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Research on acupuncture just got a shot in the arm. Well, a needle near the knee, actually. Because a study in the journal Nature Neuroscience [Maiken Nedergaard et al, http://bit.ly/auzHwx] has uncovered a mechanism that could explain how this traditional healing process can help reduce pain.
Acupuncture has long been tried against all sorts of ailments, from aches and pains to infertility. And though the Western world treats the procedure with some skepticism, it’s actually endorsed by the World Health Organization for a couple dozen different conditions. But how can sticking needles in your skin be good for you?
Scientists tried the technique on mice that had a pain in the paw, inserting and rotating the needles in the mouse version of one of the most effective acupoints in Chinese medicine. And they found that the tissues around the treated acupoint get flooded with adenosine, a chemical that provides relief by preventing pain signals from reaching the brain.
This biochemical blockade reduced the animals’ discomfort, as did treating them with drugs that boost the amount of adenosine in the tissue. The scientists say the pain relief stems from the body’s natural response to minor tissue injury. So acupuncture’s analgesic effect may have finally been pinned down.
—Karen Hopkin
[The above text is an exact transcript of this podcast]
Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group
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30 Comments
Add CommentOh dear, this report is every but as as uncritical as the original paper in paper in Nature Neuroscience. This rather silly bit of work has already been demolished by bloggers who seem to be much sharper than either nature or Sci American. See, for example, http://bit.ly/97gN8d
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat might work if the needle in the hand was for the hand. But how do you stop pain in the leg with a needle in the neck?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat might work if the needle in the hand was for the hand. But how do you stop pain in the leg with a needle in the neck?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRight. Guess some people are not aware "the body sings electric" re: how a needle in one place reduces pain in another. Why the practice is even questioned is wasted time. It's only been working for a couple of thousand years now. If it's a matter of money, the library has research books for free. Imagine that!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor good reason, I'm not ready to believe bloggers more than Nature or SciAm. The medical community has slowly come to accept that acupuncture does indeed have a positive impact in some cases, unfortunately it remains slow in truly studying acupuncture and its benefits and how it can help patients manage pain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not quite ready to believe "bloggers" on this topic (or anyone) compared to Nature or SciAm. The medical community has come to accept that acupuncture does have a positive impact in some cases. Hopefully this is a sign that there is a bit more of an open-minded approach to the topic that will ultimately lead to additional options in patient pain management.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry, longshort1, you are misinformed, Nobody who can read the papers (medical or not) believes acupuncture is much more than a theatrical (and profitable procedure).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not sure why you say you trust Nature or SciAm more than bloggers, The bloggers I am talking aboutare scientists not journalists, and not interested in rpoducing sensational headlines, just getting at the truth. I hope you read http://bit.ly/97gN8d before expressing an opinion, but I rather doubt you bothered
Based on this description, effective traditional acupoints must identify a physical location of nerve pathways for the symptom being treated. This would seem to preclude treatment for headache that involved needle insertion into the lower back, for example, but there could be some unknown influential nerve pathways. It’s also quite possible that the effectiveness of specific traditional treatments may be dependent on their correct identification of influential nerve transmission pathways.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a chinese ,It's sure that acupuncture is miracle,but we don't know the principle of acupuncture woking.It is interesting that if you want to vomit acupncture is effctive insurting some acupoints on your hands.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy wife was facing a hysterectomy for uterine fibroids. Acupuncture eliminated them, and she was able to carry a child. Encouraged by this result, a friend with a uterine fibroid underwent the same series of 10 acupuncture treatments, resulting in reduction to the point that the fibroid was barely detectable with ultrasound. I doubt that the release of adenosine was what affected the fibroids. There is more to acupuncture than that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismontalex - Just curious, but were the presence of these fibroids confirmed by tissue biopsies? IMHO interpretation of ultrasound is highly 'interpretive', somewhat like reading tea leaves. There are those who can see human faces on the surface of Mars...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou make a hefty claim for acupuncture, of which there is no scientific literature that backs up any of what you're saying. In most well-controlled studies acupuncture has been shown to be a placebo and nothing else. It does nothing to cure any disease or virus, or physical ailment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonal experience still does not mean it is "proof" of anything. If it can be replicated in a controlled environment than it would have some credence. However, to date it never has.
