Traditional Medicine in Asia

effectiveness of acupuncture treatment and
broaden its scope. Promising supplementary
methods include the integration
of acupuncture with Chinese herbal
medicine or the integration of moxibustion
with Chinese herbal medicine. This method
has been tried to increase the strength of
acupuncture functions and to reduce or
eliminate the side-effects of medication.
However, to enable this therapy to
demonstrate its advantages we still have a
long way to go, because the human body’s
physiological and biochemical functions
are very complicated. Any functional activity
is not a single biological change but rather
a series of biological processes mutually
linked and influenced. For example, while
the afferent nerve conducts the
physiological and biochemical regulations
to the organs around it, apart from the
nerve impulse, there are such processes as
the synthesis, storage and release of the
neural transmitter, the combination of the
transmitter and the receptor, and the
inactivation of the transmitter. The
regulative function of acupuncture is
probably realized through the induced
release of some active substances, through
alternating the numbers and the reactivity
of the receptor, changing the permeability
of the cell membrane and the blood–
cerebral barrier, and influencing the activity
of the enzyme. Once medication is
involved, in which way does acupuncture
affect the actions of the medication?
Among the links that are important, are
there any differences in various diseases
and for different medications? If it is said
that acupuncture and medication
coordinate in terms of function, would their
functions be merely combined or
increased? To answer these questions,
Chinese scholars have already performed
preliminary clinical observations and
experimental research and the basic
Chinese acupuncture–moxibustion
principles will be mastered only in due
course of time.
Expounding the functional
mechanism of acupuncture
According to deepened recognition of pain
physiology, acupuncture mechanisms to
stop pain will be gradually proved at the
level of molecular biology, especially the
primary centre of afferent pain sensation.
Various methods of neuroscience research
will be applied to verify how the posterior
horn of the spinal cord has a restraining
effect on afferent harmful signals, and how
the higher centre influences the process of
stopping pain. These will provide theoretical
proof and a wide choice of clinical
applications to eliminate pain.
Manufacture of safe and effective
acupuncture apparatus
The clinical meaning of traditional
acupuncture skills should be judged by strict
experiments. For one kind of acupuncture
skill, out of 10 experiments just one may
be of practical importance, while the rest
may even trigger off reactions. The
questions faced are: how to distinguish
meaningful composition, sum up
regulation, simplify and standardize
manipulation, reduce blindness of
acupuncture manipulation, diminish
unnecessary (no clinical meaning) harmful
stimulation, increase its scientific nature,
In the last 10 years, the
relationship of stimulation
parameter of acupuncture
with the ability to stop pain
has been systematically
observed by research on
acupuncture to stop pain.
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