Fri Apr 29, 2005 4:51 pm   Reply with quote      

It sounds like acupuncture works for many people but I'm unsure as to whether there is a scientific explanation as to WHY it works... can anyone enlighten me on this?

Thanks

Aaron

Sat Apr 30, 2005 12:16 am   Reply with quote      

We looked into this in the past, and there is a theory behind it. But, to make a long story short, there is no concrete scientific explanation as to why acupuncture works. According to its teaching, acupuncture has the following theory:

Acupuncture treats the human body as a whole that involves several "systems of function" that are in many cases associated with (but not identified one a one-to-one basis with) physical organs. Some systems of function, such as the "triple heater" (San Jiao, also called the "triple burner") have no corresponding physical organ. Disease is understood as a loss of homeostasis among the several systems of function, and treatment of disease is attempted by modifying the activity of one or more systems of function through the activity of needles, pressure, heat, etc. on sensitive parts of the body of small volume traditionally called "acupuncture points" in English, or "xue" (穴, cavities) in Chinese.

There are twelve primary channels, called meridians, which run vertically, bilaterally, and symmetrically and every channel corresponds to and connects internally with one of the twelve Zang Fu ("organs"). This means that there are six yin and six yang channels. There are three yin and three yang channels on each arm, and three yin and three yang on each leg.

The three yin channels of the hand (Lung, Pericardium, and Heart) begin on the chest and travel along the inner surface (mostly the anterior portion) of the arm to the hand.

The three yang channels of the hand (Large Intestine, San Jiao and Small Intestine) begin on the hand and travel along the outer surface (mostly the posterior portion) of the arm to the head.

The three yang channels of the foot (Stomach, Gallbladder, and Bladder) begin on the face, in the region of the eye, and travels down the body and along the outer surface (mostly the anterior and lateral portion) of the leg to the foot.

The three yin channels of the foot (Spleen, Liver and Kidney) begin of the foot and travel along the inner surface (mostly posterior and medial portion) of the leg to the chest or flank.

The flow of qi through each of the twelve channels is comprised of an internal and an external pathway. The external pathway is what is normally shown on an acupuncture chart and it is relatively superficial. All the acupuncture points of a channel lie on its external pathway. The internal pathways are the deep course of the channel where it enters the body cavities and related Zang-Fu organs. The superficial pathways of the twelve channels describe three complete circuits of the body.

The flow of energy through the meridians is as follows: Lung channel of hand taiyin to Large Intestine channel of hand yangming to Stomach channel of foot yangming to Spleen channel of foot taiyin to Heart channel of hand shaoyin to Small Intestine channel of hand taiyang to Bladder channel of foot taiyang to Kidney channel of foot shaoyin to Pericardium channel of hand jueyin to San Jiao channel of hand shaoyang to Gallbladder channel of foot shaoyang to Liver channel of foot jueyin then back to the Lung channel of hand taiyin.

Traditional Chinese medical theory holds that acupuncture works by normalizing the "flow" of qi "vital energy" in the body. Pain or illnesses are treated by attempting to remedy local or systemic accumulations or deficiencies of qi. Pain is considered to indicate blockage or stagnation of the flow of qi, and an axiom of the medical literature of acupuncture is "no pain, no blockage; no blockage, no pain".

While it is claimed by some that there is no physical evidence for the existence of qi or for its claimed effects, and that acupuncture is therefore a pseudoscience or metaphysical belief, many patients experience the sensations of stimulus known in Chinese as "deqi" (得氣 "obtaining the qi") This kind of sensation was historically considered to be evidence of effective treatment. Often deqi takes the form of a propagation of sensation along the trajectory of the so-called acupuncture "channels" or meridians. Research into the phenomena of "deqi" has mostly been conducted in China and Japan.

Treatment of acupuncture points may be performed along the 12 main or 8 extra meridians located throughout the body. 10 of the main meridians are named after organs of the body (Heart, Liver etc.) two after so called body functions (Heart Protector or Pericardium, and San Jiao, "triple heater"). The two most important of the eight "extra" meridians are situated on the midline of the anterior and posterior aspects of the trunk and head.

The acupuncturist will decide which points to treat by thoroughly questioning the patient, and utilizing the diagnostic skills of traditional Chinese medicine such as observation of the left and right radial pulses at three levels of imposed pressure.

There are various schools of acupuncture theory, including

- TCM Style,
- Zang Fu theory,
- Five Element Acupuncture,
- Japanese Meridian Therapy and
- medical acupuncture.

The document was originally published at Wikipedia and the document is licensed under GNU Free Document License. If you'd like to find out more about obesity, you might be interested in visiting this page in Wikipedia.

Tue May 03, 2005 11:23 pm   Reply with quote      

Oh my... I must be getting forgetful in my old age.

This is a serious question... does memory worsen as early as in your thirties?

Aaron

Tue May 03, 2005 11:39 pm   Reply with quote      

I'm afraid so. It will not get any better, though I believe there are number of exercises you can do.

Tue May 03, 2005 11:40 pm   Reply with quote      

I sometimes (in fact, increasingly often nowadays) find myself talking to a colleague at work, and forgetting what it was that I was about to say midway through. I'm sure I didn't used to do this quite so much (but I can't remember )

Aaron

Tue May 03, 2005 11:46 pm   Reply with quote      

Are you sure you're not taking too much illegal substance? Are you sure you're not drinking too much hard liquor? I'm worried about you ...

But seriously, we won't get younger. It is simply impossible. You may believe in cloning, nano technology, bio technology and what not, but it won't improve your memory for some time. It is just an inevitability of being a human.

Tue May 03, 2005 11:48 pm   Reply with quote      

Nah, no illicit substances. I have never smoked tobacco, let alone anything else.

I am not even drinking that much these days. In the past week, a bottle of wine and a couple of pints at the most probably, and that was only because we were with friends.

Aaron

Tue May 03, 2005 11:55 pm   Reply with quote      

Maybe you had too much in the past ?

Wed May 04, 2005 9:41 am   Reply with quote      

Maybe, although judging by my pint blog (which is now up to 20, I have a few to add yet) I haven't been drinking that much at all.

Aaron

Wed Jun 08, 2005 6:40 pm   Reply with quote      

It's a bad sign when it starts in the 30s, altyfc!!

Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:17 pm   Reply with quote      

What about the Search feature