Acupuncture: How, what, why?

BY JESSICA HANSON

Acupuncture, one of the oldest known therapies in the world, was known in America mostly as a New Age curiosity a decade ago. Today it has moved into the forefront of integrative medicine and is one of the fastest-growing movements in health care. The World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health have approved acupuncture in the treatment of over 80 conditions, including pain, stress and insomnia. It has also been recently integrated into the Mayo Clinic. So what exactly is acupuncture? How does it work, and why has it grown so quickly in this country?

Acupuncture is part of a larger holistic system of medicine that was developed thousands of years ago, when people lived close to nature and would never dream of offending their ancestors by cutting apart a human body. Therefore, this ancient system of medicine was based on observation. Disease was seen as an imbalance in the body, therefore licensed acupuncturists today will often ask seemingly endless questions to get an idea of how the body might be imbalanced; questions about sleep, digestion, sweat, thirst, emotions, etc.

They may look at the color and the shape of your tongue, or feel the rate and strength of your pulse, using each bit of information as a piece in a jigsaw puzzle that they put together piece by piece to come up with a diagnosis. Instead of clinical or literal definitions of disease, these traditional diagnoses mirror the phenomenon of the natural world, and often sound something like “wind-heat” or “cold-damp.”

The ancient Chinese also mapped out the human body into twelve different channels of energy, each with their own set of specific “acupoints.” Just as a downed tree can cause a creek to back up and create a pool of stagnant water, pain was perceived as a blockage in the body’s energy flow. Instead of simply prescribing primitive herbal analgesics to dull the pain caused by the “downed tree,” doctors selected specific acupoints on specific channels, and used their skills with herbal medicine, to diagnose and treat the root cause of the pain, not merely the symptom.

While this kind of metaphorical explanation to acupuncture theory might be somewhat interesting, the search for a more concrete explanation has also led to the development of a number of theories in the Western medical establishment regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture. Clinical studies have shown that acupuncture: increases immune function and resistance to disease, reduces pain through the release of endorphins; reduces inflammation and promotes feelings of well-being through the release of neurotransmitters; improves circulation and smooth muscle relaxation; increases pain tolerance by changing the way the brain perceives pain; and hastens motor recovery from paralysis.

Acupuncture needles are sterile, single-use, flexible and hair-thin. People are often surprised by how relaxed they feel during an acupuncture treatment. Some practitioners may include other treatment modalities such as cupping (creating a negative pressure inside a glass jar which is then placed on the skin to increase blood flow to an area), moxa (burning the herb mugwort over specific acupoints), or tuina (Chinese medical massage). Licensed acupuncturists (LAc’s) usually study Traditional Chinese Medicine in a four-year Master’s program, and in Minnesota are licensed by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice as well as the National Certification for the Commission of Oriental Med-icine.

“I’ve been living with chronic ulcerative colitis for about 15 years,” said Jason Aide, a resident of South Minneapolis. “In the beginning no one could figure out what was wrong with me. After finally being diagnosed by a gastroenterologist, I was prescribed medication, at $350 a month, to take for the rest of my life. Now, over the course of the last year, I’ve had more success with acupuncture, herbs and diet than I’ve had with medication over the last 15 years.”

More and more Americans are choosing safe, natural, effective forms of medicine like naturopathy, massage and traditional Asian medicine, even though they are often not covered by insurance. Americans spends $48 billion a year on “alternative” medicine, up from $2 billion in 1985 (Economic Times, Jan. 6, 2004). Exactly what is going on here?

The U.S. spends $2 trillion, or 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, a year on health care (Time magazine, “America’s Health Check-Up”), yet ranks 34th in the world for life expectancy and 29th for infant mortality. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated that iatrogenic events caused by medical intervention are the third leading cause of death in this country, at more than 250,000 deaths per year. The statistics go on and on. Most people would agree that health care in the U.S. is in a state of crisis.

Health care in the developing world is also in a state of crisis, but of a different kind. In poor nations, when people fall sick they often treat themselves first, then go to the village healer, and finally to the hospital as a last resort. Most of these developing nations desperately need more technology, more access to pharmaceuticals, and more surgeons. In contrast, the U.S. is stressed-out, over-developed and over-medicated. We rarely know how to treat ourselves, and we probably don’t have a village healer. Perhaps it makes sense that holistic medicine is something we are hungry for as a culture. Perhaps these simple, natural, time-tested forms of medicine offer us something we need to balance ourselves out, to see ourselves as more than just the sum of our parts. The World Health Organization defines health as “complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmary.” Perhaps we’ll see a day where people have access to real health care, not just sick-care. Perhaps acupuncture is a small step in the right direction.