21st Century Medicine
Neuro-Acupuncture

Leading edge research and state of the art imaging tools such as MRI’s and PET Scans have provided new insights and theories of how and why the acupuncture system works.

 
The Neuro-Acupuncture System is an evolution in the understanding and practice of Acupuncture Medicine that integrates cutting edge neuroscience, systems biology, molecular biology, cellular biology with thousands of years of clinical results and wisdom.

What science has revealed is remarkable, but not necessarily a surprise for those that practice Acupuncture Medicine - the classical Chinese acupuncture system is an exquisitely multisystem information network system and neuro- modulator that promotes relief from multiple complex issues such as chronic pain, migraines, neuropathies, immune disorders as well as prevention and promoting health. Safely without drugs, surgery, or side effects. 

At McDermott Wellness Center, we are leaders in practicing this contemporary model of neuro-acupuncture.

Research has shown Neuro-Acupuncture System can activate the ten following areas/systems in your body: 

   1. Activation of the body's natural opioid system your own natural pain killers Inserting a needle into the correct NAU sends a signal through the nervous system to the brain, where chemicals such as endorphins, norepinephrine and enkephalin are released. Some of these substances are 10-200 times more potent than morphine Through this mechanism, acupuncture helps the brain accurately ‘locate’ the pain and reduce it and induce sleep.

2. The Neuro-Acupuncture System reduces both the intensity and perception of chronic pain.

It does this through a process called “descending control normalization”, which involves the serotonergic nervous system.

Continue Reading The 10 Benefits of Neuro Acupuncture

Treatment of Chronic Pain

Neuro Acupuncture for Pain Relief and Management

All pain is actually sensed in the brain; it is not "out there" in the body where the injury may have occured. The brain is ultimately in charge of how pain is perceived and localized. The brain also registers pain emotionally, and emotional responses such as fear or helplessness can become attached to the pain sensation itself and can change how pain is experienced. Persistent pain over longer periods of time will result in greater and more complex changes in how the brain processes the incoming pain signal and ultimately how pain is actually experienced.

Chronic pain is associated with pathologically altered brain activity and morphology. Normalization of these alterations is associated with decreased pain and improved function.

Your Brain on Acupuncture

The Pain Centers in the Brain          Pre and Post Acupuncture

 
Note the decrease in the key pain processing areas

                                
A.    Activation of the key pain area processing areas.
B.    Pain after administration of acupuncture

Acupuncture Medicine around the World

Acupuncture and Brain Imaging

| Disclosures 
Acupunct Med. 2012;30(4):250-251. 
  
Advances in functional neuroimaging techniques have made it possible to study both the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological responses associated with acupuncture. An impressive body of literature has identified a distributed network of brain activity that is evoked by stimulation with acupuncture needles and is subject to considerable modulation by a variety of stimulus parameters, contextual factors and clinical conditions.[1,2] Several studies have documented that stimulation of various acupuncture points elicits overlapping brain responses in a number of cortical and subcortical brain regions, including activation in the sensorimotor cortical network (the insula, thalamus, anterior cingulate cortex and primary and secondary somatosensory cortices) and deactivation in the limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network (the medial prefrontal cortex, caudate, amygdala, posterior cingulate cortex and parahippocampus).[3–5] These distributed brain areas are closely associated with a wider pain matrix that is responsible for modulating both the sensation of pain and affective pain perception.[6] 

References

1.    Chae Y, Park HJ, Hahm DH, et al. fMRI review on brain responses to acupuncture: the limitations and possibilities in traditional Korean acupuncture. Neurol Res 2007;29(Suppl 1):S42–8.

2.    Dhond RP, Kettner N, Napadow V. Neuroimaging acupuncture effects in the human brain. J Altern Complement Med 2007;13:603–16.

3.    Fang J, Jin Z, Wang Y, et al. The salient characteristics of the central effects of acupuncture needling: limbic-paralimbic-neocortical network modulation. Hum Brain Mapp 2009;30:1196–206.

4.    Hui KK, Liu J, Makris N, et al. Acupuncture modulates the limbic system and subcortical gray structures of the human brain: evidence from fMRI studies in normal subjects. Hum Brain Mapp 2000;9:13–25.

5.    Wu MT, Hsieh JC, Xiong J, et al. Central nervous pathway for acupuncture stimulation: localization of processing with functional MR imaging of the brain— preliminary experience. Radiology 1999;212:133–41