Bruce
Pomeranz misspeaks (a rare occasion):
In
an article published on the "American
Academy of Medical Acupuncture"'s website titledAcupuncture
and the Raison D'Etre for Alternative Medicine, Bruce Pomeranz, the father
of the scientific study of acupuncture, misspoke in in a couple of contexts -
this in an interview dating from 1996...
Apropos
of wound healing, Bruce says: - "[We're
investigating] acupuncture on wound healing. We get huge effects: 50% faster wound
healing. So it's good stuff, The Chinese have known it for thousands of years.
They call it "surround the dragon." If you have a cut you just put 10
or 15 acupuncture needles around it. And I think I know how it works."
[The
interviewer asks] "How?"
Pomeranz:
"It stimulates the sympathetic nerves in the skin around the wound. ..."
Now,
I may be wrong, but I believe that sympathetic stimulation will delay healing,
and, when I was working with Bruce (from 1984 through 1991) we thought that this
healing effect was a consequence of the "current
of injury" (which stimulates cell migration, nerve sprouting, etc.),
and I think that in the moment of the interview Bruce remembered that we had a
mechanism, but misplaced it.
| Ah,
but I may be wrong. Bruce says "It
stimulates the sympathetic nerves in the skin around the wound." and
then "The neurochemicals that are released cause healing." and
this may be something I just don't know about.
But, just in case, I thought I should post a comment |
In
the same interview Bruce says "...
there's a cumulative effect of endorphins. The first treatment is mildly effective,
the second, if given within hours or a day, is potentiated. Endorphins have a
memory. If you give [the acupuncture treatment] the third time, it's even stronger."
But (forgive me Bruce), I remember
a Prof. Hu (I think it was) from Beijing visiting the lab and telling us that
the endorphin release peaked, and then at about 20 minutes they fell (and we were
speculating that the oft used 20 minute needle time was reflective of this). I
believe that the neurotransmission peaks and falls off, and that there is a "refractory
period" - you've got to leave time for the neurotransmitters to re-accumulate.
(I'm not sure what that time is, but, for example LI 4 (Hegu) will staunch the
pain of a toothache for about two hours, but you can't just go and needle again
after two hours, you'd be in the refractory period (but maybe I'm just assuming
this)... )
just
some thoughts on Bruce's 1996 interview....
