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It turns out that structured water plays a huge role in the functioning of electro-osmosis. Even beyond what explanations of how it works that Dr. Nordenstrom gives. And it is not that hard to understand. You see, when structured water is built, it causes a separation of charge. The positive charge migrates into the extracellular spaces where most of the bulk water resides. That makes the bulk water become positively charged. And since opposite charges attract, the bulk water will be attracted to negative charge. Just like electro-osmosis states. In addition, a cellular matrix is made of largely hydrophilic surfaces. So they will naturally form structured water around them. So now we also can see why electro-osmosis also requires a cellular matrix. It will not happen in a bucket of water. It is just basic physics and the law of ionic attraction and repulsion.

As I think about it ,it occurred to me that the EZ formation may even be responsible for the formation of the meridians themselves. Let me explain how this can be possible, even probable. You heard it first here. First, let us assume that cellular structure occurs at random. Unless some ordering process is at work, the boundaries between the cells would occur randomly. Now, no matter how the cell to cell boundaries are organized, they all are mostly made up of hydrophilic surfaces. Thus, they will build EZ layers and produce H3O+which will accumulate in the extra-cellular spaces. Being of like charge, they will repel from each other, producing a pressure pushing the cells apart. The electric charge potential of the whole body pulls the positive charged H3O molecules towards the center of the body. Those combined forces can possibly make the spaces between the cells to form into channels. Building EZ layers between the cells would further increase the process. And, Wala, acupuncture meridians. The lymphatic ducts may even form starting with this process.Alternately, as the cells are dividing, the repulsive forces and the attractive forces would combine to form the channels as the tissues are growing. The body naturally provides a way to circulate the extracellular fluid so the cells can get the nutrients they require and get rid of the wastes of metabolism. This just points to the genius of the self organizing principle of the body, and the role something as simple as water has to play in that process.

I have just come across “The Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies”. It has many research articles, some of which are of particular interest and deserve discussion here. The first one is “Defining Meridians:A Modern Basis of Understanding”. The second one is “Possible Applications for Fascial Anatomy and Fasciaology in Traditional Chinese Medicine”. Let’s look at the first one first.

This is a good review of existing research on the meridians and acupuncture points. But it misses some important points that I cover elsewhere. None of it goes against my views and some of it supports my views. So let us go over each section and discuss where it fits in into the bigger picture.

The Primo Vascular Systems (Bonghan Corpuscles and Ducts)

These are very small structures that are found over most organs and some are located inside blood and lymph vessels. They were originally identified in rabbits by a Korean physician, Kim Bong-Han in 1963. In my opinion, they are too small to be the meridians but they may be the connection between the meridians and the organs. As such, they may play a role in acupuncture’s functioning. At this time, we really do not know what these structures are for.

Anatomical Structure of Acupoints

They do mention the nerves found at acupuncture points but do not associate that with the function of the points like I do. In particular, the fact that active sympathetic nerve endings just under the skin change the skins resistance at the point and make it more tender on palpation when there is a disruption of the function or part of the body it is associated with. And the para-sympathetic innervation in the muscle is the way needling a point affects the nervous system and causes the points TCM recognized effects. Understanding these points is obvious to me because I use this knowledge every day in my practice to confirm my diagnosis and ensure that my proposed treatment is correct. And if the traditional treatment points are not tender, I can palpate for points that will work. That is how I found the point that is key in treating menopause as I talk about in my book. Now a point you think should help a problem but is not that tender or not tender at all does not mean that that point will not give the effect it is known for when needled. It just means it is not the best point and if not tender at all it probably is not related to the problem. At least that is what their nervous system is telling you. The body will tell you what it wants if you know how to ask it. For example, for a liver excess condition, you might think you should needle LV3  but it is not tender as you might expect. But if you palpate LV2, it may be very tender. That is the body telling you it is a chronic problem and needling LV2 will be more effective. LV3 will be tender for acute liver problems. I agree that measuring the resistance at an acupuncture point is not as useful as you might think. You have to know the function of points according to TCM to know which points to palpate and possibly be useful to treat. Those points will show a lower initial resistance when measured. It is just the way the nervous system is wired. But as we all should know by now, sensation is required to get the effect. But of course, this applies to traditional points and micro-system points only.

