.jpg)
Acupuncture scientific breakthrough
New groundbreaking research shows that the insertion of an acupuncture needle into the skin disrupts the branching point of nerves called C fibres. These C fibres transmit low-grade sensory information over very long distances by using Merkel cells as intermediaries. Dr. Morry Silberstein of the Curtin University of Technology will publish his research in the Journal of Theoretical Biology later this year.
We have never really had a scientific explanation for how acupuncture actually works,” he said. In the absence of a scientific rationale, acupuncture has not been widely used in the mainstream medical community. If we can explain the process scientifically, we can open it to full scientific scrutiny and develop ways to use it as a part of medical treatments.”
Dr. Silberstein mentions that they have known, for some time, that the acupuncture points show lower electrical resistance than other nearby areas of the skin. His research specifically pinpoints that the C fibres actually branch exactly at acupuncture points. Scientists don’t know exactly what role C fibres play in the nervous system, but Dr. Silverstein theorizes that the bundle of nerves exists to maintain arousal or wakefulness. The insertion of the acupuncture needle disrupts this circuit and numbs our sensitivity to pain.”
Acupuncture for pain relief is actually being taught to American Air Force physicians deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (2009) by Dr. Richard Niemtzow MD, PhD, MPH and editor of Medical Acupuncture. His technique called “Battlefield Acupuncture” relieves severe pain for several days and is a variation of acupuncture, which inserts very tiny semi-permanent needles at specific acupoints on the skin of the ear that blocks pain signals from reaching the brain.
"This is one of the fastest pain attenuators in existence," said Dr. Niemtzow, who is the Consultant for complementary and alternative medicine for the Surgeon General of the Air Force, and is affiliated with Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda. "The pain can be gone in five minutes."
It has taken quite a long time for Western medicine to embrace acupuncture even though it was introduced in the early 1970’s after contacts with China improved.
Professor Tsuei mentions: “In 1972 the respected New York Times columnist James Reston underwent an emergency appendectomy while in China. He later wrote about acupuncture treatment for post-operative pain that was very successful. This report attracted attention and many American physicians and researchers went to China to observe and learn acupuncture techniques.”
Since then, only a few controlled studies were done in the West. Yale researchers proved its effectiveness for cocaine addiction in 2000 and published their findings in the August 14 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
A North Korean researcher, Kim Bonghan, published papers in the early 1960’s and his research was confirmed by the Japanese researchers Fujiwara and Yu in 1967. Unfortunately his research took almost 40 years to be confirmed through studies done on rats, rabbit and pigs with Stereo-microscope photographs and electron microsopy.
The amazing photo shows the stereomicroscopic image of acupuncture meridians:
“Assemblies of tubular structures 30 to 100 micro-meters wide (red blood cells are 6-8 micro-meters in diameter). Apparently these structures have remained undiscovered for so long because they are almost transparent and so thin that they are barely visible with low-magnification surgical microscopes. They are also easily confused with fibrin, which coagulates and obscures these structures when there is bleeding in dissected tissues. Now that they have been rediscovered, researchers are investigating their composition and function. The tubular structures that make up Bonghan channels contain a flowing liquid that includes abundant hyaluronic acid, a substance that cushions and lubricates the joints, eyes, skin and even heart valves. Also visible in the photographs are small granules of DNA or microcells about 1-2 micro-meters in diameter that contain chromosomal material highly reactive to stem-cell antibody stains. When these cells were isolated and then induced to differentiate, they grew into cells of all three germ layers. These may be our body's natural source of pluripotent adult stem cells, with the potential to develop into any cell in the body”
Russian researchers in 1991 at The Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Novosibirsk, USSR, in a research project lasting several years, discovered how the human body conducts light. They found that the light conducting ability of the human body exists only along the meridians, and can enter and exit only along the acupuncture points. Dr. Kaznachejew, a professor of physics said:
“This seems to prove that we have a light transferal system in our body somewhat like optical fiber. It appears that the light can even travel when the light canal is bent, or totally twisted. The light appears to be reflected from the inner surface, appearing to go in some sort of zigzag track. You can explain this through traditional electromagnetic light theory as it is used in optical fiber communications.”
This finding has been confirmed by a 1992 study in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a 2005 study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine where moxibustion and infrared thermography were used to trace meridian pathways.
There might be a “light body” after all.
Read more of Tima Vlasto's articles
Resources:
Studies:
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Auricular Acupuncture for Cocaine Dependence.S. Kelly Avants, PhD; Arthur Margolin, PhD; Theodore R. Holford, PhD; Thomas R. Kosten, MD Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2305-2312.
Immunomodulatory Effects of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Allergic Asthma: A Randomized Controlled Study.Stefanie Joos, M.D. Department of Anaesthetics, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Research:
Meridians conduct light by Dr. Sergei Pankratov, Moskow, Published by Raum and Zeit, Germany,1991.Translated from the German by Wolfgang Mitschrich
Bonghan Channels in Acupuncture By David Milbradt, LAc, Acupunture Today
Bonghan Duct and Acupuncture Meridian as Optical Channel of Biophoton
Curtin University of Technology These C fibres transmit low-grade sensory information over very long distances by using Merkel cells as intermediaries.
