Existence of Meridians

[Guest guest]

Here in St. Louis, we are either honored or burdened with the presence of one

of the " leading " Western proponents of acupuncture, who is a psychiatrist at

one of the Universities here. This individual maintains that the existence of

meridians is " Buddhist superstition. " I suppose that says enough about his

particular familiarity with Chinese language and philosophy.

 

He bases his conclusion on experiments which show that certain analgesic

effects are produced with electrical stimulation of various zones in the

extremities without regard to exact point or meridian location. His

experiments seem to indicate that frequency is far more important than point

location. Based on this design, he has concluded that there are no meridians.

 

We enter into a tricky area when we talk about " existence. " In the early days

of dissection, in Europe, it was pretty much accepted that whatever was able

to be torn apart with the gentle probing fingers of the professor was just so

much background matrix (fascia) and that the real structures of the body were

the ones that one dissected out of the underlying or surrounding gelatinous

mass.

 

Thus, blood vessels and organs were mapped. And it took longer for scientists

to discover capillaries, since they were so small and we needed to bring the

expertise of the Dutch lens makers to Padua and Milan in order to look more

closely at the human form.

 

By the 1700s, we were pretty much steeped in Descartes' writings about the

" ghost in the machine " and the body on the dissecting slab was the mechanism

through which the soul was thought to work, by somehow inhabiting it.

 

Experiments with electricity's effect on nerve and muscles gave us some

inkling that the nervous system might somehow control the machine and provide

for locomotion. And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Meridian theory and meridian mapping would have been more widely accepted if

there could have been someone to one mapping with either blood vessels or

with nerves. However, we know that is not the case. And in the West no one

much cares that if you stimulate a particular point you get radiating

sensation along a unique pathway (not associated with nerves or blood

vessels) across a variety of subject. Too subjective for Science.

 

So there are no vessels that one can dissect out in order to show someone,

" here, this is a meridian. " However, recent explorations using PET scans and

other very sensitive apparati that can measure small electrical or magnetic

forces may indicate that there are pathways in the fascial tissue that are

more electroconductive than other pathways. This might be a physical analog

to the meridians.

 

Some work that is now proceeding at Harvard, using functional PET scans and

the services of certified acupuncturist from China. The preliminary findings

show that when " teh chi (?) " or " needle feeling " (for those like myself who

do not speak Chinese,) is attained, there are definite patterns of inhibition

which take place in specific brain areas.

 

Now, if one were to collect all of this data and try to put it into some sort

of understandable classification system, one might come up with a meridian

system. It's not out of the question, after all neurobiologists have drawn

that strange little man all over the sensory cortex of the brain, and no one

believes that he really lives there!

 

Lastly, I think the idea of the existence of meridians can be likened to this

analogy:

 

No one can see electrons;

 

No one needs to know much about electrons to watch TV.

 

One would be considered an idiot to deny the existence of electrons.

 

In fact, if I may add a fourth step to this, the mathematics and the

experiments to " prove " that electrons " exist " is complicated. Those who do

understand the math currently (not understands them as in " I took that in

school once, I remember it made sense then " ) are among the elite of our

population. And they would say that electrons, or positrons, or neutrinos, do

not exist in the same sense that the chair you are sitting on exists. They

are constructs and they are useful ones.

 

I think that meridians are clearly useful constructs, even if the

materialists among us are not quite satisfied with the density of their

" existence. "

 

Guy Porter

DrGRPorter

[Guest guest]

1: _Am J Chin Med._ (javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Am J Chin Med.')

2007;35(5):743-52.

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3210 & itool=AbstractPlus\

-def & uid=17963315 & db=pubmed & url=http://www.worldscinet.com/c

gi-bin/jsearchpii.cgi?pii=S0192415X07005235) _Links_

(javascript:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu17963315)

Differences in Optical Transport Properties between Human Meridian and

Non-meridian.