It is without question that the understanding of how acupuncture relieves and or elimanates debilating physical conditions is of the utmost importance to the medical community, the fact remains is, that it works. As a "blogger" employed in the medical community, I have personally benefited from acupuncture. Diagnosed with a pinched ulna nerve , it was simply assumed that I would go with the surgical procedure to relieve said condition which would only continue to grow worse without intervention. After researching the success rate of the surgical procedure, I elected to go with an established Dr. of Chinese and American medicine. Although it did take a couple of months of treatment, the condition was completely reversed and has not returned since. (seven yrs. ago). So it is not just pain managment, but the eradification of the condition causing the pain that acupuncture is capable of. Enough said.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are making a scientific claim that acupuncture healed a medical issue of yours, yet you have no credible evidence to support this except your own anecdote. As someone who says they are 'employed' in the medical field, you would know full well medical claims or evidence based purely on anecdotes is hardly good evidence at all. Not to mention the abundance of controlled studies that are in direct opposition to your claim.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat's not to say that it's great you're no longer having problems. But to make an outright claim that acupuncture is what healed you is dubious at best without supporting facts and research. Otherwise you can look elsewhere for a credible reasons.
By the way, there is only one kind of medical doctor on this planet and that is someone who practices medicine through westernized medical methodologies. An 'eastern' medicine doctor is more akin to a witch doctor and nothing else, as nothing they do can be compared to a real medical practitioner who has had years of science-based study. Nothing they do holds any weight and as time continues they will cease to exist eventually, and thankfully.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"If it doesn't work, don't use it," Acupuncture has been used all over the world for thousands of years because it works...plain and simple. Acupressure is a method to use if you do not have the needles for acupuncture. If you do not believe acupressure works, do this little experiment: The next time you have that tight aching muscle in your back that is causing that tension headache...have someone press their finger tip around on your back until they find a tender spot close to the tight muscle and 'using the knuckle of their middle finger' press kinda hard, but not hard enough to bruise, on the tender spot for about two minutes. For about a minute and half, it will hurt like hell, but when the pain fades away within that two minutes, you will feel the tight muscle release and in a short time after, your tension headache will also fade away. You will be able to move your arms without your shoulders hurting from the tense muscle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter you try that little safe experiment, you will change your mind about the simple little things you can do to keep yourself healthy.
Boy! "hobosapien", it is really hard for you to get your head out of the sewer, isn't it? You keep hollowing that herbs, acupuncture, and acupressure does not work because someone like you says that they don't even when you have the evidence right in front of your face. I think that the medical department that takes care of mental retardation would label you as "frighteningly stupid and terminal".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the issue with pro-western medicine people. I am a DO and had to put up with hobosapien holes my entire career. Doctors are basically trained to believe the same line of garbage that hobosapien spouts and without question prescribe the latest and newest drugs and do the latest and greatest tests. They aren't trained to think, read a family practice journal that targets your FP. This results in at least a 1/4 million (250,000) deaths every year and makes it (western medicine) the 4th leading cause of death with very little benefit. I spent my first 5 years in practice being a very good doc and doing what i was taught in schools. I could diagnose and treat as the best MD's could, and most i met weren't as smart as I. But then i discovered the dietary advice I was giving my diabetics as suggested by the ADA and AHA didn't work, cholesterol and blood sugars kept going up necessitating the use of drugs (and my patients were compliant, i spent the time i needed with them to ensure that-when was the last time you had an MD listen for more than 13 seconds). You can argue the effectiveness of acupuncture all you want, but people spend over $15b dollars out of pocket every year and much of that for acupuncture when they have insurance for western meds. If western medicine were that great, why would people pay for an alternative. It doesn't work, it kills people, the model for payment doesn't reward doc's to keep people healthy and people are dissatisfied(except for hoboS apparently). With acupuncture they get someone who will discuss their health, diet, lifestyle etc and it more (or most) importantly, acupuncture deaths are so rare they are reportable.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll spare everyone my heart wrenching personal experiences (ha), but I have to conclude that the western medicine/medical industry must be viewed as skeptically as the eastern herbal/medical industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy third cardiologist is successfully keeping me alive, in stable condition, now that I've rejected all of the prescribed medications that produced ineffective results or unacceptable side effects. I've never tried acupuncture but I'll keep it in mind for my next round of spinal/leg nerve issues, since surgeries have produced mixed results, at best. This despite some of the really "frightening" recommendations posted here...
