Why can acupuncture treat diseases?

Why acupuncture can treat diseases has been researched from ancient times to the present, both in China and abroad. Although there are many theories, no definitive conclusion has yet been reached. The main reason is that contemporary research on the regulation of human bodily functions is often limited to the aspects of neural reflexes, biochemical reactions, and biomolecular physical movements. Consequently, domestic and international acupuncture research has largely remained confined within these domains, failing to delve deeply into the role of the body's latent (potential) functions. Through long-term exploration of acupuncture treatment and mechanism research, the author has discovered that the nerve impulses induced by stimulating acupuncture points can activate the body's latent functions, thereby exerting a powerful regulatory effect on the functions of various systems, organs, and tissues — primarily mediated through the nervous system — in order to prevent and treat various diseases and combat aging. This is the fundamental mechanism of acupuncture.

As is well known, the human body possesses many functions. The ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi stated that humans possess the functional capacities of heaven and earth; Xunzi also noted that humans can surpass nature. Modern science has likewise confirmed that the human body indeed has many functions, yet only about 10% of these are dominant (manifest), frequently in use, while 90% are latent (potential) and have not yet been activated or utilized. Why does the human body have so many functions? In the long course of evolution, through the three major activities of defending against harm, seeking food, and perpetuating life, humans endured countless hardships and diseases. To survive in changing environments, certain capabilities were generated. These postnatally acquired traits gradually evolved into innate endowments. Among them, some functions, having been continuously utilized, became dominant; others, though inherited, gradually fell into disuse due to changes in the postnatal environment and became latent. Every function is equipped with a functional apparatus that executes its actions. This apparatus is an organic, precise, and intricate integration within the human body, consisting primarily of three major parts: the central, visceral, and somatic components. The body's functional apparatus contains intricately complex segmental connections, and can therefore also be called the neurosegmental functional apparatus. During illness, pathological reflexes can be established within the central nervous system to connect multiple functional apparatuses, reinforcing measures to prevent and control disease. This, too, is a response formed by the organism's adaptation to environmental survival during the evolutionary process.

Research findings indicate that acupuncture only needs to select points along the meridians based on information obtained through “meridian palpation” (qie jing), and to manipulate the needles according to needling sensation (deqi) information, in order to activate the body's latent functions, animate its functional apparatus, and exert powerful regulatory effects. By doing so, it can not only enhance therapeutic efficacy but also treat a large number of intractable and complex diseases, as well as conditions previously considered incurable, such as male and female sexual dysfunction, infertility, small testes, infantile uterus, mammary gland hyperplasia, hydrocephalus (with or without cerebral atrophy), vascular headache, nervous deafness, and dwarfism. Therefore, the body's functional apparatus is not only a local unit of human morphology and function but also the local unit of acupuncture's "meridian palpation" and treatment. This is the mystery of meridian diagnosis and therapy.

Various therapies such as qigong, tuina (Chinese therapeutic massage), psychotherapy, and behavioral therapy are, in essence, also means of activating the body's various latent healing functions. However, acupuncture's ability to activate latent functions is far quicker than these therapies, with higher efficacy, greater simplicity and ease of application, no side effects, and very low cost. Therefore, how to further utilize acupuncture methods — or patient-acceptable modifications similar to acupuncture — to safely, fully, and flexibly activate the body's latent functions for disease prevention, treatment, and anti-aging according to actual clinical needs, is a subject worthy of in-depth investigation and research. This principle holds the potential to pioneer a new medicine with distinctive Chinese characteristics, benefiting all of humankind.