May/June 1984 RAIN Page 7 at an early stage." Indeed, an acupuncturist once told me that I should take some Chinese herbs to correct imbalances, or else symptoms might show up in 10 years. Acupuncture helps the body heal itself. "The general impression one gains from the literature [clinical studies]," write Lu and Needham, "is that acupuncture can bring about a marked increase in the body's own resistance and healing power, together with direct effects on the nervous system in the case of neurological abnormalities." For over 20 years, stress specialist Hans Selye has spoken in favor of acupuncture as a method of enhancing the body's resistance to stressors. Moxibustion, too, is preventive medicine. In medieval times, Chinese scholars would apply moxibustion to three or more points on the body after each 10-day period of good health, and travelers regarded mugwort as one of the most important components of their first- aid kits. Most practitioners regularly use only 70 to 150 points. There are 2000 points in all, and 361 major points, which are located along 12 primary bilateral channels (or tracts or meridians) and two channels that run along the front and back of the body. Moreover, the network of points is interconnected, forming a circuit, since each channel connects to the next. The classic analogy that the Chi^ nese use is a system of waterworks. Thus, the points are located along channels, and many of the Chinese words for the points indicate traffic, transmission, and bodies of water. The system of points is a microcosmic equivalent of the stars in the heavens, but it is fundamentally circulatory in nature. 'Acupuncture can bring about a marked increase in the body's own resistance and healing power, together with direct effects on the nervous system in the case of neurological abnormalities.' Two substances circulate in the body via the network of channels—ch'i and blood. According to O'Connor and Bensky (see access), ch'i "signifies a tendency, a movement, something on the order of energy"—a psychophysiological power. When acupuncture is used, the ch'i is said to be "obtained" and then manipulated. The channels form a web that joins the internal organs with the skin, flesh, ligaments, bones, and all other tissues, and integrates each part with the whole. Lu and Needham write, "The marvel is that the tracts were (and shll are) anatomically invisible, thought of always as crevices or impalpable channels for vital chhi, not obvious tubes like the blood-vessels and lymphatics; and perhaps in the end it may turn out that what they really • signify is a system of lines of equivalent physiological action." There is no matter/energy dichotomy in Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine does not regard the internal Arrowhead ^ Round p Pressure p Sharp p Roundsharp ----------------- Fine 1^^^—T ____________ Long ...'' ...........— Large .■.. III.IIII 1 1—I 1 1—^ > 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Units The nine needles FROM: Acupuncture: A Comprehensive Text organs as independent anatomical entities, but focuses on the functional and pathological interrelationships between the channel network and the organs. Thus, each of the 12 primary channels—lung, large intestine, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, pericardium, triple burner, gall bladder, and liver— bears the name of a vital organ. (Incidentally, the triple burner does not correspond to any particular organ, but rather to a function.) In practice, the acupuncturist commonly treats a particular organ through points on other channels as well as points on the connecting channel. Nobody knows precisely how acupuncture works, and Western science has always been skeptical of things it can't explain, so the West has been slow to accept acupuncture. Nevertheless, over 2000 years of clinical experience attest to the effectiveness of acupuncture: It would not have lasted this long if its effects were purely subjective and psychological. In fact, you don't have to believe in acupuncture for it to work, and it works on animals. The Chinese began using acupuncture on animals in the thirteenth century. Recently, a Boston acupuncturist has been wielding his needles on race horses, with the result that the horses can run faster and recover more quickly from a race. (See "Acupuncture Goes to the Races," by Peter Bates, East-West Journal, November 1983.) Acupuncture did enjoy popularity in Europe during the first half of the eighteenth century (Balzac mentioned acupuncture and moxa in one of his novels in 1828), but it fell from interest by the 1850s, and didn't have much influence in the West until the 1950s. By then, the Chinese themselves were beginning to make new discoveries about acupuncture—most notably, acupuncture analgesia. Chinese physicians found that patients could converse with the doctor or perform certain movements to assist the surgeon while feeling nothing of the scalpel, and afterwards, rarely experience the post-surgery nausea or complications that often accompany drug-induced anesthesia. Many doctors. Western and Chinese, are studying both Chinese medicine and Western medicine to determine what works best in a given condition. Often, Western medicine can treat diseases that Chinese medicine finds intractable, and vice versa—Western physicians visiting China have seen Chinese medicine used to
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