DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture

Acupuncture can be effective for chronic pain suffers:

“Acupuncture is one of the oldest medical therapies in the world, developed thousands of years ago by the Chinese. Traditional acupuncture uses super-fine needles inserted into specific points on the body in a bid to restore the flow of energy, called qi, or chi.

The theory is that manipulating these acupoints frees up blocks in energy along pathways called meridian throughout the body.

While researchers have known for decades that acupuncture causes the release of natural painkilling endorphins from the brain, it’s still not fully understood how the therapy works.

But for many people, it clearly does, says Toronto pain specialist Dr. Linda Rapson, chair of complementary medicine for the Ontario Medical Association, who has been practising acupuncture since 1975.

“In terms of the energy issues, what’s going on in terms of the model the Chinese developed, where the meridian are named after the organs and so on, that stuff is harder to measure,” Rapson says.

“What is being measured now is brain activity as you do acupuncture.”

She says research using functional MRIs shows which areas of the brain are engaged when an acupuncture needle is placed in a particular point on the body.

So, for instance, a needle put in a spot on the foot that is related to pain in the eye will clearly show activity in the visual cortex, “the same as if you’d flashed a light in front of the eye,” she says.”

Tags: Acupuncture //