How Acupuncture Works

While there are many, many, many (did I say many?) theories on how acupuncture works and lots and lots of money is being spent trying to prove just how, I've developed my own little analogy that I like to use to explain my way of understanding this complicated concept.

Imagine you had never set foot inside a modern building before today. Now, imagine you had just been put inside a house all on your own.  After spending some time just looking, you might start to touch and explore your surroundings further right?

Now, imagine you see something on the wall.  A little plastic piece sticking out and you happened to eventually figure out that you could flip it up and down.  Not only that, but after doing so several times you realize that the light turning on and off, didn't just happen to coincide with your actions but were actually somehow linked to them.

Next imagine finding the thermostat.  This one is harder to figure out, but none the less, with enough diligence and careful observation you might come to conclude that when you adjust it, there is space of time, but eventually you will start to hear something make a noise, then either hot or cold air will come from vents all over the house.

THIS is precisely how I think of acupuncture and how it works.  Only instead of switches and dials, there are the nearly 400 acupuncture points all over the body, and instead of being as obvious as a light turning on and off, these points activate much more subtle changes. It only makes sense then, that acupuncture developed over hundreds and thousands of years over the close observation of millions of people.

And here's the beauty.  Just like in the house analogy, there most definitely IS a reason why the light switch turns on the light (ask any electrician to give you a lesson) or why the thermostat adjusts the temperature (my brother is trained in HVAC and could tell you all about it), but the person turning on the switch doesn't need to understand how it works for it to work.  Regardless of whether the person is an electrician or someone with absolutely no mechanical knowledge, the light still will turn off and on.

So, my job as an acupuncturist is to know which switches turn on and off which things.  And while researchers are trying to figure out if these "switches" work because of... say... pathways of less electrical resistance, proximity to nerve endings, the placebo effect, the release of neuro-chemicals, the stimulation of the limbic system, or any other number of theories, it doesn't REALLY matter. Because the truth is, the switches have been working for thousands of years, on millions of people, all without us understanding exactly how, and they will continue to do so.  Whether we figure it out or not.

This might drive some people crazy, but for me, it is a thing of beauty and constant amazement.  To trust that there is some inherent wisdom in the body...  To take the ego out of medicine...  To do something so elegant and absolutely simple and then just get out of the way and let something beyond us happen...  What a wonderful thing!  I am constantly amazed at the things just a few hair thin needles can do.  I am so grateful to be filled with wonder at the medicine I practice.