Researchers applied acupuncture needles to points on the hand linked to pain relief in traditional Chinese medicine. Blood flow decreased in certain areas of the brain within seconds of volunteers reporting a heaviness in their hands, a sign the acupuncture is working correctly, Rosen says. ... When a few subjects reported pain, their scans showed an increase of blood to the same brain areas.
...
The brain regions involved also are loaded with dopamine, a "reward" chemical that surges in reaction to everything from cocaine to food, beautiful faces and money. The reduced blood flow could lead to dopamine changes that trigger a "cascade" effect, releasing endorphins, the brain's natural pain-relieving and comforting chemicals, Rosen says.
However, read the fine print.
controlled research on pain and addiction patients will be needed to prove the point. Brain scans should be done on patients getting acupuncture at real and bogus points, he says, and patients shouldn't know which group they're in.
The placebo effect is so powerful it could affect blood flow, says UCLA neurobiologist Christopher Evans, a pain expert. There's even some evidence that placebos can increase brain chemicals, such as endorphins, Hammerschlag says.
This is still a long way away from "hard evidence" of first principles drivers. Many such studies fall apart when one includes a control where needles are inserted at areas not associated with traditional Chinese acupuncture. If it doesn't matter where you stick the needle...
There's one treatment I wish you could witness Bill. I should ask Heather to come online to describe it. Pairs of needles are placed down the back to clear out "yucky" engergy (for lack of a better term).
It is a treatment similar to many cultural traditions of spa-type treatments used on the back including: using heated cupping on the back (China) hitting the back with switches (Russian), scraping the back with metal (China), scratching the back (US), placing hot stones along the back (Asia/US). burning the back (Africa).
And there's also this weird thing in human history where people like to hit, whip, and cut open their backs during times of extreme sorrow, empathy, and sympathy. Though due to some religious practices this action has often turned into a simple act of somebody "showing off" how faithful they are.
Anyway - what's remarkable about the treatment is that after placing these tiny little needles in the points at a very shallow depth (less than 1/16") you often see pretty large red spots (2"-6" across) develop around the needles on the skin and you can feel heat pouring off the back of the needles. When the "energy" is "cleared" the skin turns back to its normal color, the muscles under the skin relax and often the needles drop out.
In this case I'm trying to say that often acupuncture isn't the only way to get the body to move energy around. But what I've witnessed is a pretty dramatic reaction to some pretty tiny needles. So needles might not be the only way - but they might be a stronger and more exact way of activating certain responses from the body.
BTW - If any needle can create the same reaction how come so many children scream after their flu shots?
BTW - If any needle can create the same reaction how come so many children scream after their flu shots?
1) The thickness (gage) of the needle.
2) The depth that the needle is put in. The injection is intramuscular - deep in the deltoid.
3) The fact that one injects fluid into solid muscle matter - a place where there wasn't previously a space for that fluid to go.
That really ticks the body off - the intended effect in the first place. The immune system responds to the damage you created, and finds the killed virus. It then develops antibodies to it.
There's one treatment I wish you could witness Bill. I should ask Heather to come online to describe it. Pairs of needles are placed down the back to clear out "yucky" engergy (for lack of a better term).
It is a treatment similar to many cultural traditions of spa-type treatments used on the back including: using heated cupping on the back (China) hitting the back with switches (Russian), scraping the back with metal (China), scratching the back (US), placing hot stones along the back (Asia/US). burning the back (Africa).
Why not use me as guinea pig at camp? I'm game! I really like that kind of pain/pleasure, particularly when I'm stressed or overtrained.
often acupuncture isn't the only way to get the body to move energy around
I'm still not comfortable with the "moving energy around" analogy, but I agree with your general assessment. Acupressure just uses fingers. And there was a time years back when some people in U.Va. sports physical therapy were using laser/electrical acupuncture on me. No needles; just laser and AC.
On a more simplistic note, our own kotekitae pretty much does the same thing. The post-exercise endorphin buzz is one of the big reasons I do it!
I need to use two winky faces next time. I was joking about the kids and the syringes. You can actually fit an acupuncture needle inside most syringe needles.
When I was ill a few years back I got needle with electicity hooked up to the ends. When the timer ran out on the machine that charged the needles it played the chinese national anthem. It made the experience kind of surreal.
Also - acupuncture isn't just needles. It's just needles when western MD's take a six week course and get "certified". Traditional acupuncture involves many more techniques (pulse taking, moxabustion, akabani, etc) and a very creative use of a method similar to the socratic method to encourage individuals to become more aware of the choices they're making that are contributing to their mental and physical state getting thrown out of balance.
