What is Acupuncture?

Information For pet owners

The Traditional Chinese Medicine Approach

Acupuncture is the technique of using very fine needles that pierce the skin at specific points in order to treat or prevent disease. It is perhaps one of the oldest forms of medicine in the world, and along with herbal medicine probably one of the oldest forms of veterinary medicine in the world. Although pets have only recently been treated with acupuncture in the West, in China, horses, cows and pigs have been treated for well over 3000 years.

Veterinary Acupuncture is part of a whole system of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM), which involves diet, Chinese herbs and other techniques. TCVM is used to diagnose, prevent and treat disease, and is based on the principle that the body always tries to balance and regulate itself.

There are 14 main meridians or channels in the body through which Qi and Blood flow to all parts of the body. If the Qi and Blood flow is normal then the body is healthy, if there is some disruption of this flow then disease occurs. Acupuncture points are located on these channels and can be used to regulate the amount of Qi and Blood flowing in the channels. A simple analogy is electricity. The channels can be thought of as power lines carrying electricity to all parts of the body. Along the power lines there are amplifiers that regulate the amount of electricity passing though the network. Acupuncture points can be thought of as the amplifiers that control the amount of electricity and bring about the normal flow of Qi and Blood. In this way everything in the body is connected.

Most people think that the effect of acupuncture is just pain relief, however acupuncture stimulates many pathways in the body, always bringing the body back to a state of balance and well being.

Scientific Research

The skin over acupuncture points is quite different from the surrounding skin. At a microscopic level there is an increase in the number of nerve endings, tiny blood and lymph vessels, and specialised cells associated with inflammation. These points also have a measurable, lowered electrical resistance, which changes with time of day, illness, body temperature and pressure.

There is currently much discussion as to the nature of the channels, whether they are equivalent to the circulatory system of the body or whether the stimulus from inserting the needles is passed along the connective tissue planes via nerves and connective tissue cells. It has been shown conclusively that an intact nervous system is required for acupuncture to have an effect.

Recently there have been a number of studies using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to observe the effect on the brain, of inserting a needle into various acupuncture points. For example:- it has shown that acupuncture points that are used to treat eye problems will stimulate the optic section of the brain, points used to treat stomach conditions will stimulate the part of the brain that regulates stomach and bowel. The most exciting finding is that most acupuncture points have a regulating effect on the amygdala thereby reducing the body's stress levels and re-establishing the normal diurnal rhythms of the body. Acupuncture has also been shown to stimulate the release of numerous hormones including endorphins and other pain relieving anti-inflammatory neurochemicals , these changes can be measured in the bloodstream.