For me, the simplest way to understand one of the main mechanisms of acupuncture is to not just look for the oldest evidence for acupuncture but rather to look at the philosophical underpinnings of acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Thousands of years ago, the Chinese developed Taoist Philosophy which is based on the observation that the external world is filled with opposites, and that life flourished when these opposites were in proper balance (not too hot or cold, damp or dry etc., i.e. yin and yang) and/or had the proper ebb and flow (the seasons, day and night, etc.). It’s not a big stretch to think that in ancient times people thought “If that’s the way it works outside the body, why would it be any different inside the body?” In Chinese Medicine, our most ancient differential diagnostic technique is call The Eight Principles and is based on this very idea. Basically, you categorize the disorder according to opposites: is it hot or cold, internal or external, yin or yang, excess or deficient, damp or dry, etc. You then select the proper technique(s) or herbs to bring the body back into balance. If it’s too hot, you cool it down and so forth.
Now what in the body works like that? Any guesses? The autonomic nervous system of course! It is the automatic control system for the whole body. In it you have the sympathetic nervous system which is responsible for the fight or flight/stress response and which generally stimulates functions in the body (yang) and the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for the relaxation response and generally inhibits functions in the body (yin). So basically the Chinese, by careful observation of signs and symptoms and also by palpation, developed a sophisticated understanding of autonomic functioning and how to manipulate it. without even knowing there was a nervous system! It’s one reason why TCM can treat so many different disorders. That’s also much of the reason for the esoteric language – there just wasn’t any other way to explain it. In many ways, the TCM understanding of the functional relationships in autonomic functioning is superior to the Western understanding of how thenervous system works. It’s like the difference between knowing a computer runs on electricity and understanding how the programming works to make it run. Then again it’s nice to know the Western perspective as well since, continuing with our analogy; if a wire is broken, no amount of programming is going to fix it. You need to fix the broken wire. Each system of medicine has its strengths and weaknesses and informs us about how the human body as a whole works.
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