Acupuncture Before Surgery

Many people seem to undergo acupuncture treatment as a last resort, after conventional medical intervention has failed.

Yesterday, a patient of mine, suffering from severe and unrelenting pain, said he wished he'd known about acupuncture before he'd underwent surgery several months ago. The surgical process appeared to have caused further weakening to his body without helping the pain. I was happy to hear that the acupuncture treatment he received in my office greatly reduced his pain without any negative side-effects. He seemed upset that he'd underwent surgery before trying acupuncture first.

Many people have heard acupuncture works, yet distrust its effectiveness based on scant scientific evidence or its lack of support from their doctors.

It can be challenging to have full trust in a non-traditional therapy like acupuncture, as most Western doctors have very little understanding of the theory and potential of Chinese Medicine.

Clinical studies, which are rooted in the Western Scientific method are inappropriate in assessing the efficacy of acupuncture treatment. These studies focus on treatment of the disease or condition. Chinese Medicine focuses on treatment of the individual, and does not treat conditions. Three people with the same symptoms will inevitably be given different treatments by a competent acupuncturist. No two people possess the same physiological and pathological makeup. To treat the individual requires a tailor-made acupuncture treatment that will address the specifics of the person with the symptoms. This type of therapy cannot be measured in the standard Western scientific method. It is a very different process then proscribing pills or procedures based on symptoms.

To develop trust in acupuncture, the principles of the medicine must be understood.

I had a phone conversation the other day with a patient who was under the impression that acupuncture was merely palliative care for pain: most likely an idea given to him by his doctor. I understand why this thought exists. It can be difficult to wrap the mind around the concept of acupuncture. How can the insertion of needles into the skin have the power to alter the structure of the body? It is merely the orientation of the mind that causes this difficulty. In Chinese Medicine, the body is acknowledged as having regenerative capability. Incidentally, Western medicine believes this as well. The Liver can regenerate itself after alcohol abuse: this is acknowledged. Yet, somehow this capacity to regenerate is not extended to the rest of the body within the Western mindset.

Central to Chinese Medical theory is the understanding that function effects form. When the body's function is strong, the regenerative force will also be strong. The body can rebuild any damaged part of itself. However, if there is blockage within the regenerative force, this capacity will be weakened.

It can be quicker to have a surgeon cut into the body and manually rebuild a damaged structure. However, this process does nothing to strengthen the body's innate self-regenerative mechanism. The trauma of the surgery will cause further damage for the body to deal with. If the patient is strong, this may not be such a problem. However, if the function of the body is already compromised, the regenerative capacity will most likely also be weakened.

A strength of acupuncture is the capacity to strengthen the body's function, without causing the burden of further trauma. It frees any blockage to the regenerative force as it supports the expulsion of pathology.

I am not suggesting that surgery is a bad thing. A good friend of mine feels the back surgery he underwent saved his life. He felt instantly better after the procedure, and healed rather quickly. He obviously possessed a strong constitution, which allowed him to recover quickly from the surgery. However, I'm not confident that this is always taken into account when a doctor suggests surgery.

It is my hope that understanding of acupuncture will continue to expand within mainstream consciousness. A minimally invasive therapy such as acupuncture, with very little side-effects, can be a tremendous help to those suffering from pain and debility. I think many people would be happy to forgo the difficulty of surgery if they can avoid it.

West and East: Two Different Ways of Looking at the Body

Two weekends ago I was happy to see a major article about acupuncture in the New York Times. While the article provides greater exposure for acupuncture treatment, I was struck by the overall lack of understanding of the medicine. To understand eastern therapies such as acupuncture, one must become familiar with the way the ancient east viewed the body.

During my acupuncture studies, I quickly became aware that the western biological view is not the only truth relating to physiology and pathology within the human body. The ancient Chinese developed a method of viewing and understanding the body that is equally as valid as the west.

