An Important Answer to How Acupuncture Works: Nitric Oxide

The treatment method that stimulates specific points with special needles, taking the body’s energy flow into account to provide physical and psychological relaxation, is called acupuncture . Known to have been practiced by the Chinese and Uyghur Turks for 5000 years, acupuncture has begun to be used in more countries in recent years.

Whether acupuncture, particularly helpful for various kinds of pain, might have a placebo effect (feeling better through psychological influence despite no medical intervention) is debated. However, in May 2017, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine published new research discussing scientifically how acupuncture might work.

Led by biochemistry and nitric oxide physiology specialist Dr. Sheng-Xing Ma, this research approaches acupuncture treatment from a different perspective.

Dr. Ma and his team selected participants aged 18 to 60 at random: 25 women and men received a 20-minute session using gentle force to insert acupuncture needles softly and shallowly beneath the skin. Every 5 minutes, the needles were gently rotated manually beneath the skin for 2 minutes, until pain, numbness, soreness or swelling was felt. Researchers used this to test whether skin nitric oxidewould be released and expelled through the skin. The experiment’s main objective was to measure whether nitric oxide, which damages DNA, could be expelled from the body, and a developed device measured nitric oxide levels released through the skin.

At the end of the study, acupuncture was found to trigger nitric oxide release at treated acupuncture points, increasing local blood flow and producing the therapy’s positive effects.

This development brings acupuncture a little closer to scientific support. Experiments also suggested differences in nitric oxide release between acupuncture methods, but further studies are needed.

Acupuncturedoes not claim to treat cancer, but for adverse effects caused by cancer itself or its treatment (such as nausea, fatigue , joint pain and menopausal hot flashes), it is a complementary medicine method providing substantial benefits.

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