Acupuncture

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that acupuncture harmonizes and regulates the vital energy of the body (Qi). Disharmony comes about from injury, disease, environmental influences, and improper diet and activities. While these factors must be addressed for long-term results, acupuncture can facilitate the healing response in many conditions. Chinese herbal medicines, along with proper diet and exercise, further aid the healing response so that harmony may be restored. Western research into the mode of action of acupuncture has revealed important insights into the physiology of its healing action. Relaxation of muscle spasm (smooth and skeletal muscle), anti-inflammatory effects, and promotion of blood circulation have all been demonstrated. A normalizing effect on the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic and parasympathetic, has also been observed. Acupuncture induces a wound healing reaction that encourages healing of even old injuries, organ dysfunction and disease. Ongoing research in these areas continues to demonstrate the often profound effects that acupuncture can have on many symptoms and disease states.

PET-Scans of the brain during acupuncture:

University of California Irvine professor and physicist Zang-Hee Cho, a member of the highly respected National Academy of Science, the inventor of an early version of the Positron Emission Tomograph, or PET scan, and a pioneer of the MRI scanner, both of which have revolutionized our ability to see into the body and brain, found that stimulation of the vision-related acupoint showed the same reaction in the brain as stimulation of the eye. As the acupuncture signal passes to the brain via nerves, it possibly stimulates the hypothalamus, the “executive center” of the brain, responsible for the production and release of hundreds of neurochemicals, Cho said.

Acupuncture is known to work on animals, too.

llustration of acupuncture points on the body of a horse from Ma Niu Yi Fang, a Chinese veterinary textbook written in 1399.

Acupuncture: Pain management coupled to immune stimulation (Gollub, 1999):

“The phenomenon of acupuncture is both complex and dynamic. Recent information demonstrates that acupuncture may exert its actions on pain and immune processes. The coupling of these two systems occurs via common signaling molecules, i.e., opioid peptides. In this regard, we surmise that

• opioid activation leads to the processing of opioid peptides from their precursor, proenkephalin, and the simultaneous release of antibacterial peptides contained within the precursor as well. Thus, central nervous system pain circuits may be coupled to immune enhancement.
• Furthermore, acupuncture needle manipulation elicited signal increases bilaterally in the region of the primary and secondary somatosensory corticies in human brain as determined by magnetic resonance imaging.
• The maps reveal marked signal decreases bilaterally in multiple limbic and deep gray structures including the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and ventral tegmental area.
• Taken together, we surmise a major central nervous system pathway as well as local pain and immune modulation during acupuncture.”

(Fu, 2000): “In recent years, more and more laboratory proof has accumulated that acupuncture can

• change the charge and potential of neurons,
• the concentrations of K(+), Na(+), Ca(++) and
• the content of neuro-transmitters such as aspartate, and taurine and the quantities of neuro-peptides such as beta-endorphin and leu-enkephalin.
• All these phenomena are directly related to nerve cells.”

(H. Fu, Med Hypotheses (2000) 54: 358-9)