Points, meridians, acupuncture, vital energy of qi … All these terms are referred by European medicine to pre-scientific ideas about the structure of the body, which are metaphysical in nature. Modern science denies the existence of this type of energy, and also cannot find any significant differences from other tissues in the places where the points are designated. On the other hand, a fairly large part of the population continues to get rid of edema with the help of acupuncture, relieve muscle tone in cerebral palsy, and relieve pain in "pianist syndrome" (constant pain in the fingers and hand, which is often accompanied by partial numbness of the fingers).
Recently, Brain magazine published an article by Harvard scientists who proved that the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture really helps people get rid of "pianist's disease", as this procedure causes the brain to "switch" to other nerves when the hands and fingers move. According to the researchers, needles act on the nervous system in much the same way as modern cutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. "Recent experiments show that it works by dulling chronic pain, it remains to be understood: how does it do it?" - exclaims Vitaly Napadov from Harvard University (USA).
The scientists took MRI scans of the somatosensory cortex, which is responsible for the movement of the hands and the processing of sensations in them, which confirmed that its structure has changed markedly after six months of treatment. It turns out that acupuncture caused this part of the cortex to "switch" the nerves that control the transmission of signals through the wrist.
Neurologist Yegor Lobusov, who first graduated from the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine of Lomonosov Moscow State University, and later received a full four-year postgraduate education at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, believes that the misunderstanding of the principles of traditional Chinese medicine comes from an incorrect translation of the fundamental terms.
“If the Chinese knew how their hieroglyphs are translated into Russian, they would be very surprised,” says Yegor Lobusov. - