One of the theories scientists have held for many years as to why acupuncture works to alleviate chronic pain and other ailments is called the Vascular-Interstitial Theory. This theory describes the idea that acupuncture works by affecting the electrical system of the body, the network of currents conducted by our cells. Electricity is vital for sending information through the body to the brain and vice versa, as well as in order to conduct currents to the heart, which allows it to pump at the right times.

A disruption to any of these electrical currents can cause illness. The Vascular-Interstitial Theory of acupuncture suggests stimulating acupoints affects these electrical currents in our bodies, facilitating healing by allowing the transfer of blood, organic matter and electrical energy between healthy and injured tissues.

Research published in March 2018 in Scientific Reports offered a significant contribution to our understanding of the interstitium, and therefore sheds new light on the Vascular-Interstitial Theory.

Previous research on the interstitium suggested it was a layer of densely packed connective tissue lining the digestive tract, lungs, urinary systems and surrounding veins and fascia between the muscles. New and increasingly powerful microscopes now allow scientists to look inside living tissues. In this case, the authors of the research were able to look inside the interstitium for the first time, and rather than a web of densely packed connective tissue, they found the space is a network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments. This finding may help to explain why placing acupuncture needles at specific points on the body creates healing elsewhere in the body.

In an article for The Cut, reporter Katie Heaney interviewed one of the authors of this new research, Neil Theise, a clinician and professor of pathology at NYU Langone Health and a proponent of alternative medicine. While the research paper itself did not discuss acupuncture, Heaney asked Theise to weigh in on the possible connections. Theise posited it was possible the research had implications for understanding acupuncture. The layer of skin into which acupuncture needles are inserted is the interstitium, Theise explained.

“There’s fluid in there,” he told Heaney. “When you put the needle [into an accu-point], maybe the collagen bundles are arranged into a channel through which fluid can flow.”

The research shows the interstitium is a structured and organized system in the body. It may be that stimulating true acupoints allows interstitial fluid to travel throughout the body, explaining why acupuncture has far-reaching effects, not just offering pain relief at the site where the needles are inserted. Channels of interstitial fluid may be responsible for facilitating the transfer of blood, organic matter and electricity between healthy and injured parts of the body. These findings also offer a possible explanation as to why other research has shown sham acupuncture points have some pain-relieving effects where the needles are inserted, but true acupoints go a lot further in offering system-wide relief.

As always, this research is inconclusive on its own. It will require more research to further explore the connection between the interstitium and acupuncture, but it is undoubtedly an interesting idea.

https://www.thecut.com/2018/03/do–we–finally–understand–how–acupuncture–works.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23062-6

https://www.graduate.umaryland.edu/gsa/gazette/February-2016/How–the–human–body–uses–electricity/

Acupuncture is part of a medical system known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that has been around for nearly 3,000 years. The practice uses hair-thin needles to stimulate acupressure points, specific points on the body that regulate the flow of energy through pathways called meridians. The free and balanced flow of this energy, or Qi, dispels pain and illness from the body, according to TCM. For many years in the Western world, in fact for most of the 3,000 years acupuncture has existed, people have been sceptical about placing their faith in a medical system that looks at energy pathways instead of veins.

Today, a growing body of research on acupuncture is going a long way to prove the efficacy of acupuncture for a variety of afflictions, and the practice is growing in popularity. If you’re one of those people still on the fence, take a closer look at these five prevailing myths about acupuncture before deciding it’s not for you.

Myth one: Acupuncture is painful.

It’s understandable to think being pricked with multiple needles will be painful or at least uncomfortable. In the West, our experience with needles is primarily through getting shots with hypodermic needles. Those needs are significantly larger than acupuncture needles, which are only about twice the diameter of a human hair. Acupuncture needles are also extremely flexible and can bend to a 90-degree angle without breaking. Rather than pain, most patients report a vague numbness, heaviness, tingling or dull ache around where the needles are inserted.

Myth two: Acupuncture only works to treat pain.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. In Asia, acupuncture is used to treat just about everything, and stateside, research is showing it alleviates a multitude of ailments. Acupuncture has been shown to help everything from allergies to arthritis. Some hospitals are now offering acupuncture to help alleviate stress and anxiety in the emergency room, and the U.S. military is using acupuncture on the battlefield to help with PTSD.

