Acupuncture

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'The vision-related acupoints VA1, VA2, VA3, and VA8. These acupoints are known in the oriental acupuncture literature as BL67 (VA1), BL66 (VA2), BL65 (VA3), and BL60 (VA8), respectively.'Acupuncture points (also called "acupoints or tsubo"), are, according to the earliest oriental extant medical treatise, the Yellow Emperor's Classic, "holes" on the surface of the body enabling the life force, or qi (ch'i) to pass in an out of the body.¹ They are studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography of the brain,² as well as impedometric measurements ³,⁴. and "low intensity laser biostimulators"⁵ in situ.

'Visual and acupuncture stimulation of VA1. Comparison of direct visual stimulation of the eye and acupuncture stimulation of vision-related acupoint VA1 for all 12 subjects. The fMRI activation responses, in color, are superimposed on MRI images. Yellow overlays correspond to responses from direct visual stimulation. Red overlays correspond to responses from acupuncture stimulation having a positive correlation with signal intensity, i.e., “yin” character. Blue overlays correspond to responses from acupuncture stimulation having a negative correlation with signal intensity, i.e., “yang” character. All subjects with “red” overlays were judged to have primarily “yin” characters whereas all subjects with “blue” overlays were judged to have primarily “yang” characters.' (Cho & al) Until recently, it was believed that the existence of acupoints could not be scientifically demonstrated because the theoretical system underlying acupuncture was "mystical" in nature and the practice of acupuncture was alien to the scientific method.

However, neither the theoretical nor the practical context of acupoints could prevent modern research from studying their existence.

In 1998, the groundbreaking study by Cho & al. ⁶, published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that a seemingly unimportant area of the fifth toe could cause an activation of the visual cortex, when properly localized and stimulated in accordance with traditional acupuncture theory and practice.

Following this discovery, a host of new researches using state-of-the-art neural imaging techniques obtained results as surprising with other acupoints (but not sham points).

In a 2005 review of 7 intense years of research on this previously neglected aspect of physiology, Lewith & al. appreciate the progress accomplished using modern imaging techniques:

Studies show that specific and largely predictable areas of brain activation and deactivation occur when considering the traditional Chinese functions attributable to certain specific acupuncture points. For example, points associated with hearing and vision stimulates the visual and auditory cerebral areas respectively".

Acupuncture research is one of the most powerful tools to question Western reductionism and expose its basic prejudices.
* How could citizens obtain reparation for the decades of obscurantist dismissal of this therapeutic? What lessons should be learnt?
* How could serious researchers and thinkers take advantage of the results and systematically address the hegemony of molecular biology?
* How can results from acupuncture research benefit other similar 'quack' medicines?
* How can it help to understand Eastern thought and worldviews?

Bian Shi: Stone Probe. Bian Shi were used to stimulate acupuncture cavities in the treatment of illnesses during the Yellow Emperor era (2690-2590 B.C.) before metal needles became available.The history of acupuncture is much longer than the needles are. Most scholars agree that stone probes, found in prehistoric Chinese caves and tombs, were the original acupuncture/acupressure instruments. Such stone probes date back to prehistory, over 5000 years ago. Acupuncture using needles and the systematized meridians is more traceable to the past 2000 years. The Yellow Emperor's Internal Medicine Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing) sets down basic acupuncture theory, philosophy, and principles. It dates to approximately 200 B.C.E.¹

According to the ancient texts, such as the Nei Jing, meridians were channels between the heavens and earth, through the body.

Accordingly, acupuncture and the related manipulative therapies were inextricably tied to astrology.

The five elements were the energies or the five planets. These planet-element energy equivalences were likely guided by the appearance and behaviour of the planets. Saturn has the colour of earth, Jupiter of wood (both celestial bodies are slow moving in the sky, like wood and earth in Nature), Mars (the "Red Planet") has the colour of fire; Venus of metal; Mercury, colourless planet of water, can be observed as the most dynamic, "fluid", planet in the heavens, circling with a great obliquity² the Sun (this accords with the descriptions of Mercury made in other cultures).

The planet of the earth elementThe planet of the wood elementThe planet of the fire elementThe planet of the metal elementThe planet of the water element Measurements show that meridians and acupuncture points are not comparable to nerve channels and endings; they do not seem to transport electricity like wires. An analogy that would be more suitable than the electrical powergrid would be the information network, a network linking all parts with each other and informing each other, not unlike the Web, or the brain.