How Does Acupuncture Really Work?

As a student in acupuncture college many years ago, we learned lots of different theories for how and why acupuncture actually works. The theories ranged from research that showed the needles blocked pain receptors in the brain, to the fact that the needles released endorphins, or the body’s own naturally occurring opiates, which induced relaxation. This theory also explained why acupuncture works for smoking control, weight loss, addiction control, and IBS, and gives the patient a “feel good” sensation immediately following a treatment.

Another explanation is called “distraction theory.” By giving the brain a new sensation in the form of “new data” from the acupuncture needling, it will “let go” of the pain sensation it has been holding on to, which is how pain goes away.

But recent research has shown an absolutely new mechanism to explain acupuncture’s staggering success at treating pain. This new research was performed by Dr. Kathleen Hui and was recently published in a journal called Human Brain Mapping. Dr. Hui and her colleagues established unequivocal evidence of the deep modulating effects of acupuncture on the brain.

They mapped the brain during and after acupuncture treatment with Magnetic Resonance Images. These MRI images showed signal decreases in the human brain in the area of the amygdala, commonly known as “the seat of the emotions.” The amygdala is generally activated by emotions like fear, anger, sadness or pain. They showed through MRI mapping that acupuncture actually decreased the effects of the various emotions that would generally increase the amygdala’s activity. This, they hypothesized, is where the calming or modulating effect is derived from during the acupuncture treatment. The amygdala acts in conjunction with other parts of the brain to produce the final emotional states we feel as our “experience” and, in this way, acupuncture can actually change the way we “feel” and “experience” ourselves and our subjective universe.

Another recent study on mice performed at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, reported in The Guardian (UK) on 5/30/10, showed that acupuncture works to reduce and eliminate pain by stimulating cells in the body to produce a chemical called adenosine, a naturally occurring anti-inflammatory and painkiller. As a result of this increasing adenosine, the inflammation is reduced and, therefore, the pain is also eliminated.

We find even more evidence for how and why acupuncture works in another study, where researchers took lab rats and altered their stomachs and gastrointestinal tracts to make them either not have enough, or have too much, digestive acid. These scientists performed acupuncture on the point of the rat’s leg known as Stomach 36. What they discovered was that this point had an adaptogenic effect* in regulating the stomach acid.

In other words, the same acu-point, St 36, both increased the stomach acid in those rats with inadequate acid levels and, conversely, decreased the stomach acid in those rats with too much stomach acid. For those of you unfamiliar with the anatomy and physiology of the stomach, it’s the stomach acid that basically enables us (and rats) to break down, emulsify, and digest the food we eat.

So what can we conclude about acupuncture from this study on rats? That it has an adaptogenic, or balancing, effect on the body. Every day my patients ask

me about the specific acu-points I use on them, and why I use the points I do. Some patients have more questions than others. You might think that after doing acupuncture on a daily basis since 1983 on tens of thousands of people, and having treated just about every conceivable type of ailment known, that I might be tired of answering questions.

On the contrary, my favorite activity is talking about what I do. And the well-thought-out, well-articulated question is actually a great deal of fun to answer. The problem I encounter is this: patients of mine who are really scientifically-minded are sometimes left unsatisfied by my answers because most of my answers focus on metaphors and examples, rather than on scientific research.

Don’t get me wrong, there are hundreds of thousands of scientific articles on acupuncture published in medical journals. Although acupuncture is easily interpreted and verified scientifically, to me at least, it is much more fun, intriguing and interesting when viewed as a natural phenomenon from the natural world and interpreted in metaphor.

For example, one of my favorite metaphors that I use to describe how acupuncture works is that the acupuncture meridians are giant waterways within the body. And just as when a beaver builds a dam in the river that stops the water from flowing smoothly, so, too, will a physical or emotional injury cause a blockage in an acupuncture meridian.

These acupuncture meridians are like little rivers in our body, and these rivers, or pathways, are the source of our energy and our well-being. When these energetic pathways open and allow chi, or our life force, to flow smoothly and without any blockages, then we feel great; we are without pain, and have an abundance of energy. But the moment we have any type of health problem, from painful knees or headaches, to prostatitis, hot flashes, PMS, reduced sex drive, infertility, arthritis, or eczema, we know that according to acupuncture theory, we have a blockage in one or more of our meridians.

The remedy in acupuncture is to use the painless needles to unblock the meridians, and free the stagnant, or stuck, energy out from where it had been blocking the river from flowing smoothly. We have many meridians in our body; from the colon meridian, which governs digestion and the skin, to the kidney meridian, which governs sex drive, energy, motivation, courage and urination. The heart meridian governs our emotions and dictates our ability to be vulnerable and open in relationships. The liver meridian has a lot to do with headaches and digestion, or feelings of resentment and being overwhelmed.

To return to our original question, “How does acupuncture work?” The answer is complex and can be answered in many ways. One comment that I hear again and again from my patients, however, is, “I don’t know how or why this works, but everyone else in my office has gotten sick from this flu that’s going around, and I still feel great!” Or, “I don’t know why, but I feel more relaxed and able to cope with stress when I get my acupuncture treatments.” Or, “I don’t know what you did, but my diarrhea/constipation has gone away completely.”

Frankly, I love the healing and transformative powers of acupuncture, and I am constantly amazed at the various results each of my patients report to me. I consider myself to be about the biggest skeptic on the face of the planet, but when I hear my patients coming in week after week, and reporting really amazing and positive outcomes from their treatment, it makes me very happy.

Last week, when I entered the treatment room to remove a patient’s acupuncture

needles, I startled him from a very deep sleep. When he finally awoke, got dressed and came back out to the reception area, he said: “Boy, I don’t think I’ve experienced that deep of a relaxation in a long time!”

Perhaps you are a skeptic too? Good! I invite you to find an acupuncturist and, together, as a team, you can work to select the best ways to heal and return to the best health possible. From someone who is a skeptic, I can promise you that acupuncture can help you heal.

Let’s show the world of Western medicine that there IS a reason for the insurance companies to keep paying for acupuncture, and that it really does work!