‘Acupuncture activates body’s painkillers’

Press, 16 August 1984, Page 14

‘Acupuncture activates body’s painkillers’

NZPA-AP Peking The body’s own painkillers are activated during acupuncture and can be measured in the bloodstream, said a New Zealand doctor and leading participant at an international conference in Peking. Dr Gerald Gibb, vicechairman of a committee setting up a World Federation of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Societies, said that researchers were closer to unlocking the secrets of how the ancient Chinese needling practice worked.

“When you needle a person, you liberate neuro-

transmitters,” Dr Gibb told a news conference after a three-day conference attended by 403 Chinese and 423 overseas experts on acupuncture. He said that the chemical substances released were “morphine-like substances” which could be measured by spectrograph in the blood.. The findings discussed at the symposium address questions posed by Western scientists about the 2000-year-old specialty, used to treat more than 300 diseases from toothache to hepatitis.

Dr Wang Xuetai, vicechairman of the Chinese

Acupuncture Society, told reporters that more than 1000 scholars were now researching the mechanics of how acupuncture affects the neural system and body fluids. They were observing body phenomena during treatment, he said, to explain the effectiveness of inserting needles into 365 points along 12 meridians criss-crossing the body. Chinese practitioners say that by stimulating the points, they can control pain, affect internal organs and restore the body’s yinyang (male-female) natural balance.