Broadly speaking, acupuncture works in the following ways:

    - It relieves pain
    - It reduces inflammation
    - It restores homeostasis

Homeostasis refers to the body’s ability to regulate its environment and maintain internal balance. All diseases involve a disturbance of homeostasis, and nearly all diseases involve some degree of pain and inflammation.

In fact, recent research suggests that many serious conditions like heart disease are caused by chronic inflammation. If one understands that most illnesses are characterized by pain, inflammation and disturbances to homeostasis, then we begin to understand why acupuncture can be effective for so many conditions. Ultimately, acupuncture is a simple technique that stimulates the central and peripheral nervous system. Evidence indicate that acupuncture points have abundant supply of nerves. 95% of all established acupuncture points have been found to have nerve trunks or large nerve branches within 1 cm surrounding the center of the point [1]. And when you consider that the Chinese made these discoveries hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, acupuncture is even more impressive!

Below is a list of things that we know that acupuncture can do:

  • Acupuncture promotes blood flow. This is important, because everything the body needs is in the blood stream, including oxygen, nutrients we absorb from food, immune substances, hormones, analgesics (painkillers) and anti-inflammatories. Proper blood flow is vital to promoting and maintaining health. Any obstruction in blood flow will result in disease and malfunction.

  • Acupuncture stimulates the body’s built-in healing mechanisms. When needling, these needles are seen as foreign invaders. Inserting a needle into the skin creates a mini-trauma that in turn stimulates the body’s ability to heal tissue through nervous, immune and endocrine activation.

  • Acupuncture releases natural painkillers. Inserting a needle sends a signal through the nervous system to the brain, where chemicals such as endorphins, norepinephrine and enkephalin are released. Some of these natural painkillers are 10 to 200 times stronger than morphine!

  • Acupuncture relaxes shortened muscles. This is turn releases pressure on joints and nerves and promotes blood flow.

  • Acupuncture reduces stress. Research suggests that acupuncture stimulates the release of oxytocin, a hormone and signaling substance that regulates the parasympathetic nervous system (“rest-and-digest” response), opposite of the sympathetic nervous system (the “fight-or-flight” response).

1. Shaozong, C. ‘Modern acupuncture theory and its clinical application; Chapter 5 The Morphologic Relationship between Points and Nerves’, International Journal of Clinical Acupuncture.