Acupuncture as a Medical Anachnronism

  I often describe acupuncture as a medical anachronism. That is to say acupuncture is a technology originating from another culture in another time. 

Acupuncture is very new to us in the West but it has a long history in the East. Acupuncture is one of several medical modalities comprising traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Acupuncture is commonly associated with the capacity for achieving dramatic results. Patients love acupuncture because it can work quickly and without side effects. 

Acupuncture is commonly capable of achieving results where other modalities have failed. This can give acupuncture the appearance of a magical intervention. Nothing could be further from the truth. Acupuncture is a medical subspecialty. It is not capable of supernatural results. Many patients describe their experience with acupuncture as miraculous. This is due to the fact the mechanism for acupuncture is not well understood. Many patients and clinicians simply don’t understand how something as simple as a needle can have an effect on the course of an illness and assume that acupuncture has supernatural abilities. This may be encouraged by the traditional explanations for acupuncture’s efficacy which are based upon the observations of physicians from a relatively primitive era. 

  Those of us with modern sensibilities are unable to embrace these ancient explanations without question. Modern science is attempting to provide a model explaining the effectiveness of acupuncture, unfortunately many of these efforts suffer from the tendency towards a reductionistic view. Research scientists have a tendency to complicate what could be described simply. 

  The way I explain it, is that acupuncture represents a stimulation to the patient’s immune system. For an acupuncturist, the immune response of our patient is a tool that we use. We stimulate or challenge the immune system, the response encourages the patient to heal. 

  Imagine having fallen in a thorn bush or brushed up against a cactus. The immune system begins to work immediately attempting to remove the thorns from the body. Several types of immunity are initiated. Cell mediated immunity combines with humoral immunity to initiate a cascade response. The placement of the needles has an effect on the type of immune response. If the patient’s immune system can be stimulated in a way that improves its overall function, the patient’s condition can be improved. It would be difficult to stimulate a patient’s immune system and encourage it to do the wrong thing. We can easily support the immune system and help it do what it has been trying to do, but has been unable to do. It may be impossible to use acupuncture to stimulate the immune system in a way that would cause it to malfunction. This is why acupuncture has the capacity for such amazing efficacy and yet is almost devoid of the possibility for negative side effects. 

  Inflammation is the scientific word for an immune system that is activated. The inflammatory process is the healing process. Inflammation is a protective attempt by the tissue to heal injuries in the body. Most of the time we ignore inflammation and just expect it to work the way it was intended. The acute inflammatory response happens all the time. We just ignore it. Patients don’t seek acupuncture for temporary inflammatory conditions, they expect them to resolve on their own. Inflammation is supposed to finish it’s work quickly and efficiently. There may be pain, but it is temporary. Inflammation is supposed to have a beginning, a middle and and end. When it is over, we are healed. It is when the inflammatory process does not result in a permanent solution that we experience chronic symptoms. It is when inflammation persists that treatment is indicted. The inflammatory response requires constant stimulation to be sustained. Inflammatory mediators have short half-lives and are quickly degraded in the tissue. Acute inflammatory patterns should die down once the stimulus has been removed. Sometimes for any number of reasons, they don’t. 

  Chronic inflammatory patterns are what most people seek treatment for. Chronic inflammatory patterns sustain themselves through a variety of methods.  Chronic inflammatory patterns represent a failure of the inflammatory mediators to  function properly, a failure of the immune system to function properly. In the West, inflammation is something to be suppressed. Inflammation is associated with heat, pain, contracture and swelling. These are very unpleasant symptoms.  Anti-inflammatory medications are some of the most commonly prescribed medications to treat chronic pain. The idea is, that by suppressing the inflammatory process, the patient feels less symptoms. In contrast, the acupuncturist uses the inflammatory process as a tool. By encouraging inflammation to resolve on its own, the patient can experience a permanent and dramatic improvement very quickly. This type of result can appear miraculous to a patient who has suffered for a considerable period and had tried many other interventions. It is a common occurrence in the acupuncture clinic.