Why acupuncture works—sometimes

I tried acupuncture for my sciatica. It didn’t work. Surgery did. Nevertheless, studies have proven that acupuncture does work for some ills, such as migraines and chronic pain. Recently, researchers have theorized that the interstitium may be the conduit that facilitates the effects of acupuncture.

The interstitium was discovered about ten years ago (see my 2016 blog post).  It’s a large, fluid-filled, interconnected network—a “highway of moving fluid”—that allows fluids, cells and molecules to move between tissues and organs before re-entering the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems. Interstitital spaces exist throughout the body. (The full implications of this interconnectedness haven’t fully been grasped. For example, both healthy and cancerous cells can pass through it.)

More recently, when researchers examined the skin of people with tattoos, they found that ink particles had traveled deeper into the body than they expected. The particles had traveled from the skin into the interstitum, then into the fascia.

In later experiments, researchers injected dye into acupuncture points on the forearms of volunteers. They found that the dye slowly migrated up their arms along the same meridian as acupuncture points, flowing through the interstitium between the muscles. It appears that acupuncture points, located along 12 main meridians, are within the same areas of connective tissues where fluid flows through the interstitium.

As far as I know, the researchers made no comments about acupuncture balancing your flow of energy (chi), as asserted by traditional Chinese medicine. I don't know how you can tell if your energy is balanced. 

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