The main difference between east and west can be seen through the aspects of the body the medical systems focus upon. The west has developed its system based on the material aspect of the human body: that which can be seen. The Chinese model focuses on the part of the body that is immaterial: that which cannot be seen. Both of these aspects, however, can be measured. The west uses blood tests, machines, x-rays and microscopes to measure health and disease within the body. Chinese medicine uses the pulse to measure the flow of the invisible energetic chemistry of the body, able to discern health and disease based on highly sophisticated methods of measuring 12 distinct pulses on the radial artery.

To the Chinese, the superior medicine is that which can detect disease before it has manifested within the physical body. The pulse shows physiological disturbances before they have given rise to symptoms, changes in the blood, body fluids, or perhaps even cells.

When I refer to the "energetic chemistry" of the body, I am speaking of the "qi" that is the root of all movement, and therefore all life within the human body. I like to describe qi in this manner: we know that the heart beats and pulses blood throughout the body. Western medicine often refers to the beat of the heart as an electrical energy. This electrical energy is the qi. It is qi that makes the heart beat, the lungs respirate and the bowels have peristalsis.

The Chinese medical model has mapped out pathways of qi movement throughout the body. Each major organ possesses a channel that circulates qi throughout various parts of the body. For example, part of the Stomach channel flows through the stomach and pancreas organs up to the sensory orifices of the face. The qi of this channel can be measured on the right wrist. The qi of the Stomach channel governs all peristaltic activity within the body, as well as perceptive capability of the senses.

There is confusion surrounding the acupuncture channels. As qi is invisible, the channels of qi are also invisible. The channels do not travel along the nerves or within the blood vessels. Of course, there is qi within these structures, as there is qi within everything. However, the channels themselves are invisible structures that conduct an invisible humor that allows for all movement within the body. The qi moves the blood and body fluids; the qi rebuilds the tissues of the body. Food and air are converted into types of qi in the body that become the body's resources.

The networks by which qi flow can be felt, if not seen. It is common to feel the qi move through an entire channel during acupuncture treatment. When a popular Stomach point near the knee is needled, it is common to feel the qi shoot down the leg into the foot along the Stomach channel. The sensation is not travelling through the nerve, but through the invisible acupuncture channel. As points are needled during acupuncture treatment, the pulses will change, as the qi has been adjusted. The pulse may speed up or slow down, loosen or tighten up, become fuller or thinner, beady or thin, stronger or weaker. Each of these qualities indicates a change within the energetic chemistry of the body as relating to the qi, blood and body fluids.

As eastern and western methods of viewing the body are vastly different, it is impossible to use measurement from either system to validate or invalidate the other. Western medical tests are completely unsuitable to measure that which is invisible, therefore unsuitable to measure or validate the acupuncture channels of Chinese Medicine: just as one wouldn't use the pulse to describe what was occurring withing the cells of the Liver. The pulse can tell what is going on in the Liver, but it is an unsuitable method to describe the manner in which Western Medicine is looking at the body. The pulse cannot describe cell growth, cell division ect., just as cellular tests cannot describe whether there is stagnation or deficiency of qi within the Liver channel.

My greatest hope is that east and west will discover that they are two sides of the same coin. They are not in competition. They need not invalidate one another. Each describes an aspect of the body. Each have developed highly sophisticated methods of viewing and measuring human physiology. The West focuses on the material aspect of the human being, while Chinese medicine focuses on the immaterial as it becomes material. One cannot fully understand either system without honoring the unique way that system sees the body. To use Western medical tests to validate and understand Chinese Medicine is counter-productive. It would be more productive to understand the richness of pulse diagnosis, and open to the eastern view of the world. The Chinese have done this in regards to the West. In China, eastern and western medicine are practiced side-by-side in hospitals. In one such hospital, the stroke ward is made up of mostly acupuncture, while other areas of the hospital are highly western. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see Western hospitals taking a similar approach? I feel that the medical system in general, as well as its patients, would benefit.

