Qi Spot

It’s news articles like these that make me both chuckle my early morning lethargy away and yet lose my appetite for breakfast.  Just read it and weep.

Original Article: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26170808-23289,00.html

AUSTRALIAN research could help unravel the mystery of how acupuncture works, suggesting it “destroys” nerves rather than stimulating them.

Morry Silberstein, of Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia, has been conducting research using electrical circuits to replicate nerve systems.

“For years people have believed that pricking the skin with a needle stimulates the nerves, but in actual fact it divides and destroys them,” Dr Silberstein said. “It’s like disrupting the nerves and numbing them so the sensation of pain goes away.

“People know that an acupuncture point has lower electrical resistance than the rest of the skin — I used the circuit to see why. I found that it was because the point must represent the nerve branching or being destroyed.”

He said the plan was to take the research further next year and conduct similar experiments on animals.

Dr Silberstein said a better scientific understanding of acupuncture would see it adopted more in Western medicine. “In the absence of scientific rationale, acupuncture has not been widely used in the mainstream medical community,” he said.

“It may provide us with new methods of treating sleep problems and high blood pressure.”

In scientific terms, his research suggests that the insertion of an acupuncture needle into the skin disrupts the branching point of nerves called C fibres, which transmit low grade sensory information over long distances by using merkle cells as intermediaries.

His research will be published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology in December.

Time for some commentary:

“He said the plan was to take the research further next year and conduct similar experiments on animals.” – you mean his theories haven’t been tried on any living creatures yet?

“”In the absence of scientific rationale, acupuncture has not been widely used in the mainstream medical community,” he said.” – Please please PLEASE do not say “absence”.  There are kaboodles of scientific rational.  Just check out the WHO article I mentioned earlier.

“”It may provide us with new methods of treating sleep problems and high blood pressure.” – new for who?  Acupuncture has been used even before the time of Christ for these problems.

“In scientific terms, his research suggests that the insertion of an acupuncture needle into the skin disrupts the branching point of nerves called C fibres, which transmit low grade sensory information over long distances by using merkle cells as intermediaries.”  I object to several things in this sentence.

Firstly, why say “in scientific terms”?  Does this mean that TCM theories are “unscientific”?  Since childhood I was taught that science is an “organized body of knowledge.”  Traditional Chinese Medicine has had a several thousand year history backing it up, with newer innovations building on older concepts and obsolete ideas cast away.  It is internally consistent and it’s applications have real world effects.

Second, Pomeranz, Stux and Brian Berman have clearly mentioned in their book “Basics of Acupuncture” that they believe that acupuncture has effects on a local, spinal, and even higher brain level, causing release of endorphins, enkephalins, dynorphins  and other regulatory substances.  Japanese studies imply release of NO, causing vasodilation, at a local level.

While Silberstein may have discovered (or perhaps re-discovered or simply verified) yet another mechanism of how acupuncture works, it is in my opinion simply tooting one’s own horn to speak as if claiming to have found the one, singular mechanism of action of acupuncture.  Typical western reductionism – only one mechanism of action is assumed.  Why not several, especially since the evidence for several has been around for decades?

Sources:

Campanella, Natasia. “Nerves Wrecked by Needle Pain Cure” The Australian 6 October 2009.  7 October 2009 <http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26170808-23289,00.html>