A Modern and Ancient Explanation of Acupuncture

And what is it good for?

By Geoff D'Arcy Lic.Ac

The Bio Electromagnetic Energy of Living Things

“It may be said that the electrical structure of the human body must have an architecture as precise and important as the biochemical structure, between which there is continuous interdependence. We must not forget we all are composed of electrically charged particles.”

Ionescu-Tirgouiste.   ‘Measurement of acupuncture injury potentials’

Can this precise architecture be an electromagnetic energy body? It may well resemble a hologram, a truly three-dimensional energy body interfacing with the biochemical body in all living things on the planet! This is what modern research may be beginning to suggest. A Kirlian photograph on the wall of my office, pictures a leaf with the top part cut off and thrown away. The photograph captures the “corona discharge” that represents millions of electrons streaming from the leaf. The upper portion of the leaf is cut off yet one can clearly see the “phantom leaf” or “energy body” that remains. All living organisms must have an attending energy body interfacing with the physical body. All plants possess an energy body with its own unique vibrational frequency.

Bio-Energetic Research

In a series of experiments done in 1920, Elmer J. Lund demonstrated how the energy potentials of the body of a hydra could be reversed changing the biochemical structure. He found that he could control the energy architecture of the hydra’s body by passing small direct currents through the animal’s body and could cause the head to sprout out of the tail and vice versa. Dr. Robert O. Becker pioneered research that developed Lund’s early work. Dr. Becker was also inspired by early Russian research in to tomato plants. This research showed that when the tomato plants were damaged, they would release what would be called later “currents of injury”. These Russian researchers demonstrated if they interfered with these “currents of injury”, the healing of the plant would take much longer. Yet what astonished the researchers, were if they aided these subtle currents, the plant would heal much faster. Dr. Becker’s own research revealed how minute electrical currents (millionths of an amp) could stimulate bone and tissue repair and regeneration. He studied the way the body utilized minute currents to stimulate biochemical repair and rejuvenation — a phenomenon now known as the “current of injury.” During his early research on salamanders, his data suggested that when a salamander’s leg was amputated, it generated measurements at the stump that initiated a non-differentiated cell-guk (blastema), possibly generating an ‘electromagnetic phantom limb’ or energy body that then coded the cells into fulfilling the growth of a new limb. One stage up the evolutionary scale, Dr. Becker also worked with frogs, which cannot regenerate new limbs. His experiments suggested that the difference between frogs and salamanders was that the frog didn’t have the energy, at the end of the process, to generate a strong enough negative potential. In the laboratory, Becker then added the missing element and remarkably, the frog grew a new leg. Adding the missing negative potential facilitating energy flows seems to have boosted the energy body and empowered the physical body to re-grow the leg.

Humans also lack the power to regenerate limbs, but not completely! Studies have also shown that children up to age 11 can re-grow the first phalange of a finger that has been cut off. English surgeon, Dr. C. M. Illingworth fostered these studies and discovered that, as in salamanders, if the wound isn’t covered surgically by a skin flap, the non-differentiated cell guk (blastema) forms (and I believe is coded and empowered to fulfill the energy body’s phantom limb.) and the finger regenerates itself.  Dr. Illingworth has since measured a negative current of injury off the end of the stump, as was found in salamanders.

Many decades ago, Burr proposed that “Life-Fields” extended out from the body, like a hologram, and provided a field into which the biochemical body could grow. Standing on this research, Becker, and more recently, Dr. Andrew Bassett, has produced electromagnetic devices that stimulate healing of fractures. The devices are no longer implanted but placed outside in the cast. They produce external applications of weak electro-magnetic fields across the site. Non-union fractures have been healing in a remarkably short amount of time, even after several years of non-union. Dr. Becker had reservations about such devices giving constantly stimulation 24 hours a day might excite any cancer cells that may be in the area into growth also.

