According to the most recent study of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in the United States, a whopping 8.2 million Americans underwent acupuncture treatment at some point in their lives! Out of that enormous number, 2.1 million had used it within the past year. A 1971 New York Times article by James Reston introduced the idea of using needles to relieve pain and the media has been all over Eastern medicine ever since. Of course, there’s a lot more to Chinese medicine than just a recommended visit to an acupuncture clinic. You have a whole world of herbal medicines and herbal remedies at your disposal.

Many Western medical practitioners are baffled by how acupuncture works and therefore dispute its validity. However, there are several theories about why acupuncture and Chinese medicine is, in fact, successful at curing certain illnesses. In the “Gate Control” theory, it’s believed that slow-moving pain signals follow the body’s internal highway.

By applying the needle, we can generate endorphins that move much quicker and push the pain signals out of the way. Because the slow pain is blocked in the pushing and shoving of signals, the pain sensation never actually reaches the brain.

Another Chinese theory is called the “Electrical” theory, which says that the body is always discharging slight magnetic energy and that Chinese acupuncture actually works by manipulating the body’s electromagnetic fields, altering chemical neurotransmitters in the process. In 1999, British doctors found that collagen was a good conductor of electricity — and Dr. Mae Won Ho concluded that “the kind of conducting water channels that more or less follow the collagen fibres may correspond to the so-called meridians of the acupuncture channels. So when you put a needle in you are giving a local electrical stimulation which then enables this positive electricity to be conducted to some distant sites.”

A person’s reaction to acupuncture and Chinese medicine is purely personal. Some people feel minimal to no pain as the needles go in, while some feel sore. Chinese acupuncture invigorates some patients and calms others. Many patients come back for more than one treatment over time and find that it gets easier and easier.

If they’re feeling a little bit of discomfort during a particular session, then they’ll know they’ve pushed themselves too hard that week. If we all just slowed down and took a moment, we’d be in much better shape – both mentally and physically.