_Yang HQ_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term= " Yang%20HQ " [\

Author] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pu

bmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Xie SS_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term= " Xie%20SS " [A\

uthor] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.P

ubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Liu SH_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term= " Liu%20SH " [A\

uthor] & itool=EntrezSys

tem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Li H_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term= " Li%20H " [Aut\

hor

] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

) , _Guo ZY_

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term= " Guo%20ZY " [A\

uthor] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.

Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) .

Key Laboratory of Opto Electronic Science and Technology for Medicine of

Ministry of Education, Institute of Laser and Optoelectronics Technology,

Fujian

Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China.

This study is to present a new scheme for the detection of human meridian

system non-invasively. The optical transport properties along the pericardium

meridian and a non-meridian path about 1 cm away from the meridian were

measured non- invasively on 20 healthy people in vivo. 633 nm, 658 nm and 785

nm

red lasers were used for irradiation, and the diffuse light emittances at

different points on meridian and non-meridian directions were collected

respectively and compared. Our study suggested that the light propagation

characteristics along both the meridian and non-meridian directions conformed to

the

Beer's exponential attenuation law. Statistical analysis of the results

suggested

that the optical properties of human meridian differ from those of the

surrounding tissue (p < 0.05), and the light attenuation is less when

propagating

along the pericardium meridian than along the non-meridian direction. These

findings not only confirmed the objective existence of acupuncture meridians,

but also shed new light on the understanding of meridians.

 

 

 

************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

have anyone the pdf of this article?

*Differences in Optical Transport Properties between Human Meridian and

Non-meridian

The American Journal of (AJCM) * <javascript:arcsubmit()>

*Year: 2007 Vol: 35 Issue: 5 (2007) Page: 743 - 752*

 

2007/11/3, martyeisen <martyeisen:

>

> 1: _Am J Chin Med._ (javascript:AL_get(this, 'jour', 'Am J Chin Med.')

>

> 2007;35(5):743-52.

> (

>

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/utils/fref.fcgi?PrId=3210 & itool=AbstractPlus-\

def & uid=17963315 & db=pubmed & url=http://www.worldscinet.com/c

> gi-bin/jsearchpii.cgi?pii=S0192415X07005235) _Links_

> (javascript:PopUpMenu2_Set(Menu17963315)

> Differences in Optical Transport Properties between Human Meridian and

> Non-meridian.

> _Yang HQ_

> (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term=

> " Yang%20HQ " [Author] & itool=

> EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pu

> bmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Xie SS_

> (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term=

> " Xie%20SS " [Author] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.P

> ubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Liu SH_

> (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term=

> " Liu%20SH " [Author] & itool=EntrezSys

> tem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) , _Li H_

> (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term=

> " Li%20H " [Author

> ] & itool=

> EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus

> ) , _Guo ZY_

> (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed & Cmd=Search & Term=

> " Guo%20ZY " [Author] & itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.

> Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus) .

> Key Laboratory of Opto Electronic Science and Technology for Medicine of

> Ministry of Education, Institute of Laser and Optoelectronics Technology,

> Fujian

> Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China.

> This study is to present a new scheme for the detection of human meridian

> system non-invasively. The optical transport properties along the

> pericardium

> meridian and a non-meridian path about 1 cm away from the meridian were

> measured non- invasively on 20 healthy people in vivo. 633 nm, 658 nm and

> 785 nm

> red lasers were used for irradiation, and the diffuse light emittances at

> different points on meridian and non-meridian directions were collected

> respectively and compared. Our study suggested that the light propagation

> characteristics along both the meridian and non-meridian directions

> conformed to the

> Beer's exponential attenuation law. Statistical analysis of the results

> suggested

> that the optical properties of human meridian differ from those of the

> surrounding tissue (p < 0.05), and the light attenuation is less when

> propagating

> along the pericardium meridian than along the non-meridian direction.

> These

> findings not only confirmed the objective existence of acupuncture

> meridians,

> but also shed new light on the understanding of meridians.

>

> ************************************** See what's new at

> http://www.aol.com

>

>