How Does Acupuncture Work

How Does Acupuncture Work

What’s the origin of acupuncture?

Acupuncture was originally part of traditional Chinese and Eastern medicine and has been practised for thousands of years for curing all kinds of ills. Archaeologists have found stone acupuncture needles dating back five thousand years.

In the seventeenth century, doctors and missionaries brought acupuncture to Europe. It did not become well known until 1972. At this time American journalist James Reston had acupuncture to ease the pain of an emergency appendectomy while working in China and began writing about his experience in the New York Times. The publicity began to spread and acupuncture has become a common and widely accepted form of complementary medicine, particularly for pain relief.

There are now two forms of acupuncture practised in the UK. The first is the Chinese form, a part of traditional Chinese health system, which includes herbal remedies. Practitioners of Chinese acupuncture believe illness arises from an imbalance in life forces within us known as yin and yang. They needles at lots of different points on the body to try and redress the balance.

In the West there is a second form of acupuncture, sometimes practised by doctors, which focuses on the physical effects a needle might have on the body and generally uses the scientific principles of western medicine for diagnosis and disease rather than the ideas of yin and yang.

There are many doctors who practice this ‘medical’ form of acupuncture. Members of the British Medical Acupuncture Society are usually doctors but there are vets and dentists who are members too. The general view of mainstream medicine is that acupuncture works by stimulating certain nerves in the body. These nerves often coincide with the traditional meridians. Treatment is also thought to cause the release of natural chemicals into the bloodstream, such as endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. There is some evidence that acupuncture may trigger the release of natural anti-inflammatory compounds and painkillers, known as endorphins, in the body which also help the healing process in joint and muscle problems and aid recovery perhaps by boosting the immune system. Exactly how this might work has not yet been shown scientifically.

How does acupuncture work?

At the heart of Traditional Chinese acupuncture is the idea of Qi (pronounced chee). Qi is described by practitioners as a form of energy formed by the union of so-called yin and yang in the body. Yin and yang must be balanced say acupuncturists for us to be well and free from ill healt. Qi is said to flow through channels, known as meridians, that run from our hands and feet to the body and head.

There are 14 major meridians and when they become blocked, say acupuncturists, disease is the result. Qi is said to enter and leave the body at special points along the meridians and it is these points into which a practitioner will insert a needle to free the flow of Qi.

In the Western medical form of acupuncture, practitioners tend not to subscribe to the theory of Qi. They prefer to consider the physical and chemical effects the insertion of needles may have on ‘trigger’ points also known as acupoints. Trigger points are sensitive spots often where nerves leave or enter muscles or tissues, for instance. By inserting a needle at these points the nerves and tissues can be stimulated, which in turn could stimulate the body’s healing processes.

What happens during a treatment?

The practitioner will usually do a full assessment of your symptoms and you personally to make sure that acupuncture is the right treatment for you. They may spot a problem that requires another form of treatment and suggest you visit a GP.

The practitioner may then use several small (a couple of centimetres long) sterile needles, which are very thin. The needles are much thinner than the more familiar needles used for injections and pass straight through tissue. Patients usually only feel a slight prick when the needle enters the skin and most people find the slightly ‘heavy’ warm feeling of the needle inside quite pleasant.

The acupuncturist may twiddle the needles and some may pass a small electric current across the needles to increase their effects. Others may use moxa treatment in which the herb is burnt on the needles to warm them up.

Some acupuncturists may not use needles at all. Small conical moxa burners or moxa sticks can be placed on the sensitive ‘acupoints’ and left to burn until the heat becomes uncomfortable.

An alternative method of ‘acupuncture’ is called ‘cupping’. A small glass cup is placed on the acupoint. A small piece of cottonwool soaked in alcohol is burnt inside the cup and as the oxygen is burnt inside the cup the patient’s skin is sucked up by the falling pressure inside. The various needle free acupuncture methods all aim to stimulate the acupoints too.

