Bioelectric Potentials and Their Relation to Acupuncture

A review of the research into bioelectric potentials is presented and correlation made of the findings with clinical experience in everyday acupuncture practice. Failure of the neurogenic action potential system to explain basic phenomena such as pain, tissue growth and healing, and an increasing interest in the origin and function of biological d.c. potentials have led to a possible explanation for the effect of electro-acupuncture on pain and growth control.A complex field pattern of measurable d.c. potentials exists on the intact surfaces of all living animals, that is spatially related to the anatomical arrangement of the CNS. There is a potential gradient between the neuraxis positive areas and the peripheral nerve termination negative areas, and a d.c. current flow can be demonstrated. The amplitude and polarity of these d.c. potentials accurately reflect the general level of neural activity, e.g. consciousness, sleep, etc.During deep chemical anaesthesia, the potential gradient from neuraxis to extremity is reversed, and a trend to positivity occurs in tissues infiltrated with local anaesthetic. Electro-anaesthesia and -acupuncture may induce a similar shift of d.c. potential. Healing and tissue regeneration can be accelerated by applying a negative d.c. current to injured areas, the transmission of which may depend on the ‘primitive’ Schwann and glial cells of the CNS.Acupuncture d.c. ‘signal’ transmission through the electrically resistant network depends on the existence of appropriately spaced generator units: meridians could therefore be transmission lines joining points of increased conductance, the needles generating local currents of injury. Transmission, though, depends on an intact nervous system. Acupuncture is usually less effective where neural damage is present, either in disease or due to artificial nerve destruction.The enigma of long term relief of chronic conditions following acupuncture remains, but could be explained by the healing potentials of the primitive glial system.