Just the Tip

The first time you feel the relaxation that melts across your body when a skilled acupuncturist pokes the tip of a needle into your Yintang, or the third eye point between your eyebrows, there’s a temptation to ask them to push it in all the way. If a little insertion feels this good, then maybe full insertion will feel even better. This kind of thinking, in addition to making it a good thing I never went into the acupuncture business, does make one wonder why a little prick can go such a long way—not only in business and politics, but in the human body. Scientists now believe that the efficacy of acupuncture and other phenomena can be explained by what they describe as a third human circulatory system. In addition to the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems, there is something now being called the interstitium. “The implications of a new circulatory system — for our health, and for our understanding of our own bodies — are potentially enormous.” NYT Mag (Gift Article): The Human Body’s Hidden Pathways. While new technologies can help us actually see this circulatory system in action, the idea of its existence has been around for quite some time. Neil Theise, a professor of pathology and one of the authors of recent studies on the topic, described a conversation he had after delivering his findings at a conference in China. “An expert in traditional Chinese medicine approached him after hearing his talk on the interstitium, and explained: “We’ve been talking about it for 4,000 years.”