Acupuncture achieves results by stimulating specific points on the body, called acupuncture points. The stimulation of acupuncture points affects both the sensory and peripheral nerves. It triggers the release of the body’s internal chemicals such as endorphins and enkephalins, which have pain-relieving properties.
Let’s dive into the details of how acupuncture can help relieve pain. Pain itself is a theory; no one knows precisely what happens when someone feels chronic pain, not even Western medical experts. Our best theory for how acupuncture works with pain involves two types of nerves in the body:
- Sensory nerves (nociceptor fibers), which tell the brain there is pain, and;
- Proprioceptive nerve fibers (position nerves), which help the brain locate the source of the pain.
These nerves travel from the body to the spine and into the brain, distributing pain information. For example, suppose you have pain in your hand. In that case, these nerves travel up the arms to the spine, where they synapse and pass information on to a like nerve fiber in the spine. From there, the information travels up the back of the spine on the lateral dorsal horn, then up into the brain to communicate the sensation of pain.
For your body to manage pain effectively, both the sensory and proprioceptive nerves must be firing at the same time. Without a proprioceptive nerve firing simultaneously with a sensory nerve, the brain does not know where the pain originates. Usually, when the brain gets the signal, it releases enkephalins. Enkephalins are the body’s natural pain killers. As soon as the enkephalin release takes place, the pain stops. That’s the way things are supposed to work. In the case of chronic pain, this process is not working as it should.
Experts suspect that the catalyst responsible for releasing the enkephalins is the neural strength of the proprioceptive signal to the brain. In other words, the proprioceptive signal has to be strong enough for the brain to discharge the enkephalins. In people with chronic pain, the proprioceptive pathway has been damaged and is not working correctly. This is why some patients have a hard time pinpointing exactly where their pain is coming from. For instance, a patient may have pain in his shoulder, but he is unable to get more specific about which part of the shoulder hurts. He can’t communicate it because he is not getting a clear proprioceptive signal to his brain. Without a clear signal, there is no enkephalin release, and there is chronic pain.
The body can lock into a sensory-motor loop for years. That’s where Chinese medicine can make a profound difference. Acupuncturists are specialists in fixing this signal problem. When the acupuncture needle goes into the body, it jumps the signal strength on the proprioceptive pathway. As soon as you increase the signal strength, the brain releases the enkephalins, stops the pain, and you go home without pain.
It’s common that, after you return home from an acupuncture treatment, the body’s lower threshold level will reestablish itself, and thus the pain returns. So, you return to the clinic, get acupuncture again to jump the threshold, and go away without pain. After repeating this treatment cycle multiple times, acupuncture eventually reboots the neurological system and reestablishes homeostasis within your body. The result is an end to your chronic pain.
In acupuncture, the location of the needles is everything. The practitioner must puncture very specific spots to be effective at relieving pain. To learn where those spots are, we turn to the Chinese, who have mastered the technique over thousands of years of study and practice.
Leave a Reply