Tag: acupuncture points

Acupuncture Explained, Eastern and Western

Acupuncture uses the insertion of needles to alleviate certain symptoms in the body. It has gotten wide acceptance among western medicine as treatment for such things as postoperative pain, anesthesia, menstrual cramps, etc. It stimulates a number of points on the body, usually by inserting thin metal needles into points that are carefully selected to address a particular symptom or set of symptoms. When the needles is inserted the patient may feel nothing, may feel more relaxed, or may feel a warm or other pleasant feeling. The reduction of symptoms can occur quite quickly, as in pain release, or over a series of treatments for the symptom.

The Eastern explanation of how acupuncture works comes from China, from a tradition going back more than two thousand years. In this view, the body works best when vital energy circulates around the body exactly as it should. At this time, everything in the body is in balance between two different principles, Yin and Yang. Yin generally is assigned to relaxed, cool, passive objects or feelings. Yang is assigned to active, warm, and assertive objects, organs, and actions. The vital energy flows from one organ system to another to maintain balance between Yin and Yang. When this energy (known as Qi) is blocked or depleted, the body no longer works well and symptoms begin to appear. Qi is assumed to regulate the well being of the entire person: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

The assumption that Qi regulates all aspects of a person is the reason an acupuncture practitioner easily agrees to treat emotional issues, such as depression and anxiety, with as much enthusiasm as treating physical symptoms. In addition, symptoms that may be a combination of physical, mental, and emotional (such as sleeplessness) fit easily into the acupuncture view of an imbalance of Qi, and are treated accordingly. It also explains why the diagnosis of an acupuncture patient usually includes questions that go well beyond just the physical symptoms of a patient.

Western medicine has been studying the effects of acupuncture with interest for at least the last twenty years. It is clear that there are remarkable successes, and these studies have documented them. However, finding an explanation for the results of a number of these acupuncture studies is a bit more puzzling, if you need an explanation within the western system of medicine. The present view is that the needles affect the behavior of the nervous system, and stimulation of the system can assist in production of biochemicals to produce a particular result. For example, endorphins produced by the body help reduce or eliminate pain, and white blood cells fortify the immune system. However, it is unclear exactly how a particular needle stimulation encourages production of particular biochemicals. Also, other studies indicate that acupuncture points alter brain chemistry, which affects a number of body functions. This is still a very new and interesting field, and we will continue to see more studies that will help explain the marvelous results of acupuncture technique.

Acupuncture and Electricity

Acupuncture has been shown to have great success in treating pain, stress, and a number of diseases. Acupuncture has a number of different techniques, and one of them is to apply a very low-level electric charge to the needle. This particular technique is creating interest in a field that was started in America in the 1930s and 1940s, but lost support soon afterward. This field is how to use low levels of electricity as a tool for medical therapy.

The initial discovery of acupuncture points on the body was by centuries of observation of the tender spots on the skin when a patient had certain symptoms. These acupuncture points can now be discovered and duplicated by scientists. They can find these same acupuncture points (given in any standard diagram) by using electrical apparatus. Scientists can also use infrared photography to find the temperature differences between these acupuncture points and the surrounding skin. So the acupuncture points have a different electrical behavior than the surrounding cells when the patient suffers from the associated symptom.

Several claims for acupuncture seem to get some support from other research using electricity. One scientist, Becker, has had tissue regrown by animals when he applied a low-level electric current to the site of the tissue. Even heart tissue has been restored without any scarring. Low level electric pulses have also been used to make bone fractures heal significantly faster than fractures left to heal on their own.

How do these two previous experience relate to the fundamentals of acupuncture? The basis of acupuncture is the correct distribution and flow of energy throughout the body. When energy is depleted, regrowth and stimulation and vitality do not occur. An acupuncture treatment restores the energy needed to a specific area. This research (especially the bone research) supports the claim that acupuncture sessions are of significant benefit for those with broken arms or other broken bones in the feet, ankles, and wrists, or other locations. Acupuncture has been known as an effective treatment for patients with heart palpitations, and the EKG results scientifically support that claim. Patients that are attached to an EKG machine and undergo an acupuncture treatment show a difference in the structure of the heartbeat, which is controlled by electric impulses from the nerves.

When an acupuncture needle is inserted into the skin, there is an electrical activity at that point, since the cells at that point are disturbed, and cells by their structure have various electrical charges within them. This is also shown by such techniques as Kirlian photography, where the photograph after a needle is inserted has a very different energy shape than before the needle insertion.

This exploration of the interaction between electricity and acupuncture has come back to expand the techniques used in acupuncture. The most basic technique for an acupuncture treatment is to use needles inserted into the skin of the patient. The location of the insertion, its depth and technique, bring about the results from the treatment. An additional technique is the application of heat, or moxa, which we will not go into. A third addition may be the use of herbs, either at the point of insertion, or given to the patient separately. A technique directly related to the above research, and also harkening back to the experiments of the 1930s and 1940s, is to affect the acupuncture points by a low voltage electric current. This is used in place of the needle. All these results and new ideas make research in acupuncture an exciting field to be working in and reading about.