Principles and Practice of Contemporary Acupuncture

465 Pages·1994·58.8 MB·English

by  Sung J. Liao

Principles and
Practice
Contemporary
Acupuncture
Sung Liao,
Mathew H. M. Lee,
Lorenz K.
of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee,
WB
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Acupuncture has been practiced for centuries on an essentially
pragmatic basis. Its practitioners make no claim to understand why
it is effective and to what extent it is Even though great efforts
have been made since ancient times to explain it, acupuncture has
remained basically at the medieval level. the Western-trained
mind, this is an intolerable predicament.
The authors of this book, basically clinicians in the field of
chronic pain abatement and rehabilitation, have had extensive
experience in basic and clinical research academically, and have
also been practicing acupuncture since Collectively, we have
treated tens of thousands of patients and have learned enormously
from caring for them. This experience has convinced that
acupuncture does have an important place in the clinical
management of chronic pain and other disease conditions,
complementary and supplemental to mainstream Western medicine.
Our interest in utilizing acupuncture as a therapeutic modality
combined with our desire to advance its scientific foundation
compels to share our experiences and our ideas in this book,
however personal and anecdotal, with physicians, dentists, other
health-care professionals, and all others who wish to gain some
insight into this fascinating healing art. efforts, if they appear
controversial, must by no means be misconstrued as derogatory.
Our hope is to upgrade this ancient healing art to complement
mainstream modern medicine in order to, the Chinese say,
ferry all the sufferers drowning in the bitter sea across to the shores
of happiness. Hence, humanity will be better served. We trust our
readers will concur with us.
This book was originally started in the early by one of
The real impetus to write this current book collectively
started when first and then LKYN determined that there
IV
was a great need for an up-to-date book about acupuncture. Since
we started the practice of acupuncture in we have witnessed
the tremendous of scientific research in this area. In turn,
this research has advanced the understanding of chronic pain.
What is more important, it has culminated in the establishment of
the Office of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of
Health in Joseph Jacobs, M.D., Honorary Fellow of
American College of Acupuncture, is its Director. Our desire to
share our personal experience with our friends and colleagues has
further spurred on. We comment on this in Chapter
The opinions and comments expressed in this book are entirely
ours and do not represent any of the institutions or organizations
which we may have been associated with at one time or another.
We have attempted our best to keep the materials as accurate and
up-to-date as possible. Our readers must exercise their own
judgment in the use of our suggested acupoints and other materials
in this book.
In the Chinese tradition of reverence to the elderly, we align the
sequence of the authors according to their ages.
Sung J. Liao, M.D.,M.P.H., D.P.H., Dip. Bact., F.A.C.P.
Mathew H. M. Lee, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
Lorenz K. Y. Ng, M.D., F.A.C.P.M.
We are indebted to Dr. Felix Mann. If he had not dramatically
alleviated the frozen shoulder of one of us (SE) with acupuncture
in December we would never have believed in such possible
effects of this healing and started to learn it from him. Dr.
Nguyen Van Nghi most graciously and patiently taught us not only
in this country but also in his clinic in Marseilles.
The interest the late Howard A. Rusk, M.D. (Honorary
Fellow of American Academy of Acupuncture) in acupuncture and
traditional Chinese medicine was a great inspiration to us. The late
Mrs. Katharine Lilly Conroy's and the late Alice Tully's
interest in acupuncture a rehabilitation modality gave us great
encouragement. Mr. and Mrs. Fortune Pope, Mr. William Mazer,
and the late Mrs. Helen Mazer, have given steadfast support to our
acupuncture and chronic pain research for the past two decades.
Kenneth Riland, D.O., Honorary Fellow of American Academy of
Acupuncture, and physician to the late Governor Nelson
Rockefeller, assisted in the establishment of the New York State
