Acupuncture

To understand how acupuncture works it is necessary to understand that the body is a remarkable organism with all kinds of mechanisms to deal with virtually everything that happens to it, and most of the time, these mechanisms work perfectly well. If they didn’t, we would be sick, or dying all the time. But sometimes some mechanisms do not work as well as they should, and so we have a health problem that does not resolve itself. The mechanisms to resolve it are there nevertheless, (barring certain genetic conditions such as haemophilia in which the blood lacks a certain clotting factor). Western medicine recently discovered that there are electrical circuits in the body that connect the nervous system with all other systems in the body including the immune system. This is actually the very principle on which acupuncture works, and fits perfectly with 2,000 year old Chinese medical theories of meridians and qi. To put it simply, acupuncture works via the nervous system to activate body systems that aren’t working as well as they should. It is making use of the body’s own resources to help itself. This is most easily explained in the treatment muscular-skeletal injuries. It is now known that the two major processes in the healing of damaged tissue are that the nervous system creates microelectric currents that put certain charges on the tissue, and this in turn attracts the ions, or we could say the nutrients from the blood that the tissue needs to repair itself. The electric currents provide the motive force for healing to take place; the blood provides the building materials. When an injury doesn’t heal, it is an indication these currents aren’t getting through, or there is an inadequate blood supply to the tissue, or both. Acupuncture stimulates the currents to flow, hence the tingling feelings we get when the needles are twirled. It has also been clinically proven the when the needles are twirled, the levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), an energy transporting and transferring substance, are increased as much as 26 times. Another effect of ATP is that it causes blood vessels to dilate, thus enriching the blood supply to the tissue, an effect enhanced by moxibustion, a very soothing process in which the herb mugwort is burned, directing heat to the injury.

However acupuncture does not only treat injuries. It can treat most bodily systems including respiratory, digestive, endocrinal, gynaecological etc so can assist with a wide range of medical conditions.

John is available at 03 5468733 or j.black@slingshot.co.nz to answer any questions you may have about acupuncture, or treatment for your own health issues.

Gideon is available at 021 057 5292 or countgideon@gmail.com to answer any questions you may have about acupuncture,Tuina, Tai Qi or Feng Shui for treatment or consultation regarding your health issues.