Which one is bad for the body, acupuncture or massage?

As long as they are performed in a regular place by licensed practitioners, acupuncture and massage will not cause additional damage to the body. There is no such thing as "inherently bad for the body". If there are real problems, nine out of ten problems will be caused by irregular operations and unqualified practitioners.

I have been in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Physiotherapy for almost five years, and I have seen cases of pitfalls in both projects. Last year, there was an aunt who believed in the "charitable acupuncture" at a community health center. The practitioner didn't even have a medical certificate. She didn't grasp the depth when pricking the shoulder and neck, and the pneumothorax was caused by pricking the top of the lung. She was so painful that she broke into a cold sweat and was sent to the emergency room. Later, the aunt told everyone that acupuncture is harmful to people. In fact, what is the problem with acupuncture? That's because people are not good at it. There are also many people who think that massage is just rubbing and there is no risk. Last month, a young man in his twenties was treated. He had a stiff neck and asked the master of the foot massage shop downstairs to break his neck. He used too much force to remove the subluxation of the atlantoaxial joint. He was dizzy for almost a week before he recovered.

It’s also interesting to say that many people’s fear of acupuncture comes from the fact that they are “fearful of the sight of needles”. They think that if they are inserted into the flesh, they will damage their vitality. On the contrary, they are not wary of massage. This is actually a big misunderstanding. The entry threshold for formal acupuncture is actually much higher than that of ordinary health massage. Practicing acupuncturists must systematically study anatomy and traditional Chinese medicine theory, and know which locations cannot be deeply inserted and which groups are not suitable for acupuncture. The risks are actually completely controllable. However, the entry threshold for massage is now low. Many people dare to take up the job after watching two days of instructional videos. Everyone thinks that "it's no big deal if you rub it twice", so the probability of getting into trouble is higher.

Of course, there are different opinions in the industry. Many experienced physical therapists will feel that if it is just for daily relaxation and there is no clear disease that needs treatment, the fault tolerance rate of massage will indeed be slightly higher. After all, under normal operation, if the hand is slightly stronger, it will be sore for two or three days at most. If an unqualified person performs acupuncture indiscriminately, the problems of pneumothorax and nerve damage will be more urgent and serious. However, this is essentially a problem of "wrong people" and has nothing to do with the project itself.

These two are actually like kitchen knives at home. They are handy tools for professional chefs. If they are used by children who don’t know how to use them, they can easily cut their hands. You can’t blame the kitchen knives themselves for having problems, right? If you really want to do it, don't be greedy for cheap and find a small restaurant that doesn't even have the qualifications to open in a residential building. Whether it's acupuncture or massage, it's much more useful to find a certified professional than to worry about which one is more harmful to the body.