Treatment of the Spirit and the Blood

The spirit desires freedom, completion and movement. The ancient Chinese say the spirit resides within the blood. Western medicine warns of the danger of diminished blood flow within the body and its effects on the heart. According to the Center of Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death within the United States. Within Chinese Medicine, the heart is seen as the residence of the spirit.

Classical Chinese Medicine always contains a thread of spirituality within its understanding of the physiology of the body and the pathology of disease. The chief medical text within acupuncture states, "all diseases are rooted in the spirit." To translate this into modern Western Medical language, one could say, all diseases are rooted in the blood.

The blood requires uninhibited free movement for its health. The heart is free from stress, the breath is deep and unimpeded, and the mind is clear.

There is a school of Classical acupuncture which focuses on treating the blood. The basis of this school of thought believes blood stasis is the root of all degenerative conditions, mental illness, addictive behavior, and emotional distress.

To treat the blood is to treat the spirit. To treat the spirit is to connect to the higher self to move beyond mental, emotional or physical blockages creating disease and dysfunction.

How can acupuncture treat the blood? Acupuncture is the process of moving energy within the body. This movement affects the flow of blood within the body. There are many acupuncture points with the chief function of invigorating blood flow.

The art of acupuncture is being able to assess where a person's blood flow has become stagnant. The state of a person's mental and emotional state is a good indicator. As are various other physical symptoms, including swellings.

What does the blood have to do with the emotions and mind? The spirit resides within the heart. The heart controls the blood. The spirit expresses itself through the mind and emotions. This may sound like a stretch for some. Yet, to the ancient Chinese, this was elementary. An entire system of mental-emotional assessment and treatment was created based on this understanding. The most powerful way to validate this theory comes through the powerful results treatment can provoke.

Here's an example: A brain tumor. All conditions are specific to the individual presenting them. Within Classical Chinese Medicine, it is the individual that is being treated, not the condition. Each person is unique. Therefore, each condition an individual possesses is unique as well. Conditions can come from dysfunction within the body, mind or spirit. Therefore, all examples are simply possibilities.

A brain tumor can result from a dysfunction within the blood flow relating to the Stomach channel. Fascinating, right? The Stomach governs a person's ability to have feelings. We know the Stomach helps digest food, but it also helps digest experiences of the world. It is the initial internal contact with the world. It relates to the way we feel about the world in a relatively primitive way. When the Stomach's blood is affected, it can result in extreme emotional expression to the point of irritation and mania. As this process progresses, a person can develop weakness within their lower legs, feelings of loss of direction in life, and swellings along the course of the channel, which travels into the Brain.

Swellings are often associated with blood stasis conditions. The blood is associated with mental-emotional movement. The term "stasis" means something is stuck: often some type of emotion, thought or experience. In the example, to treat the tumor, one would need to treat the spirit via treating the blood. Treatment would focus on helping the person resolve and let go of the stuck material within the Stomach Channel.

Simply needling the acupuncture points may not be enough. When treating the mind and emotions, the spirit must be engaged through talking. An acupuncturist trained in this type of treatment knows the type of questions to ask. Each channel possesses physical, mental and emotional functions and associations. The Stomach channel relates to family, boundaries, assimilation, contentment, integrity and thought. It often amazes me, as I needle certain acu points, patients will begin talking about subjects that relate to the associated acupuncture channel or point. It's the patients who continually validate the system for me.

A person comes for treatment often for a physical symptom, comes to understand the deeper mental-emotional root of the condition, and ideally resolves both the symptoms as well as the underlying conflicts. Through working with the spirit, a person can regain freedom, break out of mental-emotional patterns, change destructive behavior, as well as heal the physical body.

Chinese Medicine possesses an extremely sophisticated understanding of the energetic physiology of the body. To me, however, it is the understanding of the development and movement of the mind and emotions that sets Chinese Medicine apart. I have seen the power of the spirit to heal. A wise teacher told me "symptoms, including behavior, are merely messages from the body." To her, it was the spirit that carried these messages into consciousness. The spirit desires freedom. To work with the spirit affects all levels within the body. Therapy that can work on all these levels can be truly life-changing.