After your first treatment you may notice a little bruising where the needles went in but generally patients feel relaxed after treatment and often sleep. You will usually need a few more sessions, say three to eight, before symptoms begin to improve though.

What can acupuncture help with?

Where’s the evidence?

Many acupuncturists will point to success with animals and small children to demonstrate that acupuncture is not ‘all in the mind’.

Scientific evidence in humans is not clear cut. A study published in 1988 in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by Professor John Dundee of Queen’s University Belfast showed that stimulating an acupuncture point about five centimetres above the wrist relieved and even eliminated nausea in pregnancy. There have been several similar reports published since. Other studies have demonstrated that acupuncture can reduce pain and sickness following surgery.

Remember to tell your acupuncturist if you are pregnant even if you are seeing them for something else because certain acupoints should not be touched during pregnancy.

Acupuncture has been shown to alleviate the symptoms of asthma although practitioners will usually warn patients not to stop taking their regular medication without first talking to their doctor. On the other hand, a study in 1997 showed that for people who wanted to quit smoking acupuncture acted only as a placebo. So the overall evidence is unclear at this time, Surgery Door will keep you up to date on the latest developments.

What do doctors think of acupuncture?

While most Western doctors are sceptical of the concepts of Qi and meridians because they have not been observed by scientists many accept that the mounting evidence that acupuncture points exist. The points appear to coincide with sensitive areas of the body, often found to be tender to touch when people are ill or in pain (called trigger points. These points have been recognised by many doctors and physiotherapists and usually occur where nerves enter or leave muscle tissue, for example.

What should I look for in a practitioner?

Advice and more information can be obtained from your GP or the acupuncture associations linked to below. They should also be able to help you find a registered practitioner in your area. It is also worth considering that some acupuncturists specialise in certain conditions and patients, such as women’s health or back problems. You should always check the qualifications of your chosen acupuncturist with the British Acupuncture Council or the British Medical Acupuncture Society or your national registrar. If after your initial consultation you are not happy for any reason with the person who is going to treat you just don’t make another appointment.

2 Responses to “How Does Acupuncture Work”

  1. 2
    David Bradley Says:
    October 5th, 2007 at 8:33 am

    Yet more news on the lack of evidence for any efficacy in acupuncture. Despite widespread belief among cancer patients and healthcare professionals that acupuncture helps relieve nausea caused by cancer treatment, new research in radiotherapy has found it does not.

    The study, presented in October 2007 to the European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona, Spain, evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture in 215 patients with various types of cancer who were given either active acupuncture or a sham treatment that involved an identical looking and feeling needle that retracted into the handle on contact with the skin.

    “Both groups of patients reported they believed the treatment had been invasive and effective in reducing nausea. However, 68 percent of patients who got the acupuncture experienced nausea for an average of 19 days during radiotherapy and 61 percent of the patients who got the sham treatment suffered nausea for an average of 17 days,” said the study’s lead researcher Anna Enblom, a physiotherapist and doctoral student at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University in Sweden.

    SOURCE: http://www.alphagalileo.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=readrelease&releaseid=523671

  2. 1
    David Bradley Says:
    September 25th, 2007 at 10:24 am

    Acupuncture is more effective at treating back pain than conventional therapies, German research suggests – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7011738.stm – I’m not entirely convinced. I suffered a prolapsed lumbar vertebral disc some time ago, both an osteopath and an acupuncturist misdiagnosed my symptoms as a myofascial tissue problem and treated accordingly, leading to more pain and discomfort, which was only relieved following several sessions with a chiropractor, who correctly diagnosed the problem and treated accordingly.

    More to the point, re acupuncture, those receive mock acupuncture in the trial fared just as well as those receiving “proper” acupuncture. As Ben Goldacre puts it: “the pretend acupuncture group, where they just bunged needles in any old place with a bit of ceremony, did just as well as the people having proper, posh, theatrical, genuine acupuncture.” Funny that…

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