Acupuncture And How It Heals

A diseased state can occur in the body as the results of various causes, like trauma, toxic substances, or dysfunction from the body's internal mechanisms. Our mind-set can affect the physical aspects of our body when there's emotional turmoil. Physical and emotional troubles can affect the external part of the body like skin and muscle tissue. This can leave you with sensitive and/or sore tense areas. Diagnosis and treatment was created by traditional Chinese medicine having a system of therapy. By manipulating those outer layers of tissue, Acupuncture and other therapies can help internal conditions. The mechanism of acupuncture have been explained by Oriental medicine for hundreds of years using traditional ideas, while modern medicine is really just beginning to propose explanations for its effectiveness.

A Modern Medicine Perspective

These are a couple of of the known mechanisms that modern allopathic medicine recognizes. Ongoing research suggests other possibilities, that are still being studied.

Biochemical Defense Mechanism: A site of injury at the cellular level is formed when the prick of the acupuncture needle is used. Once the body feels the injury, it releases chemicals important to cellular repair. The tissue and cellular biochemical defenses are initiated through the acupuncture needle. This helps to cut back local inflammation and relieve pain.

Endorphins:
Acupuncture and tuina stimulate your body to provide its own pain-relieving chemicals called "endorphins", that are also called "anti-stress hormones."

Gate Control Theory: Pain is transmitted from the periphery into the brain via the spinal cord. There is really a mechanism (or "gate") in the spinal cord, which stops pain messages from reaching the brain. Acupuncture can close this 'gate' with the manual manipulation of a needle lessening the feeling of pain. Endorphins (above) can also block pain pathways by working on these gates.

Electrical Conduction:
It has been noted that acupuncture points have dissimilar electrical potentials than other areas of a body. It's not exactly acknowledged why these different electric points exist. Research has suggested that acupuncture impacts electrical conduction within the body. Further research on this matter is still ongoing.

Autonomic Nervous System: Coordinating and the conduction of the body's involuntary functions are control by this arrangement. Acupuncture and tuina "activate" the conserving, healing function of a autonomic nervous system while overriding the fight-or-flight function which, when overactive, puts significant amounts of wear and tear on our bodies and minds.

Trigger Point Theory: Through clinical research, western physicians have discovered specific points of tension in a body that, when released, are particularly effective in the alleviation of musculo-skeletal pain. These points on tension almost match perfectly with all the acupuncture points in Chinese medicine. Acupuncturists in Colorado also can do injection therapy (of vitamins, saline or herbal solutions) that is an especially effective method for treating Trigger Points.

A Perspective From Oriental Medicine

Oriental medicine see its effectiveness as an energetic model instead of a biochemical model of Western medicine. Ancient oriental physicians proposed that our energetic life-force, called Qi ("Chee") in Chinese, circulates along channels or meridians in the body and links all of a body's parts and functions. Qi is an entire body phenomenon affecting a body along with the mind. Qi helps to keep blood circulating, fights disease and warms the body. When a person is healthy, Qi flows smoothly through the channels but if, for some reason, the flow is blocked, weak, or excessive, then symptoms and/or illness occurs.

The aim of acupuncture is to fix the flow from your channels by utilizing needles or other techniques. In so doing, a change in the function of the body is achieved. Qi troubles show up before physical problems. Acupuncture and tuina act as a preventative fixing the energy problem before an illness gets worse. The reversal of physical change is usually accomplished by a change in the flow of Qi.