Myth three: Acupuncture doesn’t really work: it’s just a placebo effect

Over the past decade, scientific studies have come a long way in disproving this claim. Most studies today test the efficacy of acupuncture treatments by performing true acupuncture on a portion of the study participants and sham acupuncture on another group. The sham acupuncture, placing needles in people at random points rather than known acupoints, is meant to test the strength of the placebo effect in acupuncture. Several studies have found that while people in both groups report some change (pain relief, less nausea etc. depending on the study), the group that receives true acupuncture consistently reports more significant change, for a longer period of time, and system-wide change rather than just localized effects where the needles are inserted. In May 2018, the Journal of Pain published a study that looked at acupuncture and chronic pain using data from nearly 21,000 patients. In their study, patients who received sham acupuncture did not see significant changes in their pain whereas the group that received true acupuncture did, adding to the body of evidence showing acupuncture cannot be explained away by the placebo effect.

Myth four: Acupuncture works miracles: it only takes a couple needles to cure you

The truth is that acupuncture works on a cumulative basis, just like building muscle or losing fat by going to the gym. You can’t expect to go to the gym once and look like Dwayne Johnson. It takes time. And depending on how long you’ve been dealing with your ailment, it may take quite a bit of time and multiple treatments. There are no instant fixes when it comes to health.

Myth five: Acupuncture is expensive

This all depends on the practitioner, the type of acupuncture being performed and whether or not you use insurance. Practitioners sometimes offer sliding scale pricing. Community style acupuncture, typically performed in an open setting with the practitioner treating multiple people at once, is quite affordable. And, as more and more insurance policies start to cover acupuncture, it is becoming more accessible to more people.

Some of the most important channels of energy in the human body aren’t the primary acupuncture meridians, but rather deeper channels of energy flow called the Extraordinary Vessels. These are deep wells of blood and energy within the body that help to regulate the 12 main channels. They are a deeper source of our body’s fundamental physiological energy. One of the most important Extraordinary Vessels is called the Conception Vessel, or Ren Mai. It is one of only two Extraordinary Vessels that has actual acupuncture points along its pathway.

The Ren Mai, also called the Conception Vessel or the Directing Vessel, originates between the kidneys, flows down (through the uterus in women) to the perineum, and then runs up the midline of the front of the body to the mouth. There are 24 acupuncture points along the Ren Mai, but the whole of the vessel is accessed through opening points on the kidney and lung meridians on the ankles and wrists.

The Ren Mai is referred to as the Sea of Yin, and exerts an effect on all of the yin channels. It can be used clinically to nourish the yin of the entire body. Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, yin represents all the cool, watery, passive, inward, resting physiological forces within the body. Because of its action of nourishing the whole body’s yin, the Ren Mai can be used to treat such symptoms as hot flashes, night sweats, sweaty palms, dry mouth and throat and certain types of anxiety.

The Ren Mai flows through the uterus (or the space where the uterus energy resides, if a woman has had a hysterectomy.) It is said to regulate the uterus and the blood, and is therefore responsible for puberty, menstruation, fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum healing, perimenopause and menopause. The Extraordinary Vessels are deep wells of energy the other meridians draw from if they are depleted. Therefore, the Ren Mai is particularly important for women when dealing with an issue of depletion – such as lack of periods, the postpartum period, and menopause (which is a natural weakening of the yin.)

The function of the Ren Mai is not just to nourish, however. It also moves energy in the uterus and the “lower burner” (meaning the organs within the pelvic cavity, including the bladder, and the prostate in men.) This means it can be used for a wide array of symptoms including chronic bladder problems, hernias, prostate issues, fibroids, abdominal masses and ovarian cysts.

The Ren Mai is opened by certain points on the lung and kidney meridians, and it is intricately tied to both. It helps promote the descending of lung Qi (lung Qi is supposed to descend…if it doesn’t, symptoms like wheezing and coughing occur), as well as help the kidneys grasp the Qi. Taken together, this means that the Ren Mai helps with respiration, aiding both in inhalation and exhalation. As such it is frequently used to treat asthma.

With the right presentation, the Ren Mai can also be used to regulate fluid distribution in the abdomen, activate metabolism and regulate fat tissue.

The Ren Mai can be treated with acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and certain nourishing foods.