvious discomfort during moxibustion because the smell is very strong, so people pay great attention to the technique when using moxibustion. But what are the side effects during moxibustion and what are the precautions?

Moxibustion precautions

1. Be focused and patient when applying moxibustion. Pay attention to concentrating your mind and do not be distracted during the application to prevent the moxa stick from moving and not being on the acupuncture point, which will affect the effect. For health-care moxibustion, you must persist in it for a long time. Occasional moxibustion will not achieve the desired effect. You should find a suitable support point to keep the hand holding the moxa stick steady to avoid the burning moxa stick touching and scalding the skin due to unstable hands.

2. Pay attention to the accuracy of body position and acupoints. On the one hand, the body position should be suitable for the needs of moxibustion. At the same time, it should be comfortable and natural. The body position and acupoints should be accurately found according to the prescription to ensure the effect of moxibustion.

3. Keep your eyes away from the smoke produced by moxibustion to avoid discomfort such as tears. The room where moxibustion is performed should be ventilated to disperse the smoke, but people should sit out of the wind.

4. As the moxa stick burns, ashes will be produced. You should flick off the ashes in time to prevent them from falling on your body and burning your skin. The container for ash should be made of non-flammable iron, glass or other products to prevent sparks from rekindling.

5. After moxibustion with moxa sticks, you can put the lit end of the moxa stick into a bottle with a diameter slightly larger than the moxa stick or put it into a container with a small amount of water to facilitate extinguishing. If you perform moxibustion again on the same day or the next day, you can use a new moxa stick. The moxa sticks left over from a few days can be reused after they have dried.

6. Pay attention to keeping warm and preventing heatstroke. Because part of the body surface will be exposed during moxibustion, you should keep warm in winter and prevent heatstroke in high temperatures in summer. At the same time, pay attention to timely exchange of fresh air indoors.

7. You must master the procedure of moxibustion. If there are many and scattered acupoints to be moxibustioned, you should proceed in the order of back first, then chest and abdomen, and then head, back and limbs.

8. Pay attention to the time of moxibustion. For some diseases and symptoms, you must pay attention to the time of moxibustion. For example, insomnia should be moxibustioned before going to bed. Do not perform moxibustion on an empty stomach before meals or immediately after meals.

9. Be gradual. When using moxibustion for the first time, pay attention to the amount of stimulation. Start with a small dose, or moxibustion for a shorter time, and then increase the dose later. Don't start with a large dose.