Yes I suppose we should all switch our medical practices to untested herbal supplements and sticking needles in our skin by untrained medical personnel because real medicine has completely failed us and doesn't work? You say you happened to be a DO that doesn't seem to understand the basis for science-based medicine and we should also use eastern medicine based on frog's teeth and chicken nails? If you were in fact a real DO who was trained and practiced then you know first hand most pharmaceutical drugs actually work because they've been tested over and over. If you've been trained as you say you've seen the literature, read the journals, and researched the medical studies. Of course they come with side effects. There is no such thing as a perfect drugs. And if there was Pharmaceutical companies have the biggest incentive to create it. A miracle drug that has no side effects and no long-term damage is a pie-in-the-sky that they all want. But it's very difficult chemistry wise to do that. Being a DO you should know this firsthand, however I very much doubt you were even a great DO if you continue to ignore the basic facts that science, with its methodology of investigation and truth-seeking (try going and reviewing the steps involved in the scientific method) turns up more problem-solving in medical science than does going to get acupuncture.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNone of you still will say you'll see a naturopath or homeopath if you have a serious medical condition. Ask yourself, why is that? I open to anyone declaring they will do that, but they wont. The same is true for acupuncture. It has some efficacy in placebo but nothing else.
JTDwyer,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, the fibroids were not confirmed by biopsies. In my wife's case, the problem was judged serious enough that she was told by several doctors that she could not bear a child, and that she should have a complete hysterectomy. She subsequently became pregnant (I helped with that), and gave birth to our son.
Our friend had a growth the size of a grapefruit (her abdomen was bulging because of it), that diminished to insignificance after 10 acupuncture treatments over a 10 week period. These are impressive results in the face of the lack of other medical alternative. The acupuncturist, Dr. Sally Dan of New York City, specialized in the female reproductive system.
montalex - A bulging abdomen and a son can be considered additional physical evidence... Congratulations!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishobosapien, just got done reading an article about Einstein's brain, and the extra glial cells he had. Scientists, as in your western kind, thought they were like glue and held the rest of the brain together, thus the name glial which means glue. Recent studies, of the western kind, have found that these cells communicate chemically, instead of electrochemically as was previously thought, taught, etc. This article here in SciAm speaks to the role of adenosine that can be produced through acupuncture. Your black and white thinking, East and West dichotomy , reminds me of the "scientists" that told us that we use only 10% of our brains. You justify your narrow views in a variety of ways, but as with the placebo effect, we don't understand how that effect "works"... but it works. Back to many commentators here that are simply saying, acupuncture has and continues to "work". This article has added adenosine to our understanding. I want whole-istic, holistic medicine. Your reductionistic thinking reduces us as whole human beings as well as diminishes what has been learned about medicine from the whole world, the whole of human history. Why is it so hard to say that we only understand how, say, 10% of our brain works, rather than saying the other 90% of the gray matter is held together by glue cells?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe fact that inflicting some kind of alternate pain/stress releases the body's pain numbing chemicals has been known for a LONG time. This "study" means just about not a damn thing. The "mouse version" of the acupuncture point? Come on SciAm, acupuncture is and always has been absolutely nothing but a placebo. This "study" pretty much confirms this. Regardless of how badly some people WANT it to really work, it doesn't and it never will. We are buried in anecdotes about acupuncture curing this and that, but every single account can be attributed to correlation without causation, post hoc ergo propter hoc, or some such misinterpretation of the circumstances or misdiagnosis of a condition. I think Sci Am is going all "History Channel" on us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoy, quite a lot of dimwits on this article! But, who's really surprised? Everyone knows someone whose anecdotal evidence PROVES conclusively that which has been discounted in all of the controlled scientific studies. After all, millions of people believe Sylvia Brown is perfectly capable of predicting the future....we're all just wondering why she won't accept the million dollars James Randi's been offering for decades.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is a bigger picture here people need to see. Every culture ever studied by anthropologists has "traditional medicine", some practices, and a large amount of theory as to why these practices "just work." There are tens of millions of anecdotes out there to support almost any conceivable traditional practice from any culture. Most of the anecdotes are of the form: "Sally had this problem. Then Sally did or took this special thing. Then Sally got better!" This proves that what Sally did or took "cured" her! Whether or not you've ever had a logic course and know that "Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is the most common of all fallacies in human thinking, if you don't see the problem in anecdotal proofs, you should stop reading Scientific American and move to a site where clear thinking is not required.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOf course it may well be true that some of the herbs or practices actually can be helpful. And due the placebo effect, if you believe that the herb or practice will be helpful, it is likely to be experienced as at least somewhat helpful for some conditions. However since many herbs and practices may be harmful or at least mildly toxic, or may be even less than useless, wouldn't it be better to test these herbs and practices, find out the mechanisms, and find out objectively what can be demonstrated to be helpful in a repeatable way?
