Acupuncture in MS
Acupuncture is one form of traditional Chinese medicine that is widely used throughout the world. In the United States, acupuncture was relatively rare until the early 1970s. Since then, it has grown quickly in popularity, and today, possibly a million Americans use acupuncture yearly. The frequency of acupuncture use among people with
MS in the United States and Canada is not known, but based on two large surveys, it may be higher than in the general population.
The theory
There are major conceptual differences between Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. For example, Chinese medical theory does not include the concept of a
nervous system. In Western science and medicine, the nervous system is seen as a critical component in understanding and treating many diseases. Furthermore, while “causality” (meaning that process “A” leads to process “B”) is fundamental to many Western concepts, Chinese thought assumes that the world is a web-like array of many interrelated processes that cannot be viewed in isolation or in one-to-one relationships with each other.
Acupuncture, and traditional Chinese medicine generally, is based on a complex theory of
body functioning that involves a flow of energy, or “qi”, through 14 main pathways, or “meridians”, in the body. There is also a balance of opposites known as “yin” and “yang”. According to traditional Chinese medicine, disease states are thought to be a consequence of disrupted energy flow and/or imbalances. Attempts have been made by scientists to explain some of the pain-relieving effects of acupuncture in Western terms. It has been hypothesized that acupuncture may work by altering the levels of chemical messengers in the body. Specifically, acupuncture may release “opioids” that decrease pain. Other hypotheses propose that acupuncture decreases
stress or acts as a placebo. (Improvement occurs because the patient strongly believes the treatment is beneficial.) In one study using a special type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), acupuncture at certain sites produced changes in
brain activity. These changes, some of which occurred in pain-relevant brain regions, were present during the time in which the pain-relieving effects were present. In the end, it may be found that multiple processes are involved in acupuncture’s pain-relieving effects—or that current Western biological concepts are insufficient to explain the processes.
The procedure
Acupuncture refers to a group of
read more
