Originally published October 25 2005
Acupuncture being adopted into the practice of Western medicine
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Western researchers believe that acupuncture's stimulation of endorphins largely explains how the practice works to relieve pain and improve motor function.
WHEN Melanie Burke's infertility treatments went awry a few years back, she came down with constant throbbing muscle aches, searing back pain, insomnia and migraines so severe they affected her vision.
From the modern medicine point of view, Burke may have had an endocrine imbalance caused by fertility treatment.
The needles helped her through a combination of hormone production, cell changes, neurons firing --- and possibly a bit of mind over matter.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans attain pain relief through acupuncture each year, according to a recent national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention --- and many, these days, seek the treatment at their doctor's suggestion.
Mainstream medical interest in acupuncture has grown as the studies pile up: A National Institutes of Health statement, published in 1997, concluded that the procedure appeared most promising in treating nausea, then pain.
Yet despite this growing Western faith in an ancient Chinese practice, scientists and doctors understand remarkably little, in modern medical terms, about how the procedure works to provide lasting pain relief.
These so-called acupoints correspond (in traditional theory, at least) to different organs or systems in the body.
For example, inserting a needle at a point inside the forearm known as P6 is intended to treat nausea; needling Liv3, on top of the foot, is meant to help with motor function.
In a study of 37 subjects published this year in the journal Neuroscience Letters, inserting a needle into acupoint L14 on the hand --- traditionally used to treat pain --- was shown to deactivate parts of the brain that are involved in processing pain.
The herbs, dietary shifts and exercise regimens often prescribed by traditional acupuncturists might have as much to do with the treatment's effectiveness as the needles themselves --- physically as well as psychologically.
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