Does acupuncture really work? Can we measure it? Can we see it working? These are questions that scientists from both the United States and China have wrestled with for years. Now, thanks to highly sophisticated functional MRIs — a kind of motion-picture MRI — we can see in real time if and how acupuncture works. Researchers around the world are using fMRIs to study whether acupuncture is real or just placebo. Interest has taken off in recent years, with dozens of scientific studies published and more underway.
What scientists have found is that when acupuncture needles are inserted, nervous-system messages are sent to specific areas of the brain that respond to the treatment. Measurements of these reactions show that acupuncture is real and can be objectively measured. One study examined acupuncture's effect on Alzheimer's patients: using fMRI, it showed that acupuncture increased the "functional connectivity" of specific regions of the brain — meaning the area damaged in Alzheimer's disease became better able to "talk" to adjacent regions and restore normal messaging. Patients also showed improvements in mental and physical performance.
Many other studies of acupuncture and fMRI have shown that when acupuncture is given, the brain engages significantly and sends messages to injured or diseased areas of the body to function better, heal faster, and become more efficient. These studies are objective — there's no subjectivity, no bias, no fakery. We are now at a point in our scientific understanding where we can say that acupuncture works well and that we can effectively measure it through sophisticated fMRIs. Going forward, this imaging will help acupuncturists zero in on the points shown to have the greatest positive impact on patients.