Chapter 1 – General Introduction

 Abstract:

Acupressure is an ancient form of eastern medicine based on the theory of energy flow in the body.  In the past 30 years, scientists have used modern research techniques to study a similar form of eastern medicine – Acupuncture [7].  This project was designed to find possible anatomical correlates of acupressure points in humans and look for possible physiological changes caused by acupressure treatment on the brain.  The anatomy study was done on a cadaver and results from the study suggest that most acupressure points are localized near cutaneous sensory nerves.  The physiology study was done by recording somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) in barn owls.  SEPs (in response to identical stimuli) were recorded before and after giving acupressure treatment to the animal and we looked for systematic changes in the waveforms.  We found that pre and post treatment SEPs varied consistently whereas SEPs remained consistent in experiments where no treatment was given.  These results suggest that acupressure treatment seems to have an effect on the brain’s response to the same stimuli.  The advantage of this model is that SEP recording is non-invasive and the next step would be use the same technique in humans and look for similar changes in physiology cased by acupressure treatment.   

Introduction:

            Acupressure is an eastern form of medicine based on flow of natural energy through the body.  According to the ancient theories, if the flow of energy gets disrupted, the organ system corresponding to the energy line (meridian) is negatively affected [1].  To cure the problems associated with that organ system, pressure is applied to specific points on the meridian and the energy gets balanced, thus recharging the organ system to function normally.

Although acupressure was first brought into Europe in the 17^th century, it has not been widely accepted because of a clash of paradigms, East versus West.  Eastern medicine is based on holistic patterns and non-reductionistic phenomenology whereas western medicine is based on linear casuality and reductionistic scientific theories [8].  For years western skeptics argued that the evidence for acupressure was merely anecdotal, however this situation has drastically changed over the past 30 years.  For instance, hundreds of rigorous publications (in many leading western journals) have revealed the reductionistic, causal mechanisms for many of the acupuncture effects.  Acupuncture is similar to acupressure, the difference being that in acupuncture, treatment is given by piercing needles through points while in acupressure treatment is given by applying pressure on the points. 

These studies have promoted our interest in investigating anatomical and physiological correlates of acupressure.  The following chapters discuss the methods and results for both, the morphology and physiology studies.