Acupuncture

Acupuncture – Ancient Wisdom and Scientific Basis

Tim H. Tanaka, Ph.D., R.Ac, RTCMP

Registered Acupuncturist and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner

Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

Brief History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture was first chronicled in the ancient Chinese medical text “Huang Di Nei Jing” (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), originating more than 2000 years ago.
Acupuncture has spread to Japan and Korea in the 6th century. Until the introduction of allopathic medicine from the West, acupuncture doctors were the primary medical physicians in many Asian countries. In conjunction with Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture was utilized for the treatment of virtually all acute and chronic illnesses during many centuries.

Acupuncture in the West

Acupuncture was mentioned sporadically in European texts since the late sixteenth century. Sir William Osler, a Canadian physician, often referred to as the “Father of Modern Medicine”, wrote about his clinical cases in the medical textbook, Principles and Practice of Medicine (1912 Edition), including a dramatic success in curing back pain by inserting needles (hat-pins) into tender points.[1]

A flurry of interest in acupuncture developed when the news story about acupuncture broke in the New York Times in 1971.[2]  The story was written by the Times’ foreign correspondent James Reston, who accompanied President Nixon’s visit to China.  He revealed his personal account of how acupuncture remarkably reduced his post-surgical abdominal pain.

The curiosity and excitement were further ignited shortly thereafter when a successful open-heart surgery was performed using only acupuncture as the anesthesia.[3]  There has been a sharp increase in the number of analgesic acupuncture studies published in English medical journals. Outcomes from the studies have strengthened the case for the usage of acupuncture as a safe, natural alternative to control pain.

Many physiotherapy and pain management clinics have begun offering acupuncture, as a part of their rehabilitation programs for patients who suffer from motor vehicle injuries (i.e. whiplash) and other musculoskeletal pain conditions. Previous studies indicated that the mechanisms behind acupuncture analgesia involve complex interactions between the central (multiple cortical and subcortical brain areas) and peripheral nervous systems.[4,5]

How is Acupuncture Used Today?

In recent years, acupuncture has been used not just for pain conditions, but also for a wide variety of health issues including internal organ disorders and psycho-emotional illnesses.  In addition, acupuncture has been utilized to control addictions [6] and manage obesity. [7]

Furthermore, acupuncture has been increasingly used to complement modem medical treatments, such as chemotherapy, [8] post-operative pain management, [9] and advanced assisted reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. [10]

Today, acupuncture is being provided not only in medical centers, but also offered in many other settings such as esthetic salons, anti-aging spas, wellness resorts, and even in some cruise ships, as the interest grows for the use of so-called acupuncture facial revitalization or cosmetic acupuncture, to enhance their facial appearances. [11-13]

How Does Acupuncture Work?

Acupuncture was developed with the understanding that there are twelve main channels, or “meridians,” running vertically across and throughout the body connecting the internal organs. It is a tenet of acupuncture that Qi (somewhat equivalent to the western idea of vitality or life force) flows along these meridian lines. According to traditional Asian medicine, more than 2,000 acupuncture points exist on the human body. Currently, the World Health Organization recognizes 361 points connected by meridian channels.[1]

The points used may be at the site of the complaint or further away. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is considered that good health requires a balance of forces in your body. Illnesses, pain, and discomfort arise when the flow is blocked or stagnated. Qi stagnation and Blood stasis (stagnation of old blood) are two of the most common diagnostic patterns in traditional Chinese medicine.  The primary therapeutic intent of traditional acupuncture is to remove these blockages and restore the proper flow within the body.

How does traditional Chinese medicine concept of “stagnated or blocked flow” translate into our modern medical understanding?

Ancient Chinese medicine doctors and acupuncturists have long ago discovered the importance of proper flow in our body for maintaining good health. From the Chinese medicine perspective, proper flow of blood (and qi) is considered the most important factor for our body to freely function without pain or illness.

Adequate blood flow is vital from modern physiological perspectives as well. Disturbances of blood flow to your major arteries and vital organs can result in serious health consequences. Our circulatory system maintains efficient delivery of oxygen and nutrients to organs and tissues and assists in the removal of metabolic waste. Various organ dysfunction, skin conditions, hormonal disorders, and symptoms such as being easily fatigued, lacking concentration, cold hands and feet, and becoming prone to injuries, are often associated with inadequate circulation.

Acupuncture and Blood Flow

One of the well-known physiological effects of acupuncture is the enhancement of blood flow. [2. 3] It has been demonstrated via experimental studies that acupuncture induces physiological responses locally (around the needled site), as well it elicits responses away from the stimulation point, including in organs inside the body.

For local blood flow, a series of laboratory experiments suggested that stimulating the body surface by acupuncture induces excitation of sensory nerve fibers and triggers a reaction called, axon reflex (axon is another word for nerve fiber). The response involves a release of certain substances (such as calcitonin gene-related neuropeptide and substance P) that cause widening or dilation of blood vessels which leads to increased local blood flow.[4-6] Increased blood flow in the skin and muscle could lead to the acceleration of washing out of the ‘algesic’ (pain-causing) substances.