I think that's part of the reason acupuncture is hard to study using conventional western scientific approaches - if you just measure the needles you're not measuring an acupuncture treatment (with all the above items) - you're measuring a needle stick.
Another aspect to "alternative" therapies, such as Acupuncture, which as Dana said is only a piece of TCM methodology, is the level of unwellness in the patient. The more accute the problem the better Modern, "Western", conventional, MD-type, medicine performs. The TCM-type of approach has more to do with balance and health maintenance/optimization.
ted
"There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - P.J. O'Rourke
Hi Dana, just a few acupuncture comments. Korea, according to some documentation is credited with being the birthplace of acupuncture with finds going back to 5,000 BC.
Both my wife, who flew to the Orient for treatment and successful cure early this year, and for myself to remove leg paralysis and cure arthritis as well. For us, acupuncture is much more than a visit to Euphoria and pain deadening, rather an actual healing of the body. Each time I undergo treatment, I feel the #### of thousands of needles. There are not many places, and probably no place on my personal turf that has not been introduced to the tip of the needle. There are times and places where three needles entered a single point, and from different angles, rather than one or two. Sometimes they are heated by placing a bed of coals on top of them.
The heated cupping is a Korean "invention," copied by the Chinese. What they use for chemicals, their purposes, and how they do it is both unique and creative. There are more modern and effective methods of "cupping." I've underwent both and have pictures somewheres. I've also been set on fire [you mention burning of the back in Africa], several different types of moxibustion. And as you mentioned, acupuncture is more than needles, it is Chiropractic as well, where I've had by ribs kicked and my back jumped upon. Those types of treatments plus others that I was subjected to are traditional and ancient, rarely experienced outside the Orient and experienced by even fewer non-orientals. My doctor claims to have injected needles into the skulls of patients in order to cure blindness and take patients out of comas, and was successful in providing cures.
Your paragraph, Dana, that caught my attention and started me writing this, was the following:
Anyway - what's remarkable about the treatment is that after placing these tiny little needles in the points at a very shallow depth (less than 1/16") you often see pretty large red spots (2"-6" across) develop around the needles on the skin and you can feel heat pouring off the back of the needles. When the "energy" is "cleared" the skin turns back to its normal color, the muscles under the skin relax and often the needles drop out.
A common average needle length for general purpose usage is 1-1/2 inches long with a #30 diameter. The depth of insertion varies, and are often deeper than the 1/16" mentioned, depending upon the point they are attempting to stimulate.
Some of the needles inserted into me were six inches, and they were inserted through the stomach, though the hip joints, and through the knee joints. They were fairly thin, maybe also #30 gauge as well. The needles used to insert into the brain are also 6" long, but are thicker and when I first saw them I thought to myself "miniature railroad spikes"
The usage of them on me was considered and if my paralysis was considered to be rooted in the brain rather than dead nerves from spinal chord damage, they would have drilled a hole in the back of my head and inserted those needles, which they call "The Golden Needles" directly into my brain. Like I wrote, I underwent serious acupuncture treatment sessions.
Also, almost never were there any red spots surrounding the needles, nor was there any sensation of "heat pouring off the back of the needles." Never did any needles drop out, and there were thousands inserted, unless they were properly inserted. However, needles can sometimes orient themselves in patterns and directions according to internal energy. Also on occasion blood is drawn as well. Often there is no sensation of being pierced, often it feels like a mosquito attack, and occasionally one feels as if he can actually levitate right off the surface upon which he is laying [from pain, not euphoria]. Wow, it felt good when it stopped, and occasionally needles in certain places, especially in the face, can bring on pain and resulting fainting.
Since you like famous women, woman role models, and such, Dana, I'll write something that my doctor related to me through a translator that when young, she suffered a stroke which pretty much paralyzed one side of her body. She was brought to the top of a mountain where she was left alone without food and water. There she taught herself what to do and how to do it, and walked down from the mountain, unassisted. After that she received training in Acupuncture, Chiropractic and associated medicine in order to dedicate herself to healing others. Today she travels the world healing the sick and injured.
Acupuncture is complicated and science, like so many other things, may never be able to figure out how it works.
Just regarding the insertion of 6 inch needles into joints, the brain, and the abdomen...
1) not every traditional medicine technique is exactly what it appears to be.
