Dr. Jianchao Zhang, a research scientist at Ohio State University and acupuncturist, invented the hand patch therapy in 2016.

Through clinical practice, he has his own clinic: Eastern Natural Therapy Center with Acupuncture and Massage. When one walks in, one of the first aspects to notice is a sign that mentioned how acupuncture doesn’t have to require needles. The patients go through needles and hand patches and feel which one has the greater effect.

According to Dr. Zhang, he has continued to learn a variety of acupuncture techniques and utilizes seeds and Chinese herbal medicines, which are then applied to the fourteen meridian acupuncture points on the hands. Going more into detail about what hand patch therapy is, he separated the seeds and herbs into two categories based on medicinal properties and color: gold and silver patches. When put in the correct places, they can help adjust the unbalanced body meridians instantly.

Some common food ingredients included in hand patch therapy include millet, pumpkin seeds, corn, green bean, pressed pearl barley, and black pepper seeds.

Also, in regards to the gold and silver patches, an example of the gold patch is millet; an example of the silver patch is sago.

There are multiple correspondence positioning systems on the hand, each containing different points for various organs, but the First System deals with the anterior view of the hand. The middle finger corresponds to the head from the tip of the middle finger to the end of the palm.

This system as a whole represents a person with the thumb and pinky finger as the two legs and the second and third fingers as arms. Knowing these whereabouts can help one figure out where to put the patch and feel where feels better exactly.

As an instance when hand patch therapy was used, one of Dr. Zhang’s students saved a patient with heart failure through the use of millet. The patient can feel any chains when the patch is applied, which can be especially helpful in such cases.

However, hand patch therapy can also be used to cure more common issues such as sore throat. To do that, one can stick pearl barley to the middle of the third horizontal line of all ten fingers.

Dr. Zhang is currently working on a book about this type of therapy; learning about such quick fixes in one’s body can be beneficial in the long run.

<Elizabeth Gao Portola High School / 12th Grade>