Therefore, one of the mechanisms involving the reduction of pain around the acupuncture site could be an associated post-stimulation augmentation of local blood flow.

A number of human and animal studies have also demonstrated the efficacy of acupuncture on internal organs such as the ovarian and uterine blood flow.[7-9] Elicitation of responses away from the stimulation point, including visceral organs like the uterus or the ovaries, are mainly due to the physiological reflexes called spinal (segmental) and supraspinal (systemic) reflexes.

Regardless of how acupuncture is administered (e.g., targeting a specific nerve, muscle, or traditional acupuncture point along the meridian), localized, segmental, and systemic responses occur simultaneously upon needling. It has been shown that certain acupuncture techniques induce predominantly local effects, while other techniques evoke a mainly systemic reaction.

Knowledgeable acupuncturists tactically create different physiological responses depending on the clinical situations in each patient. While the main tenet of acupuncture rests on the concept that the meridian system — the flow of energy, or qi — runs through the entire body, the new scientific knowledge acquired through research is integrated into classical acupuncture concepts for the optimum clinical outcomes, at the Pacific Wellness Institute.

Health Conditions Commonly Treated by Our Acupuncturists

Our acupuncturists at the Pacific Wellness Institute have in-depth experience treating a wide variety of health conditions and illnesses. Some of the health problems that acupuncture can help are:

Many pains, aches, and muscle / joint stiffness issues such as headache, tennis elbow, car accident injury (whiplash), low back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and stiffness, sciatica, arthritis, bursitis, sports injuries, TMJ (jaw pain), fibromyalgia, etc.

Emotional disorders and stress related conditions such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD, stress management, etc.

Digestive problems such as gastritis, GERD, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, bloating, etc.

Bladder urinary problems such as recurrent urinary tract infections, overactive bladder, etc.

Female health and fertility concerns such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhea (absence of menstrual period), dysmenorrhea (painful periods), polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), hormonal imbalance, menopausal symptoms, pregnancy-related symptoms (morning sickness, breech presentation, etc.), and infertility (thin uterine lining, poor egg quality, unexplained infertility, IVF assist acupuncture, recurrent miscarriages, etc.)

Other health issues such as allergy-related symptoms, sinusitis, acne vulgaris, atopic dermatitis (eczema), chronic fatigue, post-concussion symptoms, etc.

Please see our Health Concerns and Solutions page for the full list or feel free to contact us.

We also offer Focused Acupuncture Therapy for Several Health Conditions:

• Sports injuries
• Headaches and Migraines
• Anxiety, Stress, and Depression
• IBS and other Digestive Disorders
• Infertility and IVF Supportive Treatment

What is Moxibustion?

Moxibustion, an acupuncture practice modality, is a form of thermal therapy that involves burning the moxa herb over acupuncture points. The term moxibustion comes from the Japanese “mogusa” meaning the herb moxa (Artemisia Princeps, commonly called Japanese mugwort) and the Latin “bustion” meaning burning. Moxibustion therapy has been used in tandem with traditional acupuncture to treat and prevent various illnesses in eastern Asia since ancient times.[1]

Moxibustion is applied to acupuncture points either by direct moxibustion or indirect moxibustion methods. In recent years, especially in the West, the most commonly used form is indirect moxibustion which involves the administration of thermal stimulation without direct contact between the burning moxa and the skin’s surface.

Different Types of Moxibustion

There are different types of indirect moxibustion available. One example is a cylinder type, which contains dried moxa leaves inside a small cylindrical tube. It produces a fixed thermal intensity. Another common type is a handheld moxa-stick, which we use at the Pacific Wellness Institute, acupuncture clinic.  With the handheld indirect moxibustion, intensity and dosage of thermal stimulation can be adjusted freely on an individual basis according to each patient’s skin sensitivity.

Moxibustion has been an integral part of the original concepts of acupuncture.  Many people have experienced acupuncture treatment. However, not many people have been treated with moxibustion, partly due to many short acupuncture training programs offered in the province of Ontario are focused mainly on the needling part, and do not cover moxibustion in depth.

What is “Acupuncture Moxibustion”?

Acupuncture literally means needle-puncture. Moxibustion is a form of heat therapy on acupoints.  In countries such as Japan and China, the practice of acupuncture is referred to as shinkyu (or zhenjiu in Chinese), meaning AcupunctureMoxibustion (one word).  It is traditionally believed that acupuncture used in conjunction with moxibustion profoundly enhances each modality’s effects.

Scientific experiments show that acupuncture and moxibustion work somewhat differently.

While acupuncture induces a physiological response mainly through the action on your nervous system, moxibustion is considered to act more directly on your circulatory or immune system. A physiological response, known as a neuroeffector response, occurs through different mechanisms, including central sensitization, peripheral sensitization, and the axon reflex; and that those response mechanisms are evoked by both mechanical or thermal stimulations.[1]

Stimulating an acupuncture point using both acupuncture and moxibustion could stimulate different receptors simultaneously, thus it could enhance each modality’s effects. In our acupuncture clinic, we almost always, combine both acupuncture and moxibustion in order to achieve the best possible clinical outcomes for our patients.