The Affect of Acupuncture on the Nervous System

The Affect of Acupuncture on the Nervous System

Acupuncture is an ancient practice which arouse in China at least two thousand years ago and has been used since then by healers to cure people of their ailments. The art is focused on the Qi (pronounced chee), which is the energy flow through the body. It is believed acupuncture helps to stimulate different areas of energy flow which can help cure pain and sickness(1). Although acupuncture has been around for a long time the validity of the techniques and results has been questioned by many medical specialists. Only fairly recently (mid 20th Century) did this practice come to the United States and it has yet to be accepted as a certifiable medical practice. Even though this is the case, acupuncture has been used to help treat asthma, myopia, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, stroke and obesity, just to name a few (5).

Although the healing affects of acupuncture aren’t fully understood, they have been tied to different physiological changes in the body. As mentioned earlier, the natural energy in the body, Qi, is the focus of the treatment. Qi is connected to the ideas of Yin and Yang, which are two forces that offer balance to life. Yin and Yang have to be together because a disturbance in the relationship leads to disease (1). The image of Yin and Yang demonstrates how they have to be connected, represented by the white and black halves, each with a small circle of the other color. In this belief if the balance of energy in the body is thrown off, then the body becomes weak and sick. In Chinese medicine, when you restore the Qi in the body then health will return.

The practice of acupuncture involves sticking very fine needles at different predetermined spots on the body: 365 points in a human body. These points have been uncovered over thousands of years but can not been seen through dissection or microscopy (6). It is believed that the insertion of needles at these points causes the Qi to move to the point. It is said that when a person is experiencing pain, that there is a blockage in the Qi in the body and that the acupuncture returns the flow to normal (1). Many of the acupuncture points are located only millimeters from peripheral nerves in the skin, others are very close to arteries.