Understanding Acupuncture
bringing energy into balance.
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General Acupuncture Info >>
Acupuncture, a combination of the Latin words, “acus” (needle) and “pungare” (to piercefv), probably has its origins in Northern India or Tibet six or seven thousand years ago. We know for certain, however, that the Chinese were the first to effectively organize the study and the practice of acupuncture. “Stone needles” are mentioned as early as 500 B.C. The first organized approaches to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) appear during at the beginning of the Han Dynasty (207 B.C.- 221 A.D.)
Dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and his physician, referred to in the “Huang Di Nei Jing” (Classic Textbook of Physical Medicine of the Yellow Emperor) conceptualizes the early development of the major theories of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
For the record, the Chinese term for acupuncture is “zhenjiu”, which actually means needle (zhen) and moxibustion (jiu). Moxibustion, which some of my clients have seen me use, is the burning of an herb, Artemesia vulgaris, and using the heat generated to stimulate selected acupuncture points.
How it works
Let's begin this discussion of veterinary acupuncture by comparing the way two different systems of medicine view how acupuncture works.
Traditional Chinese Medicine attempts to understand (and then harmonize) the interaction of the various systems in the body as they relate to themselves, and to understand the interaction of these systems with the external environment as well. D.H. Jagger in Schoen's “Veterinary Acupuncture: Ancient Art to Modern Medicine”, states it beautifully:
“The key in traditional Chinese medicine is the idea of balance or harmony, not only within the body as in homeostasis, including neuroendocrine functioning, the emotional state and hereditary influences, but also in consideration of the balance between the body and its external environment. The latter would include nutritional factors, temperature and humidity, air quality, social factors, microorganisms in the environment, and seasonal influences, among others. Therefore, more emphasis is placed on the conception of health as a relative state dependent on the environment. Health is viewed as existing in a continual state of flux because the internal and external environments are forever changing.”
The accurate placement of acupuncture needles attempts to bring the energy flowing through meridians (channels) into balance.
Western Medicine, after a long period of non-acceptance, has finally begun to recognize many of the benefits of acupuncture. In an attempt to understand how acupuncture works, western science has examined the effects of acupuncture through a neurophysiologic basis. We will examine three popular and well researched theories:
- The Neural Gate (or Gate) Theory; simply put, this postulates that one of the analgesic effects of acupuncture involves the spinal cord. When stimulated by needle placement in an acupuncture point, an impulse travels down a peripheral nerve toward the spinal cord to “close a gate” in the spinal cord, blocking or reducing the transmission of pain impulses to the brain.
- Autonomic Theories; needle stimulation of acupuncture points may be transmitted to the internal organs by special neurons located in the spinal cord. It seems that the parasympathetic or the sympathetic components of the visceral nerves can be selectively stimulated thereby regulating the function of the various internal organs.
- Humeral Theories; experiments suggest that acupuncture causes the release of substances that are neutralized by narcotic antagonistic drugs. These are drugs that reverse the effect of narcotics. These substances have been demonstrated to be endorphins and enkephalins, compounds which mimic the effects of morphine.
There are literally dozens of other theories that attempt to explain how acupuncture works, at least from a western perspective.