Imaging Studies

Their assessment of the French work is not very thorough. They do not recognize that the meridians are related to the circulation of extra cellular fluid. And that recognition is the whole ballgame. And they miss it entirely. And I have proved it is correct by coming up with treatments based on this knowledge that proved to work clinically! Besides, it makes perfect sense. And makes up for the imperfect understanding of Western Medicine that only the lymphatics are involved and ignore the fact that they are not working when you are inactive. So how do all the cells of the body exchange nutrients and waste products when you are sleeping? Western Medicine has no answer and chooses to just ignore the question. Pathetic. Most imaging studies fail because they don’t know what they are looking for. For example, most fluorescent dyes will not work because they are too big to flow in the extracellular spaces which are only 5x15um in size.

Then there is the question of the flow itself. Here they say it is involved with the venous system. That is not what the French research says at all. They purposely compare it to blood and lymph flow and find that they all behave differently! Here are two images from a published article I have.

From these pictures, you can see the channel clearly and it is quite wide. (My guess is ½-3/4”). So, it cannot be the Primo Vascular Systems (Bonghan Corpuscles and Ducts). And this is what you might expect if the channels are indeed responsible for providing a baseline amount of extra cellular fluid circulation for the cells. This also brings up the fact that there are more channels than you were taught (The Germans even give them names). And there are probably even more than that which are more shallow and deeper than the traditional channels.

Now my being an acupuncturist as well as having learned Therapeutic Touch, I bring certain experiences to the discussion that are worth mentioning. First of all, on several occasions when I was assessing someone with Therapeutic Touch who had a cold/flu or a sinus infection, I could “feel” the large intestine channel from the shoulder to the elbow and hand. And if it was a sinus infection, I could “feel”some disturbance in the nose area. I’m sure some ancient practitioners could do the same thing and those experiences could have also contributed to the development of the idea of channels.

Now when I was a student, our teacher was showing us how to needle SP6 and the channel all of a sudden “lit op” as if someone drew the channel with a res magic marker halfway up her lower leg. Our teacher was beside herself saying how rare that effect was. It was 1/8” or a little wider and not ¼”. Now I saw this again in China during a Qi Gong demonstration by a “master”. He was trying to move his Qi from his Dan Tien to his mouth and the Ren channel “lit up” red just like before. The only thing I can think of to explain this phenomenon is moving Qi can sometimes apparently dilate the capillaries or blood vessels (which we know acupuncture does in general) but to trace the channel like that is something else. Both times they look the same size and color.

Now another phenomenon that shows the existence of meridians involves a technique we were taught to treat angina. It involved using moxa on the HT5-7 area an when you did, the patient could feel the warmth go up their arm along the heart channel and you would keep going until the sensation reached their heart. So, you can use moxa to find out where channels go too if you know what you are doing.

A thing they do mention is shining light on an acupuncture point and detecting it at another point on the same channel. That would make some sense since the meridian are essentially the spaces between the cells lined up to make a channel (thus making use of existing structure) filled with water and would act like a poorly designed fiber optic cable. But the light would generally be seen around the point you shined it at. The light bounces off the cell walls and goes everywhere. Not that much would be carried along the channel. Resistance measurements between points on the same channel can show how much tissue in tn the current path. You can even use this method to objectively show there is a “blockage” in a channel by comparing the reading with the same points on the other side. I’m surprised no one has thought of this before. Probably because no one figured out what the meridians really were before me. I believe the meridians were formed during development and follow the electric lines of force put out by the body (See Dr. Beckers work). From Dr. Nordenstrom’s work we know that structure can form in the presence of an electric field. I have used this fact to use electro-acupuncture to re-line-up meridians that were misaligned by trauma and even the surgery to repair the damage. Just one more thing I have figured out that no one else has.

Skin Resistance

Nowhere do they look at the electrical properties of skin other than saying the skin has a voltage of between 20-90mV between the surface and underside. They say nothing about the capacitance of the skin which makes a modern multimeter not have a consistent resistance reading. Neither do they mention the excess negative charge (electrons) on the surface of the skin. Or what happens when you put a needle in. And apparently, they are not aware of Dr. Nordenstrom’s work and electroosmosis. And that failure is huge, because that explains the bio-electric effects of acupuncture, which they don’t consider at all. And nowhere do they investigate the resistance between points on the same channel which you can use to prove objectively there is a blockage in a channel and what that even represents. Now the only technique to measure the resistance of acupuncture points for diagnosis is based on what a Romanian doctor did. He built a Kirlian photography table to take a picture of the whole back to diagnose organ problems before any Western test could find anything. Basically, the back shu points would light up if there was a problem with it’s associated organ. I do the same thing with a normal point finder with a roller electrode. With the sensitivity set pretty low and rolling up and down the bladder channel, I can find the shu points that react. And they will usually correspond with the patient’s symptomology. You are finding autonomic disturbances before there is any pathology.  So, they might not even have symptoms yet. For example, I did this on my stepson and the lungs and kidneys showed up. The lungs were because of his allergies. But he couldn’t understand the kidneys. That too could be due to his allergies but I thought it was probably due to him being sexually active (he was in his 20’s). I explained sex weakens the kidneys and that is why it showed up. We had a good laugh.

