Bio-Electric Effects

There a number of bio-electric effects in the body that acupuncture and electro-acupuncture either cause or affect. For example, inflammation is associated with accumulation of negative charge. Various effects can happen when needling a point. Which effect(s) happen depend on how the point is needled and what is wrong. Putting a needle anywhere in the body causes electrons on the surface of the skin to travel through the needle and collect under the skin. And since an acupuncture needle has a hydrophilic surface, it will make structured water when it comes in contact with extracellular fluid causing even more negative charge around the needle. This can be helpful or harmful depending on what is going on. If you are needling an inflamed area, needling deeply can worsen the problem by adding negative charge where there is already too much (inflammation is associated with too much negative charge). There is a phenomena called electro-osmosis (discovered by Dr. Bjorn Nordenstrom). It states that in the presence of an electric field, water will migrate towards the negative pole and away from the positive pole. This will only happen in a tissue matrix and not in a bucket of water. This effect can be explained by the formation of structured water which I explain elsewhere. Therefore needling can affect the flow of extra-cellular fluid in the meridian (which can be useful in treating such things as lymph-edema, diabetic neurophathy, gout, etc. Degeneration, on the other hand, is associated with a lack of electrons (remember, it is electrons that hold molecules together). Here, needling more deeply can supply electrons and slow or stop degeneration. Whereas needling more shallowly over an inflamed area can draw fluid away and help inflammation. Dr. Nordenstrom even showed you can kill a inoperable lung tumor by drying it out using this phenomena. Charge can also attract objects of the opposite charge and repel objects of like charge. So needling can attract leukocytes to the area. Even overall neutral object can become polarized, where one side becomes positive and the other side negative. This can even occur naturally in the body and is one of the problems why early joint replacements failed. It is also why an inflamed nerve root can cause the nearby disk to become polarized which in turn causes the side of the disk nearest to the inflammation to become positive and begin degenerating. Another electrical phenomena in the body is piezoelectrcity. Bone is a piezoelectric material. When bent, the side stretched becomes electro-negative and the side compressed becomes electro-positive. In bone, the electro-negative side adds bone and the electro-positive side loses bone. This is how bone adapts to stress. It is also how bone spurs and calcium deposits can form. Then you also have electrolytic effects of polarized electro-acupuncture or d.c. treatments. this causes a breakdown of the metals of the needle at the positive end (which if done too long will cause a “freckle” to appear where the needle was. On the other side, water is broken down into Hydrogen and Oxygen and bubbles will form. This causes a change of pH in the area. The Chinese have recently shown that tumors can be killed with this effect. But instead of drying out the tumor like Dr. Nordenstrom did, instead, The hydrogen and oxygen bubbles migrates into the cells of the tumor and both changes the pH and explodes the cell (hydrogen oxygen are gases so it blows up like a balloon. Too much and pops. “Normal” electro-acupuncture uses non-polarized waveforms to avoid these effects. But they can be used to good effect if you know what you are doing. I explain how in my book. Were you taught any of this? Of course not. Unless you were in one of my classes.

Now the bio-electric effects and the autonomic effects can interact with one another just like electrical and chemical effects can. For example, negative charge can increase the firing of a nerve whereas positive charge will reduce the firing rate.Charge also affects the formation of structured water. Here, negative charge makes it grow and positive charge destroys it. In TCM terms, negative charge is usually yang and positive charge is yin.

Structured water also has its own role to play in acupuncture and also has bio-electric effects. When structured water forms, it creates a separation of charge, causing the needle to become more negative and the surrounding extracellular water to become positive.This creates a “water battery”. The negative charge at the needle will increase the effects of that charge at the needle. The positive charge will cause flow in the channel to increase somewhat. Adding heat to the needle will increase this effect. My third book, which I am writing now is tentatively called “Treating With Charge: A new way to use acupuncture and a new understanding of how it works”.

Go to Autonomic Effects

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