Just How does acupuncture work?

When patients ask me how acupuncture works, my answer is always the same: "I honestly don't know, but I have some theories."

That might sound like a cop-out, but it's the truth. And the reason I'm honest about the limits of my understanding is because the results speak for themselves—and they're often remarkable.

The Results That Demand Explanation

I regularly see cases that challenge conventional medical understanding. Years of insomnia disappearing after four treatments. Chronic back pain, knee pain, or migraines that have persisted for years suddenly resolving in weeks or just a few months. And when I say "gone," I mean truly gone—with no relapse even months or years after treatment ends.

This happens in about three out of four cases from what I observe in my clinical practice. That's a consistency worth investigating.

My Working Theories

So if acupuncture isn't simply placebo, and the effects are real and lasting, what's actually happening? Here are the mechanisms I've come to understand:

The Regenerative Reset

Acupuncture may trigger an amplified regenerative process in tissue that's chronically inflamed and therefore unable to fully repair itself. By interrupting the inflammatory cycle, the body can finally complete the healing work it's been trying to do all along.

The Beneficial Injury Response

When a needle painlessly breaches the skin's defensive boundary, something fascinating happens: the body mobilizes painkilling and regenerative processes system-wide. It responds as if a real injury has occurred (though it hasn't), initiating a comprehensive healing cascade. The peptides released as part of this response trigger a profound relaxation that opens capillaries and amplifies the effects of these healing compounds throughout your system.

Nervous System Recalibration

Simultaneously, there's a subtle but powerful recalibration of your neuroendocrine axis—the communication network between your nervous and hormonal systems. This shift moves your body from "fight or flight" into "relax and restore" mode. This isn't metaphorical; it's a measurable shift in your nervous system's baseline state.

Why the Effects Last

Here's where it gets really interesting. When you receive acupuncture over weeks and months, these shifts don't just happen once—they're reinforced repeatedly. Each session reinforces the previous ones, supporting the completion of the regenerative process while simultaneously resetting your body's default functional responses.

Over time, these new patterns become your baseline. Your nervous system learns a new "normal." Your body's inflammatory response recalibrates. Your capacity for regeneration strengthens. This is the restored balance—and it often stays restored long after treatment ends.

The Bottom Line

Acupuncture works by leveraging your body's own internal communication pathways—the intricate systems of nerves, hormones, and healing processes that are already within you. It's not adding something foreign; it's helping your body shift out of crisis mode and remember how to heal itself.

The theories are still evolving, and there's much we still don't understand. But the clinical results are clear: acupuncture creates lasting change by working with your body's wisdom, not against it.