Just wondering who might have an explanation for the causal relationship between the practice of acupuncture and the claims of healing.

So what is actually happening?

Acupuncture is awesome for pain releif. It also gets the blood flowing to parts of body that blood is not getting enough.so the healing and repair can start. That is my understanding.I have had it done,And am going back to help with work injury.Awesome stuff...
J.M.O.

"Never underestimate the Power of the [Placebo Effect]." - Darth Vader

Science Based Medicine weighs in on a recent research paper that shows positive results for Acupuncture in the treatment of depression.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4065#more-4065

I would think that by physically probing into areas of high nerve ending concentrations there would necessarily be *some kind* of direct effect.

I have heard the physical feeling afterwards being described as 'energy flow' traveling through the body.

If I simply put my attention on a certain part of my body I will experience a physical feeling that matches the phrase "energy flow traveling through the body". I do not mistake my sensations for evidence of anything other than sensations.

Well a few problems exit here, first acupuncture does not link up with nerves. They link up with a fictitious meridian system.

What is interesting is that MANY studies have been done, the majority use controls such as fake needles that do not pierce the skin, but from the patients perspective feel the same, they also place both fake needles, and real needles in spots that do not map to the Chinese meridian "system".

What is interesting is that statistically there is no difference in each of these methods.

Which indicates that each has about as much efficacy as each other, which is right about at the placebo level.

No argument here...

Say 'placebo effect' ...

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=5452

When I was in China I tried acupuncture. It works well in stopping pain. I listened carefully to the explanations of diverting the body's energy flow but frankly, it sounded pretty flaky. They make claims of losing weight, curing many things, helping almost everything, and how well it works in conjunction with western medicine. Specifically, they claimed that the number and position of the needles tell the nervous system to tell the brain to tell the body where to concentrate healing.

They also gave me a foot massage that hurt like hell.

At massage school, they taught a 'gate theory' of pain - while making clear that it was only a theory. Theory goes something like: various nerves or nerve centers tend to only carry so much information - and you can crowd out pain signals by sufficiently stimulating parts of the body whose information gets carried on the same nerves or go through the same centers.

This reminds me of the joke about hitting someone with a hammer to lessen their experience of some other discomfort.

This theory is given as a possible explanation for why massage reduces the experience of pain - we are stimulating other places and crowding out the pain signals with other signals.

I don't reject this theory, but it ignores the fact that our sensory experience is effected by how we place our attention (we can distract ourselves from pain) and the fact that pain-reducing chemicals are produced in the brain during certain activities, like massage.

If there is any merit to the gate theory, it seems possible that acupuncture needles might lessen pain by increasing the nerve traffic and crowding out pain signals.

Hehehehe, that makes me think of Major Pain..... Wan't me to take your mind off that pain boy? You might feel a little pressure.....SNAP! See you forgot all about the bullet in your leg.

I've had a couple friends us acupuncture immediately after medical furtilization. In desparation and after spending about $25,000 it seemed like a good choice I guess.

Oddly, both parties did get pregnant after years of trying EVERYTHING and both had twins. Ironically it was a year after they decided to STOP TRYING.

I think acupuncture, like messagetrade mentioned, works best under a belief that it will (plecebo). But I also think there may be some connection to fact, the nervious system is the communication system of the body. I suppose the brain could be fooled into producing hormones or steroids or even noreprinephan.

All of those agents have an affect on how we feel. So between the two possibilities, plecebo and actual, I don't totally discount the procedure - and when you're desparate for relief, belief and responce systems are both high.