In the United States, acupuncture is commonly viewed as a spa-adjacent service – an experience that makes you feel good but does not have significant physiological or medical benefits. The meridians, the system of energetic pathways used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), are often written off as voodoo and/or nonscientific. Yet, clinical trials continue to show us that energy in our bodies is at work through these channels. While this has been evident through patient feedback for years, current medical technology is producing tangible evidence to demonstrate that the meridians are not as mystical as some skeptics may think.
What Studies Show
When conducting acupuncture studies, participants are typically divided into three groups: a verum acupuncture group, a sham acupuncture group and a control group that does not receive any acupuncture at all. The verum (meaning “truth” in Latin) group receives acupuncture via the meridian system, meaning that needles will only be placed in the proper manner and location in accordance with TCM treatment strategy. Sham acupuncture typically involves placing needles in places of the body that do not fall on the meridian pathways. The control group typically involves receiving no needles at all.
Brain imaging technology, such as resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI), is a type of MRI that measures changes in blood oxygenation to infer functional connectivity between brain regions. The rs-fMRI can be used in studies to evaluate the increased brain connectivity pattern that is established as a result of verum acupuncture treatment. Fluorescent dyes are utilized in medicine as molecular tools, as they absorb light of a specific wavelength and emit it at a longer wavelength, which is what causes them to glow. The injection of fluorescent dye into verum acupuncture points on the human body results in the dye lighting up not just in that area, but also along its corresponding meridian pathway, while dyed sham acupuncture points remain local to their injection site.
Resources for Exploration
If you are interested in the specifics of acupuncture studies that use this technology, check out these two randomized controlled clinical trials:
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In Vivo Visualization of the Pericardium Meridian with Fluorescent Dyes
