INTRODUCTION TO THE ACUPUNCTURE AND THE MOXIBUSTION         Doctor Quang-Luong DAU acupuncturist at Paris

Since nearly five millennia the acupuncture is practiced extensively in China and in the other countries that received the Chinese culture as Vietnam, Korea and Japan, all alone or in association to the Chinese pharmacopoeia, to the energizing massage, to take care of with success a lot of illnesses. Indeed the first book of acupuncture "Huang Di Nei Jing Ling Shu" (Internal Cannon: sacred hinge) has been achieved toward the year 2800 before J. - C. (The Chinese tradition wanted to assign this work to the emperor Huang Di and to his six physicians advisers Khi Pa, Kuei Yu Shu, Pa Kao, Chao Yu, Chao Chi and Lei Kung).

To our days, the acupuncture is recognized by the World order of Health (WHO) and it is revealed in nearly all continents of the world, especially in Asia, in Europe and in north America.

A lot of modern biologic and instrumental research only made other confirm the theory of the energizing meridians and their functionality: the meridians or energizing channels and the points arranged on their course are incontestable realities. Intervention on these points provokes a real effect on the nervous system, on the nervous excretion, on the biochemical change of the body fluids and on the number and the activity of the blood cells.

Thereafter we are going to enumerate some of the numerous modern researches on the reality of the acupuncture.

1) The existence of the energizing vessels:

The institute of research of the Chinese Medicine of Fuckian (China), then Zhong Kok Nghia Hung (Japan) noted that on the skin there are lines of electric conduction that trace the course of the vessels of the acupuncture. Besides, on the skin of a cadaver the electric conduction of these lines is equal to the one of the next zones, as noticed the Division of Biology of the university of Medicine of Zhong San (China), Academic Clinic of the university of Medicine of Tian Tan (China), Institute of Chinese Medicine of Shanghai (China). (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 235 - publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute - Hanoi - Vietnam -1979).

2) The reality of the points of the acupuncture:

Different western and oriental authors- among these, Zhong Kok Nghia Hung (Japan), Niboyet, Brunet, Pourret, Grenier (France), Institute of research of Chinese Medicine of Fuckian (China), Academic Clinic of the university of Medicine of Tian Tan (China), Institute of Chinese Medicine of Zhong San (China), Institute of Chinese Medicine of Shanghai (China), Patsibiakin, Geikin, Iniusin, Adamenko (Russia) - demonstrated that the point of the acupuncture corresponds to a small zone of low electric resistance, and while uniting the points of the same vessel one gets an excellent line of electric conduction. (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 235 - publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute - Hanoi - Vietnam -1979).

This discovery of the variation of the electric resistance of skin to the point of the acupuncture led the industries to the realization of the electro-stimulators devices with the accessory point-searcher who appears in some case useful to determine with accurateness the point.

3) Contractile effects of the uterus:

I got personally very quickly, in three opportunities, the effect of the sting of the points Sanyinjiao and Hegu on the uterine contraction while I helped my wife to give birth. After the manual stimulation of the aforesaid points, on the screen of the monitor one could observe an increase important of the muscular contractions of the uterus (= increase of the size and of the frequency of the oscillographic waves on the screen).

This result is compatible with the research of the Division of biologic research of the Scientific institute (China) that got the same uterine contractile effect of the sting of the same point Sanyinjiao on the animals. (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 218 - publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute - Hanoi - Vietnam -1979).

The popular hospital n. 6 of Shanghai (China) observed through the X-ray the stream of the contractions upwards of the uterus and the increase of the circulation of the marked iodine in the falloppian tubes after the treatment by the following points: Sanyinjiao, Zhongji, Qihai and Guilai. (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 218 - publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute - Hanoi - Vietnam -1979).

4) Effects of regularization of the nervous system:

Nakatami Yoshio (Japan) studied the electric conductibility of skin with the use of Basmin, Imidalin, Pilocarpine and Atropine.

With the injection of Basmin, a sympathomimetic agent, one gets a reduction of the electric resistance of skin and an easiness to the electric conduction through skin.

The injection of Imidalin, a sympatholytic agent, determines contrarily an increase of the cutaneous resistance.

The injection of pilocarpine, a parasympathomimetic agent, increases the electric resistance of skin on the other hand, while the one of the atropine, a parasympatholytic agent, decreases it.

He got, with the acupuncture, two interesting effects:

a - The reduction of the electric resistance of skin. This fact leads us to think that the therapeutic effect of the acupuncture can explain itself with the activation of the sympathic nervous system.

b - The homogenization of the electric resistance of skin on the whole cutaneous surface of the body, while increasing the electric resistance in the zones where it is low and while lowering it in the zones of high electric resistance. This phenomenon leads us to think that the acupuncture has an balancing effect of the functionality of the autonomous nervous system. (Mentioned by Nguyen Van Nghi, Mai Van Dong, Ulderico Lanza in "Théorie et pratique de l'Analgésie par l'Acupuncture" (Marseille 1974; pag. 374)).