Scientific Evidence in Support of Acupuncture and Meridian Theory Professor Julia J. Tsuei M.D., F.A.C.O.G.
Medical acupuncture gaining acceptance by the US Air Force
Acupuncture is promising treatment for cocaine addiction, Yale researchers find
Photo Credit: Acupuncture Today: A stereomicroscopic image of the lymphatic vessel around the caudal vena cava of a rat. The photograph (left) and its illustration (right) show the novel threadlike structure (solid arrow) that passes throw the lymphatic valve (open arrow). The photograph was taken in vivo and in situ, and a piece of black paper was put under the lymphatic vessel to exhibit the target clearly. The scale bar is 100 micro-meters..
Wikimedia Commons: Physican inserting needle
Comments
I've been using acupressure successfully for a long time, now. I'm really happy to hear that it will be proven by science, because perhaps more people will be helped once the experts prove it really works.
None of the articles you cite are in refereed journals. Until papers appear that have been subjected to peer review, I think maintaining skepticism is in order.
Sure, be skeptical. acupuncture does not need you- it has existed for THOUSANDS of years. Americans are so idiotically amusing. You swallow whatever you are told because your brains are all fried on fear and loathing. Health begins in you own body- not with some idiotic peer review. You need a pathway ? Pull your head out of your ass and look at what is really going on b/c you are not practicing reality.
Interesting and fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
My experience, first as an acupuncture patient and now as a TCM practitioner, definitely falls under the category of "anecdotal evidence"... that being said, I'll just say that this article is an interesting conventional medical treatment of the subject of acupuncture pain modulation but does not even begin to address the mechanisms by which acupuncture treats other maladies that are not pain oriented. Look to fMRI studies for that. But let's keep plugging way at it!
... oh, and BTW, subjecting CAM data to "peer review" in an AMA/FDA/Big Pharma-dominated medical mileux hardly gaurantees quality assessment in the USA...
It's normal scientific practise to publish in an accepted academic journal first, be subjected to peer review, and THEN go to the press. Doing it the other way round is highly unusual, and suggests that the research may not be exactly what it purports to be.
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with the research, or that anyone is being deceptive, but I do have to wonder why the normal route isn't being taken.
I find this statement: "If we can explain the process scientifically, we can open it to full scientific scrutiny and develop ways to use it as a part of medical treatments” laughable considering that acupuncture has been successfully used for upwards of 2,000 years to treat medical conditions. On the other hand, I'm glad to see that there is more and more research going into figuring out how this stuff works bioanatomically.
Acupuncture does not need to convince the skeptical.
Acupuncture works.
Acupuncture: experimental medicine based in 3000 years of experience
Modern medicine: experimental medicine based on 150 years of science.
Acupuncture: experimental medicine based in 3000 years of experience (according to whom?)
Modern medicine: experimental medicine based on 150 years of science. (according to whom?)
Thank you. Well said.
Acupuncture was in America considerably before the 1970's when relations were normalised with China. My grandfather I know used it, and probably my uncle too. As a martial artist, I use it myself. Acupuncture was able to fix a back injury where the western doctors wanted to fuse my vertebrae together, so in that instance it was the superior treatment. If I had a ruptured organ, I'd probably go for surgery. So I use complementary medicine and I'd have to say some times one is much better than the other for different problems.
That said, Chinese medicine has been around for a much longer time that western, and I don't have any particular need to have westerners verify or approve a form of treatment I already know works.
There are things " we know knows
we know we don't knows
we don't know don't knows ! " so be humble ! from Rumsfield
Published in a non-peer reviewed journal OK as long as readers are informed.
" Blocks pain signals from reaching the brain " does not agree with Classical Chinese Medical proposed
theory that acupuncture is for breaking the blockage flow of Qi ( & Blood ).
I, too, am glad to see research being conducting in the field of acupuncture. However, what time and time again frustrates me is the very unscientific conclusions that are drawn from these studies. Yes, perhaps this study has uncovered a physiological phenomena that occurs during an acupuncture treatment, but to then surmise that this is how and why acupuncture works is incomplete. Let's say we looked at how physical exercise benefits the body. A study shows that endorphin levels increase. To then draw the conclusion that the benefit of exercise is that it makes people feel better due to the increase of endorphins would be overlooking all of the other physiological processes at work. This is what I've seen in most of the articles on acupuncture research - a close look at just one aspect of what occurs. From my studies and my own personal experience as both a patient and practitioner of Chinese Medicine, I know that acupuncture can do more than just mask pain. Until recent generations, scientists were people who gained their insights and inspirations for study by observing nature, using both hemispheres of their brains, by looking at the whole picture. The advancements of science and the tools we use for diagnosis and research have taken us far, but, perhaps, also, too far away from the kind of minds, in many instances, that first made these leaps. When we glimpse the world from "under a microscope" we lose sight of the big picture.
And I'm not implying that we should shun the bio-sciences or the scientific method, just that we should be more scientific about the way we draw our conclusions.
