What Acupuncture Does To Your Brain - In Pictures

Now there have been many studies done on acupuncture and to try to see if it's one big placebo or if there's actually something to it. Now some of the sham experiments that have been used are literally using things like either non-inserted needles or even things like toothpicks on acupuncture points. Now here's the problem. There's an entire lineage of Japanese acupuncture that uses either minimally insertive or even non-insertive acupuncture techniques where they literally use a metallic tool called a tation and they literally rest it on the point or even contact needling where they have the needle in the guide tube and they rest it on the acupuncture point. Now obviously it's a lot more complicated to study acupuncture versus a placebo control but in this video I want to share some really really cool fMRI studies done showing how point specificity really is a real thing as well as what different parts of the brain light up when studies are done measuring this. Hey it's Alex Hine, author of the health book Master the Day. Now don't forget I've included down there below a free PDF on five daily rituals that can possibly help you add ten years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So you can check it out right there below. Now obviously when you're studying a toothpick versus an acupuncture needle there are a lot of complications that come up you know and some of these studies show that there's no difference between the toothpick or the sham versus the acupuncture needle and there are many many many of these sham studies that are incredibly flawed in dozens of ways. So a way to look at this slightly differently is by using fMRI technology. So what this is is essentially measuring blood flow in your brain right so researchers can see basically in real time what parts of the brain are being lit up when we needle this point versus one inch away on this point and some of the actual results are pretty crazy. I mean they actually surprised me being able to see the difference between using liver 2 versus liver 3 which can be less than two inches away from each other. So a lot like if you're doing a bicep curl and then your bicep gets a little pumped and then the circulation increases and the veins look a little bit swollen the researchers can measure what's going on in your brain and where based on the blood flow. Now the first thing I want to share is the effect of acupuncture points on the same meridian or channel. So in these series of studies the acupuncture points on the same channel showed similarities among the activation or deactivation pattern. For example points on the stomach channel showed activation in the supramarginal gyrus and deactivation in areas related to the hippocampus or the parahippocampus. Surprisingly to me actually the vision related points gallbladder 37 and bladder 60 show deactivation in general in the visual areas such as the cuneus. Now I want you to take a look at these pictures here that the researchers provided. Now the red areas are areas of activation. The blue areas are areas of deactivation. So for example go to the bottom of the left there stomach 36 Zusanli. This is one of the most studied points in all of Chinese medicine. It is historically also one of the most famous obviously far prior to this kind of scientific diagnostic imaging. And just compare the activation in stomach 36 versus the next block to the right stomach 40. Okay look at the amount of deactivation going on and the amount of activation just purely let's look at it like it's a painting. A lot is there a lot of color. Stomach 40 there's some amount still but in some similar areas and some different areas. And then go over to stomach 44 to the right again. Very little activation and it's very specific in the areas that we see lighting up. Now the other thing I thought was super interesting is go to the top right here liver 2 and liver 3. Liver 2 and liver 3 depending on the person can be less than one inch apart. Average person it's probably about two inches apart roughly. Now liver 3 you see a lot of Christmas lights coming on there right. And then look at liver 2 not that far away. Very very little activation and activity going on which I thought was incredibly interesting myself. And then just below that look at liver 4 or excuse me large intestine 4 and large intestine 2 to its left. Large intestine 4 is again one of the most popular points used. Look at the amount of activity that we see going on there and look at the amount of activity in comparison to large intestine 2 just to the left. So to me it was actually incredibly surprising to see this with the fMRI technology that this much of a difference in terms of the actual anatomy can make that much of a difference in what we see lighting up in the brain. Now let's compare when points on the channel were needled versus points off the channel right. Does that do anything? Now in this particular series of studies looked at two-thirds so about 64% of the 25 studies showed that acupuncture treatments were associated with more activation mainly in the somatosensory areas, the motor areas, basal ganglia, cerebellum, limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. So the majority actually showed that being needled on the actual channel like what is an acupuncture point versus a non acupuncture point showed more activation in the brain. Now let's finally take a look at some of the most studied points which are commonly clinically used the most. So the most studied points were large intestine 4, stomach 36, PC 6, liver 3 and gallbladder 34. Now what the researchers said was that overall the data showed that acupuncture stimulation mainly influenced the brain activity of the somatosensory areas, motor areas, auditory areas, visual areas, cerebellum, limbic system and the higher cognitive areas. So there's a pretty consistent trend in terms of what parts of the brain are being activated that we see in the fMRIs based on blood flow. So I figured I would share that because I personally found it incredibly interesting just to get a visual look at what's really happening and to make you look more tangible and less mystical. So I hope that helps give you a little bit of a snapshot just so you can remember what's going on and where. Obviously this is not conclusive or anything and there is disagreement in the research as well but I thought it was fascinating so I thought I would share. Now before you go if it interests you check out the free download below the video. It's a free PDF on 5 daily rituals that can possibly help you add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medical practices. So you can check it out right there below and then check out my most recent videos in this topic right over here.