Dr. Becker was not the first to stumble on these ideas of exciting our own currents of injury to heal bones. In his book, Body Electric, Becker relates that a Dr. Hall of Pennsylvania used electro-acupuncture to stimulate bone repair in the mid-1800’s. Benjamin Franklin also used electrotherapy to heal a friend’s frozen shoulder. These ideas are not new. From ancient China, to India and Greece, many traditions believe that humans have an energy body, and that stimulation of energy flow within this body facilitates healing. One of the basic tenets of ancient Chinese and Japanese medicine is that Energy = Matter, and that by stimulating energy, matter is affected. It is this same foundation of thought that Einstein proved to scientists, that energy and matter are dual expressions of the same universal substance, with his equation, E=mc 2.  That universal substance, "Qi", is a primal energy or vibration. Therefore, it is possible to attempt to heal the body with ‘energetic medicine’, by manipulating the basic vibrational or energetic architecture of the body, which I believe Acupuncture, Homeopathy and Herbal medicine does.

Medical science has been using energy concepts to create insights or windows into the body with imagery equipment, from x-rays, CAT scans, EEG, ECG, PET, to the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imagery) that is able to visualize a tumor inside the body. The MRI stimulates atoms by stimulation of the transfer of energy of a specific frequency. All of these remarkable diagnostic tools provide glimpses into the body at different energetic frequencies — a glimpse into matter at the energy level. The truth is we are both chemical and electrical. Modern scientists can detect and catalogue human biofields using SQUIDS (Superconducting Quantum Interferometric Devices.) SQUIDS are ultra sensitive magnetic fields detectors. These tests show us how we generate AC electromagnetic fields around our nerves and muscles, and DC electromagnetic fields around our brain. When the body’s energy becomes imbalanced, organic problems and disease follows. Cancer tissue and healthy tissue have different electrical capacities. Research by Dr. Nordenstrom has found a “negative potential” electrical reading in the vicinity of cancerous tumors. He has reported some tumor remissions by the insertion of electrodes in the tumor and on its surface and then applying a current between the two. This technique normalizes the abnormal current of injury, perhaps righting the energetic imbalance or “hole” in the energy system.  Astounding results in recent scientific inquiry has spawned a renewed interest in the subtler working and circuitry of the body’s bio-electromagnetic energy. Scientists are already manipulating the body’s own incredibly small currents for healing of tissue, nerve, bones and cancers. They are discovering trigger points and acupoints in the same locations. The possibility of subtle measurement is now available. We already know that acupoints have a precise location on the body’s surface that can be measured. Classic acupoints identified thousands of years ago by the ancients are measured today using scientific means and indeed show a precise decrease in electrical resistance.

Work by Dr. Darras and Professor DeVernijoul prove some interesting results. Testing the validity of energy transportation along the meridian channels, the doctors injected a radioactive tracer (Tegg) at the acupoint and with the help of a gamma-ray camera, found that the radioactivity traveled along the acupuncture meridian at the speed of 3-5 cm/minute, (this being in the order of 25 circulations per day or night). The flow was slower for diseased organs. They discounted that the flow was of the lymphatic or blood system. The speed of this flow quickened when an acupoint was stimulated. The flow was at a rate suggestive of the flow of Qi or energy through the merridians common to Traditional Chinese and Japanese Medicine.

Dr. Smith, in his book, Electromagnetic Man, states that this flow was suggestive of an electromagnetically rotating field, maintaining a pressure in the direction of the target organ. Dr. Nakatani, and Dr. Voll have conducted extensive research into measuring the end or beginning acupoints electrically as being reflective of the associated organ. High readings indicate inflammation, with low readings indicating degenerative disease. Any needle inserted in an acupoint will set up an electrical contact potential.  After all of his groundbreaking research, Dr. Becker believes that “One of the main lessons of [the] effects of bio-electromagnetism, so far, is that less is often more.” These electrical contact potentials may help regulate the energy body, and thus the physical body.