2) inserting needles into joints without a VERY good reason and VERY good sterilization can result in septic arthritis, a very painful, potentially joint damaging or destroying infection. Unless someone has data that shows convincingly that sticking a needle into your joint space (once in the space, you're in the space, no reason to see if you can go all the way through with a long needle, btw) benefits people, I would not advise anyone to let someone do this to you. We are very cautious when we use needles to sample joint fluid and always consider whether there's a good enough reason even though the procedure is quite safe. There would have to be quite another rationale for why moving a needle around in the joint fluid would realign your ki chi qi etc.
3) inserting needles into your brain, hole drilled or not, would be extremely unsafe and could lead to a life threatening or stroke causing hemorrhage (especially 6 inches, good GOD!) or infection of the brain matter or the fluid around it. These infections are very dangerous, much harder to treat than infections elsewhere because antibiotics don't get into the brain well and immune cells don't fight well there, and commonly lead to death or disability. Just FYI the mortality rate from a brain biopsy (a piece taken, but by a neurosurgeon under the best conditions and only once) is 1 to a few percent and the major injury rate is higher, more like 5 percent. I have also seen deep brain stimulators placed to combat disease like parkinsons which would precisely replicate the technique described--needles deep in the brain. I have seen crippling hemorrhage result just after two. I would highly recommend everyone stay away from brain needling.
4) needles into the abdomen, even when done in the context of having a large amount of fluid between the body wall and organs, still results in a major complication rate of a little less than one percent (bleeds, punctures, leaks, or infections). This is a single pass performed by an MD often under radiologic guidance and under controlled, sterile conditions. Needle biopsies have to be done under the exquisitely accurate control of CT guidance to be safe. Inserting needles into people's bellies without radiologic guidance again lacks an acupuncture rationale (if you're entering the space, why would it matter where; if the puncture of an organ god forbid is desired, why isn't the organ the target and not the surface site which would vary?) and can lead to puncture of internal organs requiring surgery to repair holes and bleeding vessels and can cause life threatening infection with all the bacteria normally found in stool.
Before doctors had the sense to think about what kind of research they were doing, sham surgery (surgery done on unsuspecting patients involving the incision but not the supposedly beneficial part of the procedure) showed that wounding someone can make them feel better afterwards even without the procedure in question (say, internal mammary artery ligation). This kind of placebo effect has to be considered when looking at uncontrolled data especially when it involves potentially injurious treatments.
The treatment Dana describes is one of many I do from the Five Element Tradition of Acupuncture. The practices of acupuncturists are highly diverse depending on their country of origin, who trained them, and their particular specialty. There are many traditions of acupuncture from China, Korea, Japan, India, and styles that have migrated to the West. There are also traditions of family styles, much like the martial arts, that add their unique flavor in treatment.
The treatment is considered a check for and drain of "aggressive energy" from the Associated Effect Points(AEPs) located on the back. The points are bilateral and run along the spine. The points correspond to the Lung, Pericardium, Heart, Liver, Spleen and Kidney. These are all yin organs that are considered able to collect such "aggressive energy." These are some of the only points that when needled shallowly turn red in the presence of "aggressive energy." The lung AEP often turns red on someone with a history of smoking.
Usually the more trauma, physical or emotional, that the person has experienced the more likely the points will show up red. Once the redness has cleared most people report feeling like they just had a really good massage.
Treatments vary according to the needs of the situation. I treat my share of people with neck, back, knee, and hip pain. Usually the bigger the block, especially on a very physical level, the bigger the needle and more aggressive (painful) the technique.
I also treat people with depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, migraines and eating disorders. My needling technique in these cases tends to be much more subtle. The Seirin needles I use are made in Japan and are sold as "the painless one." My goal is to get a needle sensation such as the dull ache mentioned by Bill or a warm tingling feeling. Different points have different expected sensations.
I have more to add on pulse changes...blood flow...and successful treatment.
I continually am in search of how what worked, Heather, and your explanation helps. Some areas where western "medicine" fails, Oriental medicine has worked for me.
The first question I have for you is do you know how and why the suction-cup method works? I have had both ancient and modern suction-cup techniques applied. I ask you because those who have performed these techniques on me neither speak nor understand English.
Hi Allen,
I am glad acupuncture and cupping worked so well for you. Here is some information on cupping for you.
In the past, cups were made from animal horns, bamboo, ceramic, brass and iron. Today, cups are made of glass and come in a variety of sizes to fit specific body surfaces. By putting heat near the opening, suctioned out air creates a vacuum which then pulls the skin into the glass. A single cup or multiple cups are used on acupuncture points to break up local congestion and relieve pain.
