Acupuncture has been around for 5,000 years, and if you look to the news headlines it seems as if it’s a new and innovative alternative to medicine. Headlines like “Want a Baby? Acupuncture may Benefit Fertility” and “Acupuncture Proven for Stroke Rehabilitation” and “Acupuncture May Ease Nausea for Cancer Patients,” even pets are getting in on the action. But why is acupuncture so popular? What is it and how can getting poked with hundreds of tiny needles improve your health and take away your chronic pain?

What is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture has been a popular form of alternative medicine since, as one theory suggests, ancient Chinese soldiers, wounded in battle by arrows, were miraculously cured of chronic conditions. Other theories suggest that acupuncture dates back to the Stone Age era from scientific findings of ancient hieroglyphs and pictographs displaying acupuncture procedures.

Acupuncture incorporates traditional Chinese medicine with modern medicine by using strategically placed stainless steel wire needles. The body is made up of pressure points, that are directly connected to the areas of the brain that control different facets of the body. For example, as Dr. Mao Shing Ni states in The Pain Channel’s episode titled “Acupuncture,” an acupuncture point in the foot can connect directly to the brain, directing the brain to send healing signals to the eye.

How Does Acupuncture Work?

The body is connected by several hundred acupuncture points. These points, according to Dr. Shing Ni and many other respected practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine, elicit a direct brain response to acupuncture. In theory, acupuncture points, if selected properly by trained practitioners like Dr. Shing Ni or Cynthia Cornell, our very own nurse practitioner who is one of the only NP’s in the country to be clinically trained and certified in acupuncture therapies, rebalance the body.

Balancing the body’s yin, yang and qi is essential, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, is essential to improving the immune system. According to Western Scientific Explanations of acupuncture, regulating the nervous system, a direct response to acupuncture points, increases endorphins as well as the immune system, balances blood pressure, blood flow and body temperature.

Endorphins, as we’ve mentioned many times before, help to decrease the amount of pain signals the brain receives from the body. The brain will release these endorphins under acupuncture treatments, thus increasing a feeling of well-being and decreasing pain.

Acupuncture for Chronic Pain

The National Institute of Health stated in 1997 that there is “clear evidence for acupuncture’s efficacy for treating postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, the nausea of pregnancy, and postoperative dental pain.” The NIH panel concluded that acupuncture is effective treatment for many chronic pain conditions.

One theory behind the reason acupuncture works so well for pain management, which has been revised many times since the early 60’s, is that acupuncture points are directly associated with nerve endings that send pain signals to the brain. According to Vanderbilt University, acupuncture stimulates the pain inhibitory nerve fibers, which lowers the pain input and therefore relieve the pain. Other similar Western theories that attempt to explain acupuncture for pain management use the same idea that acupuncture points literally ‘close’ the gates between the nerve endings that send pain and the brain.

Acupuncture is a highly effected pain management treatment for such conditions as migraines, tension-type headaches, arthritis and fibromyalgia. Acupuncture is a healing art, a tradition that encompasses the body, mind and spirit. It’s been shown to have a positive effect on chronic pain in children, as well as adults. While there still might not be a completely, clinical and scientific understanding of how acupuncture works and why it works so well, this form of alternative medicine is truly relieving pain for many chronic pain patients. 

See how it all works. Watch our recent Pain Channel episode filmed at the acclaimed Tao of Wellness in Santa Monica, California: http://painchannel.tv/

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