I believe the ancient Chinese discovered by trial and error, over hundreds of generations, what modern scientists are confirming today — that the subtle manipulation of the body’s currents provides great healing. I believe that within the experience of Chinese medicine there lie the keys, to future advances in many areas of subtle healing energy work. The manipulation of bio-electro-magnetic energy for healing is still at a crude stage compared with the lineage of Traditional Chinese Medline and the experiential truths contained therein.

Traditional Chinese Medicine History

“Chinese medicine” includes all healing traditions emerging from East and Southeast Asia that have their origins in China. The traditions of Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan or Korea all have their roots in Chinese Medicine. It is a complete medical system treating a very wide range of conditions. It includes herbal therapy, acupuncture, dietary therapy, and exercises in breathing and movement (tai chi and qi gong). The Chinese healing art of acupuncture is one that can be dated back at least two thousand years. Some authorities maintain that acupuncture has been practiced in China for even four thousand years. Though its exact age is vague, what is certain is that up until the recent twentieth century, much of the population of the world was uninformed about acupuncture, its origins, and its capacity to promote and maintain good health.  The Huang Di Nei Jing, the “Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon,” dates from around 200 B.C., but certainly contains much older material. Most of its two parts, 81 chapters of each, discuss diseases, their origins and therapy. This text is based on the detailed observations of nature and her natural laws. It contains concepts of how these laws govern all living things. It lays out the central principles that still govern T.C.M. to this day, Yin-Yang and the law of the Five Elements, developing the concept of how nature effects health  Throughout its unbroken written history, Chinese Medicine has continually developed, sustained by research and constant refinement in every aspect of its use. In the fourth Century, pulse diagnosis was already well developed; it was discussed in detail in the Majing, “Classic on the Mai,” written by Wang Shuhe

Chinese herbal medicine along with the other components of Chinese medicine, are based on the concepts of Yin and Yang. According to this theory, everything holds two opposite forces: "Yin” (negative) and "Yang" (positive). The balanced body achieves harmony, which in turn gives strength to fight against disease and disharmony. T.C.M. aims to understand and then treat the many ways in which the balance and harmony between Yin and Yang may be undermined and the ways in which a person's ‘Qi’(Energy/Life-force) or vitality may be weakened or blocked. Clinical strategies are based upon diagnosis of patterns of signs and symptoms that reflect an imbalance. According to Chinese Medicine, ‘Qi’ is said to be that which differentiates the dead from the living, the animating spark, the vital force of the body, and the force of the seasons, the planet and the universe.  From non-solid gaseous ethers to gross dense matter, all is composed of and defined by its Qi. Qi is matter on the verge of becoming energy and energy on the verge of becoming matter. Many cultures have developed similar concepts of energy within the body and universe. Prana is an almost identical concept employed by the Ayurvedic medicine of India, which seeks to harmonize “pranic” energies within the body. Pythagoras of Ancient Greece, the father of Hellenic medicine, spoke of healing energy called pneuma. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, described the natural healing force of nature, which he labeled physis. The father of homeopathic medicine, Dr. Hahnemann, spoke of bioenergetic energy called “vital force.” Mesmer’s “animal magnetism,” Bergson’s elan vital, Burr’s L(Life)-Fields, and Nordstrom’s “biologically closed circuits” are all labels for energy within the body.

These circuits of Qi link together all the systems and organs of the body. The meridians are highways of energy that are connected internally and externally by many web-like minor roads. If we could see this invisible energy we would see an amazing three-dimensional energy body interfacing with our biochemical body. There are twelve major meridians and eight “extraordinary” meridians. The meridian circuitry is like a three-dimensional energetic road map with “acupoints” on the surface at various junctions and rotaries. At these control points we can exert a regulatory influence on the flow of traffic coming from or going to the vital organs. Each of the twelve primary meridians serves as an energy conduit for a particular organ from which the meridian takes its name. For example, Qi that flows through the Heart meridian helps to regulate its energy field and the organ. Six yin organ/meridian systems and six yang organ/meridian systems form a crucial dynamic relationship of balance within the body. Disharmonies in an organ may cause disease in the meridian.