What people also miss, and miss badly, is that the theory behind almost all traditional medicine is complete garbage. You should read some of the incredible theories of disease out there. Traditional Western culture also was full of weird strange theories of disease. Not long ago, for example the "sin theory" of disease was extremely widespread. That is, you got sick because God is punishing you for something you did wrong. It took the Black Plague and some scientific advances to begin to recover from that one. Even in advanced and ancient cultures like India and China, they have some good practices but some very bad theory. If you actually research what they actually believe, you'll find it almost utter nonesense. Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, had no idea even about the existence of cells. Just how much do you think you could really know about the nature of disease without knowing a single thing about cells? Not to mention, knowing nothing of bacteria, viruses, DNA, ion channels, immunoglobulins, basic physiology, etc.
Our brains come with a strong bias to conclude about causes rather than to conclude nothing. We suffer from a hyperactive inference engine.
[continuing] This was selected for in a completely understandable way. For example, suppose one of our ancient ancestors each ate some new berries and then half a day later became very sick. The type of human brain that made the association and concluded that the berries made him sick, and therefore we should all avoid eating them survived somewhat better than the type of human brain that thought "Gee, I can't really conclude anything here about cause and effect because there are many possible reasons why I might be sick and I can't prove for sure that it was the berries, so I will not change my behavior or my thinking." Since the kind of brain that was quick to jump to the causal conclusion based on purely anecdotal evidence seems to have survived better than the more careful skeptic "ancient scientist" type brain, we modern humans have inherited this basic bias. Our reasoning about cause and effect is flawed; our brains are wired to quickly conclude and conclude more than the actual evidence warrants.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is quite a separate, and interesting question, whether it is on net adaptive for an individual in today's environment to continue with this bias. Some who are quick to conclude may end up better off for it; other will perish or be harmed by it. But it is important to recognize that whether or not it is adaptive now (or in the past), this has nothing to do with the underlying truth about cause and effect. While recognizing the enormous difficulty and complexity of teasing out true cause and effect (in fact, precisely because it is so difficult), we should be thankful that we live in an age where we have the incredible luxury of having hundreds of thousands of very bright, well-trained people doing meticulous research precisely in order to discover and confirm/dis-confirm a wide array of hypotheses regarding cause and effect with respect to issues of health and disease. Do people really want to go back to the incredible ignorance of traditional medicine from any culture, including our own? If your child has fallen from a tree and smashed his skull on a dirty rock, or injested poison, or has diabetes, or was born 3 month prematurely, do you really want to bring him to shaman, or a witch doctor, or a priest or an herbalist or an acupuncturist?
@David Colquhoun: Thanks for a valuable link. Ed Yong makes a highly pertinent point - how many science reporters know enough to set any report in context? It's the well-informed reporters who help us make sense of the actual relevance - and ultimately meaning - of any "new" research result.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"There is some evidence that seems to support the use of traditional and complementary medicine – for example, acupuncture in relieving pain, yoga to reduce asthma attacks, and tai ji techniques to help elderly people reduce their fear of falls. WHO does not currently recommend these practices, but is working with countries to promote an evidence-based approach to addressing safety, efficacy and quality issues." World Health Organisation, July 2005.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat remains the position of the WHO as can be verified on their website. Evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture in clinical trials beyond the placebo effect has not been forthcoming in the six years since that statement.
One often sees the false statement made that the WHO endorses the use of acupuncture; pity to see it at Scientific American.
Those double exclamation marks mysteriously appeared when I cut and pasted and posted the WHO statement - instead of a hyphen!!
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