Cupping is a technique that is especially useful in the treatment of problems of local qi, or blood stagnation in the channels, and is usually performed as an alternative to acupuncture. It helps remove deep stagnation from the muscle layers and restores balance in the circulatory system of the body. The indications for cupping include warming and promoting the free flow of qi and blood in the meridians, and diminishing swelling and pains. This process should not be painful, but your skin can be temporarily reddened, raised, and have a bruised look following treatment.
There are several ways that cupping can be used.
-Running Cupping- cup edges can be lubricated and placed over large, flat areas of the back or legs, and then moved up and down to strongly increase qi flow.
-Stationary Cupping- cup can be place on acupuncture points without movement.
-Combination- cups can be placed over needles for deeper stimulation
The resulting pressure encourages the flow of qi and blood in the area beneath the cup, and the local stagnation begins to clear.
The old method consisted of putting alcohol in the cups and setting fire to it to burn the air, thus creating a vacuum so they would hold when applied.
The "new" method consists of plastic cups with a nipple at one end. The cup is positioned, and then a device, shaped like a handgun is placed over the nipple and the trigger is repeatedly pulled until the required suction is obtained.
Often, blood is pulled thru the skin with the "new" method. After the cups are removed, a device shaped like a pen and of that size, but has a pointed end is used to repeatedly break the skin, causing additional blood flow. This treatment was used in addition to acupuncture and chiropractic to reduce the paralysis in my legs and there is always some sort of permanent success.
The first time I was visited by this person, who is famous in Korea and travels the world healing people, I was slated to have my hips replaced, one at the time, due to severe and painful Arthritis. After 3-1/2 weeks of treatment the Arthritis was completely gone.
I feel that Oriental medicine works wonders where western medicine fails miserably.
BTW: I thought I had made a post last night, but it's not here, so maybe not. This one is a capsule of what I wrote.
4) needles into the abdomen, even when done in the context of having a large amount of fluid between the body wall and organs, still results in a major complication rate of a little less than one percent (bleeds, punctures, leaks, or infections). This is a single pass performed by an MD often under radiologic guidance and under controlled, sterile conditions. Needle biopsies have to be done under the exquisitely accurate control of CT guidance to be safe. Inserting needles into people's bellies without radiologic guidance again lacks an acupuncture rationale (if you're entering the space, why would it matter where; if the puncture of an organ god forbid is desired, why isn't the organ the target and not the surface site which would vary?) and can lead to puncture of internal organs requiring surgery to repair holes and bleeding vessels and can cause life threatening infection with all the bacteria normally found in stool.
Ian - does it matter that Acupuncture needles are solid, about as thick as a human hair (or less) and not hallow? Shouldn't that reduce the risk? Not eliminate, but reduce?
Might it also matter that you aren't trying to add or remove tissue or fluids from the area with an acupuncture needle, whereas with western medicine that is usually the purpose?
With respect for those who know where I'm coming from and how I feel about acupuncture, I'll be brief; very brief. Heather and Dana, Ted and KZ, a little over 22 years ago I woke up from a coma to discover that I had been hit from behind and dragged 100 feet and then flipped head-first into a stone-filled ditch by a pickup truck as I started my daily eight-mile run. I had died and had a neat little out-of-the-body experience as well. I was a good fighter with decent physical attributes up until then. When the fog lifted from the coma I also discovered I was a paraplegic – nothing from below my ribcage worked properly, my legs were paralyzed and the prognosis was that I was going to remain that way.
I managed to get out of a wheelchair and taught myself how to walk again – To this day I still don’t know how I did it, but I did.
I have spent much of those past 22 years in living hell, both in physical suffering and emotional torment. Acupuncture came along and pulled me out, well quite of the way out.
I’ve had intensive acupuncture done by a famous Korean doctor on three separate occasions to correct major [permanent?] nerve and trauma [same thing?] damage, and each time I get something back -- substantially; my wife had this intensive care performed once, successfully, for a debilitating spinal problem as well. Acupuncture works and can replace surgery.
It’s a waste of my time and energy to debate something which western medicine admittingly knows so little about. When it comes to spinal chord injuries and related trauma western doctors, in my opinion, often do more damage, and cause more pain and harm due to their surgeries than what existed before. The types of acupuncture that I have experienced did not go without calculated dangers. So what’s the big deal?
It made the experience kind of surreal.
Here is some information on cupping for you. 