ACUPRESSURE

noun (Health and Fitness) A complementary therapy also known as shiatsu, in which symptoms are relieved by applying pressure with the thumbs or fingers to specific pressure points on the body. Etymology: Formed by combining the first two syllables of acupuncture (acupressure is a Japanese application of the same principles as are used in Chinese acupuncture) with pressure. The word acupressure actually already existed in English for a nineteenth-century method of arresting bleeding during operations by applying pressure with a needle (Latin acu means 'with a needle'); since no needle is used in shiatsu it is clear that the present use is a separate formation of the word, deliberately referring back to acupuncture but without taking into account the original meaning of acu-. History and Usage: Acupressure has been practised in Japan as shiatsu and in China as G-Jo ('first aid') for many centuries; it was exported to the Western world during the 1960s, but at first was usually called shiatsu. During the late seventies and early eighties acupressure became the preferred term and the word became popularized, first in the US and then in the UK, as complementary medicine became more acceptable and even sought after. In the late eighties the principle was incorporated into a popular proprietary means of avoiding motion sickness in which elastic bracelets hold a hard 'button' in place, pressing on an acupressure point on each wrist. A practitioner of acupressure is called an acupressurist. Among the kinds of conditions that benefit from acupressure are migraine, stress, and tension-related problems. Natural Choice Issue 1 (1988), p. 19 After one two-hour massage that included...acupressure, I was addicted. Alice Walker Temple of My Familiar (1989), p. 292