How Acupuncture Works, Part 1 : the Chinese Philosophical View of Acupuncture

acupuncture with a single use sterile needle at a point for treating anxiety and nausea during pregnancy

Acupuncture, the insertion of hair-like single use sterile needles at specific locations on the body, has been used for thousands of years to treat conditions of all kinds from chronic pain to acute injury, mental health, digestion, sleep, and more. 

Here I’ll explain the Chinese philosophical view and then in Part 2 you’ll find the Modern Biomedical understanding that lets us see how acupuncture helps the body heal itself. 

>> See Part 2: the Modern Research View of Acupuncture here.

CHINESE PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF ACUPUNCTURE

In the Taoist or classical Chinese view, acupuncture is a tool used to stimulate the Qi (pronounced chee) or life force energy or functionality at specific sites on the body. These sites are places where a practitioner has determined the Qi is either not moving well, in excess, or insufficient. Depending on the way the needle is inserted and manipulated, the practitioner can influence the way Qi is affected at the point. 

Health of body and mind is seen as a product of the Qi moving smoothly through the meridians (like rivers that carry the Qi) around the body. This allows our bodies to function optimally and adapt to outside circumstances or stressors as well as possible. When that Qi isn’t moving well for whatever reason, we experience disease or discomfort. Many things influence the way our Qi moves or stagnates in the body including exercise, diet, lifestyle, stress, weather, and more. Acupuncture is a precise and effective way to influence the flow of Qi and improve health. 

A practitioner of Chinese Medicine will use observation, inquiry, looking at a patient’s tongue and feeling their pulse at the wrist to determine what are the appropriate points to use on the body, in what order, and for what duration. 

An acupuncture treatment is setting up a healthy pattern of the flow of Qi for your body to learn. This learning process takes repeated exposure for your body to retain, which is why a Chinese Medicine practitioner will suggest a treatment plan with a certain frequency of treatment and then look for signs that your body/mind is needing the lesson of the acupuncture treatment less frequently and it’s maintaining this healthy flow of Qi on its own. 

For long standing disease, this learning process takes longer and requires more treatments. For recent onset challenges, this process can be much shorter. This is one of the reasons why children see improvements so much faster than adults often because their bodies are primed for this quick learning without such ingrained patterns. 

For adults and children alike, a course of treatment is typically 6 to 12 weekly treatments with noticeable improvements felt within the first one to three treatments. 

Things that set our Qi out of harmonious flow and move us towards feeling unwell can be very commonplace: stress, anxiety, lack of rest, lack of exercise, poor diet, and intense weather. Acupuncture can help manage the effects of all of these things. This is why many people find monthly or seasonal acupuncture such a useful part of their health maintenance plans.

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