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import Article from "@/components/Article";
import { Metadata } from "next";
export const metadata: Metadata = {
title: "Article - Acupuncture Basics | Dr. Feely",
authors: [{ name: "Richard A. Feely, D.O., FAAO, FCA, FAAMA" }],
description: `The Chinese discovered acupuncture more than 5,000 years ago.
Chinese science had a very different paradigm than the Western world. It
emphasized wholistic patterns, relationships, cycles, and processes. In
contrast, the Western paradigm emphasizes linear thinking, causality, and
reductionist explanations.`,
};
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const ArticleAcupuntureBasics = () => {
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return (
<Article
title="Acupuncture Basics"
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author="Richard A. Feely, D.O., FAAO, FCA, FAAMA"
>
<p>
The Chinese discovered acupuncture more than 5,000 years ago. Chinese
science had a very different paradigm than the Western world. It
emphasized wholistic patterns, relationships, cycles, and processes. In
contrast, the Western paradigm emphasizes linear thinking, causality,
and reductionist explanations.
</p>
<p>
Acupuncture was first introduced to Europe by French Jesuits in the 17th
Century. It was not widely accepted in the West because of the clash
between Eastern and Western paradigms, for example, Western linear
thinking couldn't understand how a needle inserted into the hand could
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cure a toothache. The acupuncture analgesia did not fit into the
existing physiological paradigm of the Western scientist and was thus
dismissed.
</p>
<p>
Until 1976, the evidence of acupuncture anesthesia was mainly anecdotal.
There were few scientifically controlled experiments. Since then, the
situation has changed dramatically. In the last few years, there have
been thousands of scientifically controlled experiments in acupuncture.
Today, there are at least 17 different lines of scientific evidence
verifying acupuncture's effect upon humans and animals.
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</p>
<h2>Research and Theory</h2>
<p>
Research performed on animals and humans shows that specific acupuncture
relieved pain while sham acupuncture (needles at acupoint regions) had
no pain relieving effect. Several controlled clinical trials on chronic
pain patients comparing real acupuncture to sham acupuncture have also
shown that acupuncture really works better than a placebo. Perhaps more
importantly, when acupuncture was compared to conventional treatment of
chronic pain, it was found to be just as effective with fewer side
effects.
</p>
<p>
It is evident that needling simulates peripheral nerves in the muscles
that send messages to the brain to release endorphins (morphine-like
peptides in the brain.) These neurochemicals then cause analgesia by
blocking the transmission of painful messages. Three main sites for
endorphin acupuncture analgesia have been found. The pituitary gland is
one site that has been shown to release endorphins into the blood
stream. This hormone travels to the three parts of the brain and spinal
cord to block the transmission of painful messages. The second site is
the periaqueductal gray neurons in the midbrain which release endorphins
that act as local transmitters to excite the rostral ventromedial
medulla. The rostal ventromedial medulla in turn projects massively and
selectively to pain transmitting neurons in the dorsal horn of the
spinal cord and the trigeminal nucleus caudalis. Electrical stimulation
in the periaqueductal gray and rostral ventromedial medulla produces
behavioral analgesia and inhibitions of spinal pain transmission. This
third site, spinal cord endorphin system, is where the spinal cord
neurons release endorphins to block the release of neurotransmitters
from afferent fibers carrying painful messages to the cord.
</p>
<p>
In 1977, research showed that acupuncture analgesia inhibited the
spinothalamic tract neurons from responding from painful inputs. This
acupuncture effect was then blocked by naloxone, an endorphin receptor
blocker. It has also been shown in mice and humans that naloxone blocked
acupuncture anesthesia using behavioral measurements. Acupuncture
research has progressed since the 1970s to date, to have no less than 17
different lines of evidence convergent upon acupuncture endorphin
mechanisms verifying and supporting acupuncture analgesia.
