Myths and Merits of Acupuncture
Prof. H. C. Dung 董厚吉 教授
Department of Cellular & Structural Biology,
University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX
摘要：
As a part of long Chinese civilization, it is natural that acupuncture used as medical practice should have myths and merits. The best and most popularly known acupuncture myths undoubtedly must be the duration of its use. The claim is that acupuncture was invented some 4000 years ago. But, from archaeological point of view, adequate metal was not available for making acupuncture needles until just 2000 years ago. Two more myths about acupuncture are life energy of Chi (Qi) and meridians. Acupuncture is visualized as using fine needles inserted into the body for adjusting the flow of Chi inside the meridians. This absurdity, viewed from a scientific prospect, becomes a strong repugnant for acupuncture to be accepted into medical main stream, even in fact acupuncture has both scientific and medical merits. The merits of acupuncture can be stated simply that it is possible to manage chronic pain by inserting the needles into our body. Most of chronic pain which acupuncture can offer substantial relief have been failed to provide effective help through conventional medical regimens. How inserting a number of fine needles into the skin is able to reduce or stop pain is not thoroughly understood. Evidences form scientific researches are scanty and scattered. No one can provide a complete explanation for us to understand how acupuncture works. From what I know, acupuncture is essentially in dealing with physiological phenomenon of the sensory nervous system. Anatomical entity which is capable of receiving pain is described as nociceptor. Numerous nociceptors located under the skin, inside the muscles, and around the joints give us most pain. Their locations can be reached by acupuncture needles. Therefore, pain in these locations is possible to control and manage by needle therapy. Once acupuncture needles are introduced into the body, certain biochemical changes can be expected to occur. The biochemical changes must be expressed in terms of neurotransmitters. The endophin is one, and known to be able to alter or modify the activities of the sensory nervous system to reduce or stop pain perception.
簡歷：
Dr. Dung was born in Pingtung, Taiwan, 63 years ago. After his undergraduate education from Department of Zoology, National Taiwan University, he received a scholarship to enter Department of Anatomy, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky, to pursue his Ph.D. In 1970, he was appointed to his current position to teach anatomy. He writes extensively about acupuncture, and published a book, Anatomical Acupuncture.