5) Inhibition of the motor zones of the central nervous system:

An electroencephalographic survey on 88 topics of which 59 patients and 29 healthy achieved by Dong Thua Thong and Ly Uan Son (China) carried to the conclusion that the inhibition of the motor zones of the central nervous system was gotten by the acupuncture with a relatively strong stimulation in 90% of the cases at all two groups, except the fact that the time of latency at the group of the healthy is a lot longer and the inhibitory effect is weaker. (Mentioned by Nguyen Van Nghi, Mai Van Dong, Ulderico Lanza in "Théorie et pratique de l'Analgésie par l'Acupuncture" (Marseille 1974; pag. 373)).

6) Mechanism of action of the acupuncture:

In the analgesia by the acupuncture, the mechanism of action of the stimulation of the acupuncture explains itself through two interesting theories: Gate Control Theory and Nervous excretion Theory.

A) The first is "the Gate Control Theory" expressed by Melzack and Wall (1965) and translated by Mamo in 1968 and by Sindou and Coll. in 1973. It has been mentioned to assign to the acupuncture a local effect in the zone of the surgical incision. According to this theory, the painful stimulations of the exteroceptors are transmitted to the 3 systems:

1. the central T cells of the posterior horns of spinal cord;
2. the cells of the substantia gelatinosa of Rolando;
3. the ascending lemniscal system, that means the long ascending fibers of the posterior columns.

There are two types of fibers that transmit the painful signals: the big A-beta fibers on the one hand, the small A-delta fibers and the C fibers on the other.

The big A-beta fibers (it is about big myelinated fibers) transmit the signals while stimulating the cells of the substantia gelatinosa that have an inhibitory power on the afferent fibers, therefore they block the transmission of the pain.

The small A-delta fibers (it is about the small caliber myelinated fibers, of 6 to 8 microns of diameter, and with a transmission rates of 2 to 6 m/sec.) and the C fibers (it is about smaller caliber amyelinated fibers, of 2 to 4 microns of diameter, and with a transmission rates of 0,6 to 2 m/sec.) forbid the activities of the cells of the substantia gelatinosa and let the gate opened to the transmission of pain to the T cells, therefore of there to the brain.

One thinks that the sensation of weight, of numbness, (that the Chinese define like sensation of the arrival of the energy to the point where the needle is inserted and stimulated - but not of strong pain) provokes a transmission of light signals through the big A-beta fibers that activate the inhibitory effect of the cells of the substantia gelatinosa while blocking the transmission of pain(= closing of the nervous transmission gate).

In the practice of analgesia during the surgical interventions, one thinks that the stimulation of the needles provokes this closing of the gate of the transmission of pain before the painful stimulations provoked by the cut can occur, and that these pains of the surgical intervention, while finding the gate closed to the transmission of the nociceptive stimulation, are blocked.

B) The second is the Nervous excretion theory.
The latency of the apparition of the analgesia, the length of the effect and the territorial distribution (not always metameric) gave the reason to the Nervous excretion theory.
The researchers of the university of Medicine of Peking, in 1973, achieved a survey on the effect of the acupuncture among three dogs whose encephalic circulation had been crossed by anastomoses. So they got the pain-killing effect on the second and then on the third dog, while applying the acupuncture on the first.
This result would suggest that the acupuncture is susceptible to provoke in the organism of the first dog the secretion of the pain-killing substances that is transported toward the blood circulation of the two other dogs through the anastomoses.

Thanks to another survey, achieved a short time after by the same University of Medicine of Peking, the researchers discovered the seat of the secretion of these pain-killing substances on the other hand. Indeed, the intraventricular injection to a dog test, of the cephalo-rachidian liquid appropriated of a dog submitted to the acupuncture, provoked an analgesia in the receiving dog. The development of these substances seemed to take place to the level of the central nervous System. (Mentioned in "Pathogénie et Pathologie énergétiques en Médecine Chinoise - Traitement par Acupuncture et Massages" - Dr Nguyen Van Nghi, pag. 705 - Marseille 1977).

Dr Bruce Pomeranz, 1977, showed that the acupuncture stimulates the small afferent fibers of type 3 in the muscular tissue. These fibers are connected to the hypothalamoneurohypophyseal axis, and they act then either locally through marrow, either systematically through the laxity of beta-endorfin and other neurotransmitters. These pain-killing substances elaborated in the dog after the practice of the acupuncture would be the "endorphins" and the seat of development, the hypophysis. (Mentioned in "Eletrostimolazione agopunturale (EAL) e transcutanea (TENS) - Manuale pratico" of Ulderico Lanza - Ed. 1984 Studio Editoriale Espansione, pag.18)

7) Effects on the biochemical changes of body fluids:

The acupuncturists of Shanghai (China) observed, after a session of acupuncture, a sensitive increase in the serum, at the patients as at the healthy, the bacteriolysine, the agglutinine and the opsonine. (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 213, publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute, Hanoi - Vietnam - 1979. )

8) Effects on the formation of the blood cells:

Different authors showed that the acupuncture can change the elements of blood as to increase the numbers of the white globules, the neutrophils, the granulocytes and the lymphocytes and to intensify their phagocytary capacity; experimentations on the patients: Nguy Nhu Thu and Vuong Le Sam (China); experimentations on the rabbits: University military n. 4 (China) (Mentioned in "CHAM CUU HOC", volume 2, pag. 210 - publisher: Chinese Medicine Institute - Hanoi - Vietnam -1979).
 
These last two studies (7 and 8) confirm the correction of the indication of the acupuncture in the inflammations and in the bacterial and viral infections.