How Does Acupuncture Work?
According to the ancient Chinese, qi, the life force, drives the body’s operations as it courses along the major meridians (or energy pathways* running through the internal organs, along the limbs, torso, and head). If qi circulation is balanced and free flowing, blood and body fluids circulate smoothly; you easily fight off disease and your digestion, sleep, and energy levels are satisfactory. But if qi flow is blocked for any reason, or becomes excessive or wanting, pain and disease can result. Immoderate diet or lifestyle, mental or physical taxation, emotional upheavals or repression, or lack of exercise may all cause qi imbalance. An energy blockage in your liver, for example, could cause headaches, menstrual problems, or digestive complaints.
By stimulating acupuncture points with extremely fine needles, electricity, lasers, or massage, this energy flow can be rerouted and moderated. We’re not really sure how this works yet from a biomechanical viewpoint, but research is ongoing. Some possible explanations:
¨ Acupuncture provokes the discharge of morphine-like biochemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins in the brain and spinal cord. These natural painkillers promote healing and elevate mood.
¨ Insertion of the needles causes an anesthetic effect by shutting gateways from the spinal cord, effectively blocking the pain signal so it never reaches the brain. Nobel Prize nominee Robert Becker, MD proposes that the meridians are electrical conductors and the acupuncture points act as amplifiers. Acupuncture also may be used to open a ‘stuck’ gate, when signals from the brain can’t get out to the periphery, thus treating paralysis.
¨ Acupuncture activates the immune system’s response in areas that are injured or susceptible to disease by: stimulating production of hormones, prostaglandins, white bloods cells, gamma globulins, opsonins, and antibody levels.
¨ Acupuncture alters brain chemistry directly: affects areas of the central nervous system pertaining to sensation and involuntary bodily functions, thereby normalizing blood pressure, heart rate, insulin levels, sleep patterns, gastric secretions, and body temperature. Acupuncture is balancing: if your heart rate is high, it will come down, if your heart rate is low, it will come up.
So acupuncture does more than just relieve pain! It has been proven to effect both physical and psychological conditions, while encouraging the body to heal itself. These effects last for days after a treatment!
*No one has been able to ‘find’ these channels yet, but Jean-Claude Darras MD, and Professor Pierre de Vernejoul MD injected radioactive isotopes into acupuncture points of patients and scanned the isotopes’ uptake by gamma-camera imaging. The isotopes migrated along the classical Chinese meridian pathways, not the vascular or lymphatic systems. In contrast, isotopes injected into random points in the skin did not migrate at all.
Click here to view a photo taken by Korean researcher of acupuncture meridians in the forearm
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Susan Mosley, LAc. Dipl. C.H.
Four Seasons Wellness-Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Reiki, and Qi Gong
6245 Vance Road, Suite B
Chattanooga TN 37421
423-596-9024
susan@fourseasonswellness.com
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