Commission on Acupuncture in One of us
had the privilege to serve on it. The encouragement of Arthur B.
Martin, Esq. and Mr. Roy A. Dorsey of Atlanta, Georgia has
helped to broaden our knowledge of this healing
Of our many friends in the Chinese Ministry of Public Health,
we are much indebted to Dr. Chen Zhongwu, former Director of
the Bureau of Medical Administration and now Honorary President
of the Chinese Rehabilitation Medicine Association, and Dr. Zhao
Tongbin, Vice Director of the International Center for Medical and
Health Exchange, who made possible our many study tours of
acupuncture in China since It is impossible to mention the
many friends at various institutions of traditional Chinese medicine
V
Yl
that we visited, but we would especially like to thank Professors Ji
Zhongpu, Wang Xuetai, and Chen Xinlong at the Beijing Academy
of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Institute of Acupuncture, and
Professor Cao Xiaoding, Director of the State Laboratory of
Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical University.
Without Mr. Thomas A. Liao's indefatigable support in
computer programming and preparation of almost all of the
photographs, this book could not have been fruitfully composed.
The assistance by Elizabeth K. Rosenblatt, Ed.M. and Margaret L.
Thompson, M.D., MS. in preparing and reviewing the manuscript
was invaluable. We are very thankful to Joan Ruszkowski
(Director), and her staff of the Waterbury Hospital Health Library,
Waterbury, Connecticut, for their tremendous help in the literature
search and many related tasks. Mr. John F. Smith, photographer,
Waterbury and Morris, Connecticut, assisted very skillfully in
preparing many of the photographs. Messrs. Leo T. McGovern and
Kevin T. McGovern of Cine'-Med, Woodbury, Connecticut
graciously provided graphics support. Messrs. Thomas Honocks
(Director) and Jack Eckert of the Library for Historical Services,
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, kindly provided with
a copy of Franklin Bache's book on acupuncture.
We thank the publisher, Marcel Dekker, Inc., for accepting this
book for publication, and particularly Ms. Tammerly Booth, Ms.
Kerry Doyle, Ms. Melissa Gelertner, Messrs. Joseph Stubenrauch
and John McGarrell, and their associates for their invaluable
assistance. We would also like to recognize Marcel Dekker, Inc.'s
farsightedness in publishing the Acupuncrum Mmud by late
colleague Luke W. Chu, M.D. and his associates in 1979.
We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge how grateful
we are to our wives, Karin M. Liao, Mary Lou Lee, and Roberta
M. Ng. Only with their patience, tolerance, and indulgence was the
completion of this book possible,
PREFACE
111
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
V
CHAPTER Introduction
CHAPTER The Historic Background
A. Evolution Acupuncture
[E
Bim or Stone Puncture
(Puncturing), Zhen (Needling),
and Acupuncture
B. Medicine and Divination
C. Acupuncture Literature
D. The Teaching of Acupuncture
E. Acupuncture in Asia
F. Acupuncture in Europe
G. Acupuncture in the United States
CHAPTER The Traditional (Philosophico-Alchemic)
Bases Acupuncture
[m
A. and Homeostasis
Man Microcosm
Yin and Ymg
[TfiE]
B. Five (or Five Elements)
C. and Circulation
D. The Jing-Luo System (i. e., the Meridians)
vi i
Foot Tai Yang Jing
Foot Shao Yang Jing
Foot Yung Ming Jing
Foot Tai Yin Jing
5. Foot Shao Yin Jing
Foot Yin Jing
Hand Jing Tai Yang
Hand Shao rang Jing San or
Hand Yung Ming Jing
10. Hand Tai Yin Jing
11. Hand Xin Zhu Jing
Hand Shao Yin Jing
E.
or
F.
1.
B.
IX
C. Neuropharmacologic Mechanisms
D. Afferent Stimulation: Peripheral Activating
Mechanisms
E. Stimulus Parameters and Possible Neural Specificity
F. The Autonomic Nervous System
G. The Biophysical Phenomena
The Electrophysical Properties of the
Acupuncture Needle
The Electrophysiologic Properties of Acupoints
and Meridians
Nordenstrom's Electrophysiologic View of
Acupuncture
H. Possible Clinical Applications
CHAPTER 5. Acupuncture and Hypnosis
CHAPTER Chronic Pain a Disease
A. Pain in Traditional Chinese Medicine
B. Modem Definition of Pain
C. Chronic Pain as a Medical Entity
D. Theories to Explain the Mechanisms Pain
The Specificity Theory
The Reverberation (or Central Summation)
Theory
The Pattern Theory
The Gate Control Theory
5. The Neurohumoral Theory
E. Pain and Sensory Dermatome
Sherrington's Remaining Sensibility