Acupoints

Acupoints are specific sites along the energy meridians where the energy can be manipulated. They are located on the surface of the body, at junctions or highway intersections with other meridians, and they facilitate the flow of energy. The T.C.M. Doctor is trained to diagnose where there is deficiency or excess energy and then select prescriptions of herbs and acupoints to open up a traffic jam, or slow speeding traffic down. Organs.  The twelve major meridians connect to twelve organs. The Chinese do not view organs in isolation, but rather see each organ as an energy field with an associated energetic function in relationship to other organs via functions that affected the psyche as well. These basic concepts are inherently holistic and serve to guide the astute practitioner to consider the whole of the patient and not merely his/her symptoms. For example, the function of the small intestine is to ‘separate pure from impure’ in the body and in the psyche as well. When under-functioning, we may dwell on the negative or impurities in the mind instead of eliminating them and keeping a positive focus. A dysfunction in the organ/meridian field could manifest in the body and the mind; the ancient Chinese made no distinction between the two. Of course modern TCM, even though superbly systematized by the communist Chinese government, downplays or even suppresses many of the original Buddhist and Taoist influences upon Chinese Medicine and how it views mind and spirit. The organ/meridian fields are not static and inert; rather, they resemble a living rhythmic pulsation with energy increasing and decreasing function in a wavelike flow. These rhythms are affirmed by ancient treatises and confirmed by pulse diagnosis and present day bio-energetic testing. Within every 24-hour time span, each organ meridian field has a wave of energy that lasts for two hours and then fades. Qi flows through the circuitry of the organ meridian fields in a sequence. There is great emphasis placed upon prevention as a system of Chinese Medicine, a glaring oversight, in my opinion, within modern ‘disease-focused care’ so prevalent in industrialized nations.

“The fine Doctor acts even before there is anything wrong”

--Huangdi Neijing, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon, Chapter 2, Suwen, 200BC.

This classic quote from 2,200 years ago underlines the emphasis placed on prevention. Care with regular tai chi or qigong, meditation, preventative self-medication, and self-care of maintaining a healthy diet, living in harmony with ourselves emotionally and with our society and Gaia or the laws of nature are what creates and sustains health.

Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Mind and Body Connection.

