What Acupuncture Actually Does – East Meets West, Explained

Traditional Chinese Medicine describes health through concepts including Qi, Blood, Body Fluids, Essence and Mind.

These substances are interconnected and interdependent; maintaining their balance is crucial for overall health. If an imbalance occurs, it is essential to understand which organs and acupuncture channels are involved and need correcting. Your acupuncturist will ask questions, check your pulse, look at your tongue, and sometimes palpate your body to come up with the best points in the relevant channels to balance these vital substances.

The Chinese words for the channel system are Jing Luo. These words together emphasise the concept of connectivity within the organs and the pathway of the channels.

One of the fascinating areas where traditional acupuncture theory and modern anatomy overlap is the fascia. Studies using advanced imaging techniques have shown similarities between the layout of the acupuncture channels and fascial connections. Acupuncture can influence nerve activity and blood flow through the fascia network.

Fascia is a dense, fibrous connective tissue that surrounds and supports our muscles, bones, organs, nerves, blood vessels and other structures throughout our body. It acts like a web, connecting everything and keeping it in place.

By placing an acupuncture needle at the correct depth and location in the body, this tissue distortion can travel considerable distances via the fascial network, creating a positive response along the acupuncture channel being treated and, ultimately, the organ systems described within the Jing Luo framework.

Lab studies have shown that acupuncture triggers the release of neurotransmitters and hormones from within the brain and in local tissue, including endogenous opioids - chemicals which affect pain relief and well-being. As these substances flood the bloodstream, they reduce our stress response and perception of pain and switch on a set of inhibitory neural impulses that travel down the spinal cord, affecting aberrant incoming signals into the nervous system.

The immune system is also challenged to take action with acupuncture, influencing the body's self-healing mechanisms. It produces a favourable effect on natural killer cell activity and mast cell activation, which can explain acupuncture’s anti-inflammatory effect on the body.

Another aspect to consider is the different segments of the spine, the nerves out of each of these segments, and the organs and structures they support. Most pain conditions, as well as some circulatory and neurological pathologies, will have a component of sensitisation of a spinal pathway. Let’s take the area of your back, at the waist level, as an example. This is the fourth lumbar segment, and using acupuncture in this area has the potential to affect a range of tissues and organs supplied by the nerves coming out of this segment: the hip and knee joint (sclerotome), the quadriceps, some fibres into the hamstrings, the shin (myotome), the skin on the inside of the lower leg (dermatome) or the ovaries, colon and testes (viscerotome).

Acupuncture is not simply about placing needles where something hurts. It is a system that looks at patterns, connections and how different parts of the body communicate.

Whether viewed through a traditional Eastern framework or a modern understanding of the nervous system, the aim is the same: supporting the body towards better regulation and balance.

If you would like to explore whether acupuncture may be suitable for you, you can learn more about my treatments below.