The Neural Hypothesis

This I generally agree with but it is nowhere near complete. The Gate Control Theory is not mentioned. The work of the Japanese and Ryodoraku is barely covered. So, they just agree that the nervous system is involved but don’t really explain how like I do. And they don’t even talk about the difference between Ah Shi points and Classical points and how that can influence how you should needle them. So, again, right conclusion but hardly complete like my explanations are.

So let me again explain it to you. “Classical points” are the ones that owe their effects to the nervous system. Each point is associated with some part or function of the body. When that part or function is “disturbed” what can best described as “a stress response” is sent out to the associated point through the sympathetic part of the nervous system to the sympathetic innervation at the point which is just under the skin. This changes the skin resistance at the point and makes it more tender on palpation. When you needle a point, De Qi is usually obtained by stimulating the parasympathetic nerve endings at the point which lies deeper in the muscle. That stimulation produces the effects the point is known for. And the stronger the stimulation, the stronger the effect, up to a point. Causing pain stimulates a sympathetic response which we don’t want. Also, the patient’s relative balance of their nervous system also makes it more or less sensitive to stimulation or needle shock. In general, people who are very sensitive require much less stimulation to get the effect and those who have a high pain threshold generally require more stimulation to get an effect. Around. Ah Shi points are best thought of as being due to some sort of trauma to the body and just locates where the damage is. Most  of the effects from needling these points are bioelectric and do not require sensation to work. For problems such as broken or cracked bones or partially torn tendons, you don’t want to needle the Ah Shi point itself, but rather needle either side of it and do the appropriate electro-acupuncture or use FSM instead. Both will speed up healing but from my experience, FSM takes longer to do and usually requires more treatments but doesn’t use needles at all. Their mechanism of action are completely different.

Ah Shi points have no relationship to the nervous system although some effects happen no matter where you put the needle. So, in that sense, there is no such thing as “sham acupuncture”. In particular, you will always get certain bioelectric effects. Mostly by moving electrons.

Neural Pathways Activated by Acupuncture

See above. Much work has been done using EA (See work done by Han et al for example) that shows different frequencies affect different nerve fibers. No one I have read talks about the effect of certain ranges of frequencies affecting muscle tone. An important thing to know clinically. I had a patient whose nervous system was quite sensitive and showed me those effects quite readily. This knowledge dictates what frequency I use in a treatment. Something else I have discovered that no one else talks about. Also, if you try to do the Han combination of 2/100Hz in Dense-Disperse mode, you will find that your patient will only feel 100Hz and the 2Hz not at all. So you will not get the effect at all (requires that they feel it to work).Has to do with the design of the machine. You typically cannot adjust the intensity of each frequency separately. Otherwise, the information here can explain why some points are better to use than others under certain conditions.

Microsystems

They donot really talk about microsystems, more or less pose a theory why we have them in the first place. But I do. Enough said. Points on the microsystems behave like the classical points so should be treated the same way.

#acupuncture #electroacupuncture #acupunctureresearch

I have created the website “scienntific-acupuncture.com” That how everything I do as an acupuncturist works in an easy to understand and sensible way. I have yet to receive any arguments against anything. I have also formed the Facebook group “Scientific Acupuncture” where I can answer questions and foster discussion.

The style of acupuncture I do I call Scientific Acupuncture because it is based on my knowledge of how acupuncture works scientifically. It is beyond the Western views and the TCM view of how acupuncture works. Because of my background in electrical engineering and my over 30 years in practice and my other interests, I was exposed to research others know nothing about and knew how to put the pieces together into a logical and sensible whole. I did this, know one else. And I have developed treatments based on this knowledge that have proven to work clinically. I have put the how it works in the website “scientific-acupuncture.com”. But if you are an acupuncturist and want to know how to do my treatments, you will have to buy my book “Electro-Acupuncture for Practitioners” available on Amazon.