Does an amoeba have acupuncture channels?

A common thread of discussion during acupuncture and tuina appointments in the past month has been the acupuncture channels themselves: What are they? Where are they? What do they do? There are many explanations and theories out there that answer all these questions, and each school of thought informs how diagnosis and treatment are done.

For example, there are Japanese conceptions of channels which produce detailed abdominal diagnosis and require acupuncture done very superficially, on the surface of the skin. Or, Korean theories which lead to acupuncture done primarily only on the hands with very tiny needles. There are also Taiwanese schools of thought which don't even consider channels at all, and just have a complex map of individual points. 

Which school of thought do I use?

I prefer a model of the channels which is an interpretation of the classical Chinese way of understanding them--which is to say, the original conception of the channels, versus the interpretation mandated by the current Chinese government.

In the interpretation I prefer, the idea of qi--energy--flowing through the channels is given a modern understanding as electromagnetic currents moving along the fascia, the very conductive connective tissue which pervades every tissue of the body. These currents flow in a sort of parallel to the nervous system, similarly participating in communication from mind to body and vice versa and governing function of organs and muscles, but they also do more: they inform the creation of and repair of tissues and organs in the body, from fetal growth through our passing.

If there is inflammation or scar tissue--both of which scatter orderly electrical currents with their disordered extra fluids and connective tissue, respectively--the flow of a channel can be blocked and reduced to a trickle, or even diverted into another channel, causing anything from pain to headaches to a havoc of symptoms from organs that are no longer receiving their channel-based instructions.

So, does an amoeba have channels?

Yes! That is, every living organism has channels, not because they have the organs the channels are often named after, but because they have the functions the channels perform.

That is, an amoeba doesn't have a liver or a gallbladder; in turn, a much larger organism such as a whale might have totally different organs than other organisms, like very differently structured kidneys and a sonar melon. But both the tiny and the large have respiration, digestion, and processing of waste. The very things that define what it means for an organisms to live are the functions governed by the channel system. In any organism there are electrical currents that flow, carrying communicated information and altering chemical processes.

In using acupuncture and other methods to treat the channels, I feel I'm working with that fundamental aspect of life itself. This interpretation of the channels and physiology also helps me view the body more as energetic than as purely physical, which opens up exciting ways of diagnosing and understanding the body--and the world.

Let’s work together.

I'd love to see and feel how well your channels are currently (no pun intended) flowing. If you have mysterious symptoms or stubborn injuries that haven't healed, this can be the key to resolving them and bringing you relief.

Call or text at 520-609-8488, or schedule online!