In my clinical practice, I often encounter patients asking: “We’ve tried other treatments for this condition for a long time with no improvement—can acupuncture help?” Actually, if acupuncture were applied promptly, it could shorten treatment duration and cause no toxic side effects. We have reason to believe acupuncture’s role in disease prevention and treatment remains vastly underappreciated and underutilized.
A patient had suffered from umbilical infection and swelling for two weeks. The swollen area was as large as a bowl, completely obscuring the navel. Touching it caused severe pain, and the temperature was noticeably higher than surrounding areas, accompanied by fever. After nearly a week of intravenous antibiotics at a hospital, there was no improvement. The patient couldn’t stand upright, only bent forward to relieve abdominal muscle tension and pain. A friend referred him to me, asking if acupuncture could help. I said yes. After assessing his condition, I selected two acupoints on his lower limbs, inserted needles, and the patient experienced intense electric-like sensation radiating to the thigh root and toe tips. At the same time, I gently massaged the painful area for about 30 minutes. Pain dramatically decreased. After needle removal, he could finally stand straight. Examining the umbilical area, swelling had visibly reduced. That night, his sleep improved. After four sessions, only a small hard lump remained at the navel. Subsequent surgical excision revealed a black, bean-sized foreign body, after which he fully recovered.
Patient Liu, a judo athlete, developed a boil on his thigh measuring about 6×6 cm, with redness, swelling, heat, and pain. He frequently suffered boils before, and previous cases took at least ten days to heal. However, this occurred just before the quadrennial Asian Games, and healing was urgent to avoid impacting performance. I decided to try acupuncture. He was surprised, thinking acupuncture couldn’t cure bacterial infections, but agreed reluctantly to avoid missing the competition. After the first session, he noticed significant reduction in redness and pain. Within days, the boil healed completely.
Seeing these cases, some might be puzzled: Can acupuncture kill bacteria? Impossible!
Indeed, acupuncture cannot directly kill bacteria. Its therapeutic effect on bacterial diseases doesn’t act on bacteria themselves but rather improves the body’s internal environment, disrupting the conditions necessary for bacterial survival. Once these conditions are destroyed, bacterial proliferation is inhibited, and the disease naturally resolves.
Why didn’t antibiotics work in the above case? Clinically, we often see this phenomenon. People usually blame antibiotic resistance—but this is only one factor. More importantly, infected sites show significant swelling and poor blood circulation. All antibiotics must travel via blood to reach the lesion. Poor microcirculation makes it difficult for drugs to arrive. Thus, poor microcirculation is a key reason why many infections fail to respond to antibiotics.
Moreover, when healthy, the body’s specific and non-specific antibacterial mechanisms actively suppress or kill bacteria. When blood flow is blocked at the affected site, these defenses weaken or disappear. Careful analysis reveals: wherever bacteria overgrow, it’s almost always due to pre-existing problems in the body—specifically, poor local circulation. In fact, impaired microcirculation is a prerequisite for bacterial survival and reproduction. Acupuncture effectively improves this state, destroying the environment bacteria rely on, allowing the body’s antibacterial factors to reach the site. Thus, the disease heals naturally.
|
