Skeptics always ask about acupuncture's effects on the brain. I once had an friend who wouldn't get acupuncture unless there were F-MRI's showing the exact effect on the brain for every acupuncture point. As my sports coaches used to say, "You can go a lot further than you think you can."
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Harvard's F-MRI imaging and report details
the brain's response to a commonly-used
acupuncture point. |
Let's go back to the need for proof. F-MRI reports from acupuncture sessions are expensive, and so these studies aren't performed on as many people or the way everyone would like, but they have been informative. Many show that the brain responds
ipsilaterally, or on the same side, to the acupuncture point. This is a surprise to researchers who expected acupuncture to affect the body like any other pin-pricking sensation, in which the signal would travel and stimulate the
contralateral, or opposite, side of the brain. (The image below is from the
Harvard Study in 'ot seven.)
In Chinese Medicine, there is no separate system of nerves, although the brain is recognized as one of six "extraordinary organs," along with marrow, bone, uterus, vessels, and gallbladder. What these "organs" have in common is that they all house or facilitate the movement of a refined substance. The lack of a separate nervous system receiving sensory input and issuing commands to the body leads many acupuncturists to believe that the
channels are conceptualizations of nerves and their relationship to all tissues. Still, conventionally accepted explanations of how acupuncture works almost always mention communication between the central and peripheral nervous system.