</p>
<h2>The Evidence</h2>
<p>
<strong>There are 17 points of evidence:</strong>
</p>
<ol>
<li>Naloxone blocked acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>Six opiates antagonist block acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>Dextro-naloxone doesn't block acupuncture analgesia</li>
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<li>Antibodies to endorphins block acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>Micro-injection of naloxone blocks acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>
Genetic defects in opiate receptors causes less acupuncture analgesia
</li>
<li>Deficiency in endorphins causes less acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>
Endorphins rise in cerebral spinal fluid and drop in the brain after
acupuncture analgesia
</li>
<li>
Acupuncture analgesia is enhanced by protecting from enzyme
destruction
</li>
<li>Cross circulation of acupuncture analgesic effects</li>
<li>Reduce pituitary endorphins block acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>A rise in mRNA for proenkephalin with acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>C-fos gene protein rises in endorphin areas of brain</li>
<li>
Acupuncture analgesia shows cross tolerance with morphine addiction
</li>
<li>
Acupuncture analgesia works best for emotional pain like endorphin
</li>
<li>Lesions of arcuate nucleus blocks acupuncture analgesia</li>
<li>Lesions of periaquaductal gray blocks acupuncture analgesia</li>
</ol>
<p>
The considerable evidence for the three pathways shown above provides
convincing proof that acupuncture analgesia is a known physiological
phenomenon that can occur and be manipulated through the use of
acupuncture needles and electrical stimulation.
</p>
<p>
Testing the involvement of the pituitary, several experiments were
carried out, both surgically removable pituitary and suppression of the
pituitary endorphins by chemical manipulations; all of the experiments
suppressed acupuncture analgesia in animals. Experiments to test the
involvement of the midbrain were done since it had been shown that
morphine pain relief was largely mediated by this system. Such
experiments included direct lesions to the raphe by cutting the output
fibers in the dorsal lateral tract, the spinal cord blockade of
serotonin receptors, blockade of serotonin synthesis and direct
micro-injection of naloxone into the mid brain; all of these experiments
reduced acupuncture analgesia.
</p>
<p>
Enhancement of serotonin synthesis increased acupuncture analgesia. An
experiment measuring serotonin showed an increase product (serotonin)
was released during acupuncture analgesia along with noradrenelinecture
endorphin mechanisms verifying and supporting acupuncture analgesia.
</p>
<h2>Effectiveness</h2>
<p>
Acupuncture works in approximately 70% to 80% of humans and animals.
Meanwhile, we know that the placebo only works 30% of the time.
Acupuncture does not work all the time in all people for various
reasons. Principally due to cholecystikinin (CCK). Those individuals
with high CCK are poor responders to acupuncture analgesia. Good
responders have less CCK. CCK blocks acupuncture tolerance, it acts in
the periaquaductal gray. Animal experimentation have been done to show
that poor responders may become better responders through the use of a
CCK antagonist and that good responders can become poor responders by
the use of cDNA, CCK gene.
</p>
<p>
Acupuncture has been shown not to be physiologically addicting.
Acupuncture is however additive and cumulative in its effects. It is
more powerful after ten to fifteen treatments. Neurologically we know
acupuncture works with a small mylenated fibers A delta-type III, and it
does not work on larger fibers, C-fibers.
</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>
In conclusion, acupuncture has been used for over 5,000 years. It has a
large body of empirical anecdotal evidence indicating its effectiveness.
Now, scientific based research evidence indicates there are several
causes and effects of acupuncture. Acupuncture has been shown to be
effective for acute and chronic pain conditions. Acupuncture has also
been found to be effective in the treatment of addiction and withdrawal
from various drugs, gastrointestinal functions, environmental illnesses
and cardiovascular illness, along with positively changing
learning/memory, conditioning and immunology.
</p>
<p>
As a result of this research, more and more physicians outside China are
using acupuncture to treat many painful conditions. It is estimated that
5,000 MDs in Germany, 30,000 in France and 60,000 in Japan use
acupuncture along with drugs, nerve blocks and other approaches to treat
patients with chronic pain. Here in the United States, over 1,000
physicians and surgeons are actively involved in the practice of
acupuncture. With increasing research and evidence, more and more
physicians in the West will become acupuncture practitioners.
</p>
</Article>
);
};
export default ArticleAcupuntureBasics;