Easy on the needle

CEBU, Philippines - Acupuncture may still have to gain wide acceptance among neurologists despite having been proven effective for migraines and some neurological disorders like stroke. Former health secretary Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan made a strong espousal for acupuncture as a treatment protocol during the 16th midyear convention of the Philippine Neurological Association held in Naga City, Camarines Sur last June 5. He urged neurologists “to keep an open mind” to the use of needles in acupuncture that are manipulated and inserted in various points on the body to relieve pain.

When you look at the brain and the nervous system of your body you will marvel how God wonderfully and mysteriously created man. The nervous system of the body consists of the brain, spinal cord and retina that operate and transmit signals to each other and to other organs in the body through a network and circuitry of specialized cells called neurons. For all those signals and transmission in the circuitry of neurons in the body, all these come out in your consciousness that in turn direct your actions like when you speak or take a bath and those that you do unconsciously like when you breathe are all under the command and operation of the nervous system. It is the nervous system that moves and controls your being.

So wonderfully made is our nervous system that the brain and spinal cord are surrounded by a strong physical shield of tough membranes enclosing the bones of the skull and spinal vertebrae. Not only that, to ensure that chemicals in the brain and spinal cord are protected from intrusion of other types of chemicals in the bloodstream, a blood-brain barrier that isolates the brain and spinal cord and serves as a chemical shield.

Even by these layers of shield, the nervous system is susceptible to malfunction in a wide variety of ways due to genetic defects, physical damage due to trauma or poison, infection, or simply aging. Your lifestyle, what you eat and what you do with your life all affect the nervous system. The medical specialty of neurology studies the causes of brain and nervous system disorders, and looks for interventions that can alleviate it. In other words when your brain breaks down or when the circuitry of sensory neurons short circuit, malfunction and or have regenerated, a person can suffer from diseases like dementia, epilepsy, stroke, even migraine and sleep disorders. In Alzheimer’s disease there is memory impairment. Migraine is when blood vessels in the brain expand, unlike regular headaches where blood vessels constrict. If a migraine sufferer takes medicine for a regular headache, it will only make the pain and other symptoms worse.

Measured Deception

In most cases with conventional medicine, brain and nervous system disorders are treated with pharmacological interventions, others with surgery and still others with rehabilitation. But because pharmacological treatment is not always effective and can have pernicious side effects, neurologists are now looking at acupuncture as a possible option. 

There are also pharmacological treatments for brain and nervous system disorders that are placebo. When we say placebo it means sham or simulated medical intervention. In medical research, placebos use controlled and measured deception. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert pill, told that it may improve his condition. But then the pill is actually inert. The placebo intervention is meant to cause a patient to believe or to have a perception that the pill has some therapeutic effect causing the patient to feel their condition improved. Because neuro disorders begin in the brain and spinal cord, creating a perceived intervention of “feeling well” is seen to hasten treatment.

But Dr. Galvez Tan urged neurologists to adapt acupuncture as a possible treatment protocol. He said that while conventional medicine looks into three circulatory areas, like blood circulation, nervous and lymphatic, in acupuncture there are four which includes energy. In traditional Chinese medicine, the body is seen as a delicate balance between the YIN and the YANG. Health is achieved by maintaining the body in a “balanced state.” When there is an internal imbalance of yin and yang, which leads to blockage in the flow of qi (vital energy) along pathways known as meridians. To unblock the pathways, acupuncture is administered. The puncturing of the body is done only on where the source of disorder is.

It is said that acupuncture has been proven successful in clinical trials for stroke, depression, migraines and pain management. In many ways acupuncture is effective in brain, spinal or nervous system disorders because the needles stimulate the energy pathways. Acupuncture provides an honest and straightforward treatment option without having to be “tricked” into measured deception or believing you are being treated with placebo pills.

There are now moves to have a board exam for acupuncturists and accreditation of acupuncturists. While Galvez Tan urged neurologists to keep an “open mind,” neurologists were not keen into saying that having an open mind would translate into action openly. As neurologists will have to take it easy on the needle, that means prescription will not be an inert pill but a referral to the acupuncturist.