It was the Moscow Institute of Experimental surgery where I first heard about the "Applicator of Kuznetsov." My husband worked for the institute and one day came home very excited about a new method for pre-op treatment of patients resistant to regular medicine, or allergic to it, etc. "Just imagine a rubber mat pierced with needles and a patient has to lie down on it and to stay for an hour or more. They say, it never pierces the skin and hurts for only minute or two, then people get warmed and relaxed, stop sneezing, coughing, and their blood pressure gets normal. In a few days they are ready for their surgeries." The first thing I thought, was: "It's probably because there are so many needles that eventually some of them reach proper acupuncture points." Later I discovered that the inventor's logic had indeed worked exactly this way...