Both Western and communist thinking tend to separate mind from body and spiritual from material. Descartes said, “There are two substances, mind and matter. They can’t influence each other because they exist in different realities.” He also proposed “that animals are machines and humans, machines with minds, and that mind cannot interact with matter.” Only in the last few decades have these chains been lifted from scientific inquiry, yet these principles are still deeply ingrained in conventional medicine. In Chinese medicine and thought, no absolute contrast exists between the body and the mind. Chinese medicine as a system recognizes that emotions play a part in both illness and health. The physiological effect of different emotional states on bio-energy and bodily substances has been accepted and studied for thousands of years within Chinese medicine. To the ancient Chinese 4000 years ago, it was clear that certain mental or emotional states produced physiological effects that contributed to illness. As stated in the classic Nei Ching, the central classic of Chinese medicine, illness may be caused by six pernicious influences: wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, and fire, as well as the seven emotions: joy, anger, sadness, grief, pensiveness, fear, and fright, in excess or deficiency. The Emperor Huang Ti asks, “I know that all the sicknesses are owed to a disturbance of the energy, but do the emotions have a repercussion on the energy?” The physician Chi Po answers: “Anger makes the energy climb toward the upper part of the body. Joy procures tranquility, the yang energy circulates easily, this is why the energy is then peaceful.” Chi Po continues, “Anguish provokes constriction of the heart and dilation of the lungs; the energy of the upper triple burner no longer circulates and the yang energy, no longer being able to circulate, is dispersed little by little. Fear provokes closing of the upper triple burner; the energy of the triple burner no longer being able to pass, the abdomen distends because the energy of the organism no longer circulates. Physical overworking provokes excessive dispersion of the energy; intellectual overworking blocks up the circulation of energy. The Nei Ching identifies seven emotions that particularly affect the body and that are still considered most important: joy, anger, sadness, grief, pensiveness, fear, and fright. The differences between sadness and grief, fear and fright, appear to be of degree; sometimes these pairs are combined as one emotion. It is only when the emotion is excessive or deficient over a long period of time, or when it is suddenly and powerfully invoked, that it can disrupt normal flow of energy and bodily substances. Internal energetic disharmony can cause unbalanced emotions:  “Excessive joy is associated with slow and scattered Qi; excessive anger induces the Qi to ascend; excessive sadness and grief, weakens Qi; pensiveness generates knottedness or stuckness; excessive fear induces chaotic Qi. The seven emotions are thought to correlate with the five Yin organs: joy with heart, anger with the liver, sadness and grief with the lungs, pensiveness and over thinking with the spleen, and fear or fright with the kidneys.” The two organs considered most susceptible to emotional disturbance are the heart and the liver. A major function of the heart is to store the Shen (spirit).  Disharmonious emotions can lead easily to disturbances of the Shen, resulting in insomnia or muddled thinking, inappropriate crying or laughing, and in extreme cases, fits, hysteria and insanity. The liver harmonizes the emotions through its sprinkling-of-Qi function. Thus, ‘liver Qi’ going in the wrong direction can be a result of excessive anger or the source of it. Disharmonies of liver Qi and anger accompany one another. Stagnation of liver Qi may be associated with any emotional frustration, or with inappropriate and extreme mood changes.”  In addition to external disease influences, internal emotional factors may cause disease. Disruptive sensations may come about as a result of joy, anger, pensiveness, sadness, grief, fear, and fright. Oriental medicine maintains that pain sensations are associated with the activities of a person’s spirit. The ancient Chinese maintained that pain sensations are caused by a disturbance or blockage of energy streams and that the balance and flow of energy streams are connected to the condition of the spirit.  Strong emotions cause strong ‘electro-magnetic storms’ or disruption in the body’s energy flow. If experienced often enough, this can create an imbalance within the organ/meridian functioning of the body/mind. Although this can become a chronic disposition, it can be treated by herbal medicine and acupuncture. The tradition as a whole, like Ayurvedic medicine, places great emphasis on lifestyle management in order to prevent disease before it occurs. Chinese medicine recognizes that health is more than just the absence of disease and it has a unique capacity to maintain and enhance our capacity for well-being and happiness

Peace is easily maintained

Trouble is easily overcome before it starts.

The brittle is easily shattered;

The small is easily scattered

Deal with it before it happens.

Set things in order before there is confusion

--Lao Tsu, ‘Tao Te Ching’

The mind states affect the body’s energy and vice versa. For example, stagnation of “liver Qi” can lead to depression. Likewise, depression can lead to stagnation of liver Qi. To a T.C.M. Doctor, emotional disharmony is seen as 1) a sign of an organ/meridian field disharmony; and 2) as a factor originating from organ/meridian field disharmony. Once the disharmony has been diagnosed, often with questioning, pulse and tongue diagnosis, then a formula of herbs or a formula of acupoints are prescribed.

What conditions should Acupuncture be considered?

Cardiovascular: Poor circulation, angina, high blood pressure, palpitations.

Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat: Allergies, sinusitis, eye pain, sore throat, dizziness.

Genito-GYN: PMS, menstrual problems, menopause, UTI, sexual dysfunction, infertility, prostrate problems.

Musculo-Skeletal: Arthritis, back pain, bursitis, Carpal Tunnel syndrome, neck pain, sciatica, joint pain, sports injury, TMJ, fibromyalgia, tendonitis, strains and sprains.

Neurological: Headache and migraines, numbness, Bell’s Palsy, shingles, post-stroke syndrome, acute and chronic pain.

Respiratory: Colds and flu, sore throat, bronchitis, asthma, smoking.

Digestion: Constipation, Crohn’s Disease, diarrhea, indigestion, Candida.

Geoff D’Arcy Lic. Ac.

89D Washington Ave,

Natick, MA 01760