Because of the way we diagnose and treat in Chinese medicine we would need over a hundred thousand patients to have the same set of issues in order to qualify the specific treatment. ie- 5 western patients diagnosed with a peptic ulcer may have five different diagnosis in TCM.
we need to be educating ourselves beyond what is offered to us by means of media...in the western world, we are now scratching the surface in terms of what TCM is, what we can do with Qi (vital force), and the list goes on. It is to ridicule a human being or for that matter, ridicule our capacity of understanding to confine a medicine of nearly 4000 years to this article, or others done in the west....but it is a valid step when we look at these articles in terms of what is being understood by us in the west, and keep sight of the long road we have ahead of us. It even becomes a matter of being humble, not imposing our methods of validation to other cultures, but learning with them new ways of gathering information and validating them as well through different methods, AKA... clinical evidence, and so on.
This is possibly the stupidest article I've ever read in my life. There's no "proof" here. Half of the anatomical structures here don't even exist. Branching points of acupuncture points? There's no evidence on planet earth that acupuncture points exist. And now you're talking about their directly linked branching points?
Get a science book.
good argument, Anonymous. I love your ability to back up yourself with scientific facts that prove your point. Oh wait, you didn't do that. I guess by your logic I should claim that you don't exist because I don't know anything about you; not even your name. I'll ignore the fact that you've typed something (evidence) and just pretend you don't exist because its easier for me to say there's no proof of your existence (real people have names or at least nicknames, so if you don't have one you probably are a load of crap, not a human being, after all).
The article isn't about proving acupuncture works, anyhow. This article, is about a doctor who has performed research and used new technology to try and understand why the majority humanity has used Acupuncture with satisfactory results throughout history to help them with their healthcare.
Get a history book
Acupuncture aside, this article is very interesting. Regardless of where you stand on the alternative medicine debate we can all agree that the discovery of a previously unknown structure that appears to be "body-wide" and responsible for some sort of inter cellular communication is amazing!
E² Acupuncture Science Since 2600BC
Any skeletal muscle pain can be easily cured by Tradition Chinese Medicine (TCM) Acupuncture.
For 4,610 years (2600BC), Yellow Explorer's time. Until now acupuncturist continues this ancient TCM practice to eliminating all diseases (trying). All the main hospitals of China use this to treat most patients as busy as KFC fast food.
I have my Plantar fasciitis cured twice by my own EE Acupuncture, last cured was on march/2011 since then pain remains free and no sign of coming back. (E²/EE: Eliminates Excessive Yins/-Toxin/Electrons)
Aren't you seeking and unlock this 4,610+ years old hidden scientific facts of Acupuncture
For latest update, please check/click on my site below
https://sites.google.com/site/jameschongpainfree/
cheers
James
I never thought acupunture worked, being a skeptic and never seeing any evidence, I had it once before and it didnt work for the condition I had. I recently reluctantly tried it on the urging of a friend at a free birthing clinic in a developing country. I found the acupuncturists to be very knowlegable about my condition which is Hashimotos. And they stuck the needles in deep this time, unlike the last time I had it. That was two months ago. I had been severedly fatigued everyday at the same time for a year without missing a day, and 24-48 hours after the treatment, I was not experiencing any fatigue. Its been 2 months without any fatigue, I would say it was either a miracle or it really does work. The quality may vary with practitioners I have guessed, make sure the needles go deep, you should feel a pressure feeling and a paralysis feeling. You will be unable to move for the duration of the treatment. Even while getting the treatment I was thinking this will not work!! And they moxibusted on the needles to, which gave off a lot of smoke, and I was even more skeptical, hating the idea of smoke for health. But by geez it worked, I still cant beleive it. There is so much we dont know, so much knowlege has been lost, just think of all the wars that are going on now, multiply that times 5,000 years and think of of all the things that were destroyed in the chaos. Hell, maybe god even exists....
Aren't you seeking and unlock this 4,610+ years old
hidden scientific facts of TCM Acupuncture practice.
Now you got the scientific facts from https://sites.google.com/site/jameschongpainfree/
google.com/site/jameschongpainfree
If you're remain unconvinced, this has shown that you are know nothing about science but pretend to be one. for instance The Mad Man vs E2 Acupuncture science over http://www.topix.com/forum/life/veterans/TFDRMKGFDQM4H0C9J
You're welcome to prove E² acupuncture science incorrect.
Of cause you're entitle your opinions
For many perhaps thousand years of criticism such bad, dead, voodoo magic and snake oil sales man acupuncture science. Especially from those top most profession.
Don’t you think TCM Acupuncture deserve an online apology.
James
I have recently started acupuncture due to migraines. At first i was skeptical but after trying several different medications with no lasting results i thought i would give acupuncture a try. Let me tell you IT HAS DONE WONDERS. I get it done 2 times a week and my migraines are less frequent with every visit. I started off with having a migraine for a MONTH straight and with all the meds i could not get any relief. After the firs acupuncture treatment there was a breakthrough and i did not have a migraine. i decided to go back and it has only improved. I am also being treated for neck pain. I won't lie sometimes the treatment can be uncomfortable but the next day you feel great!
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!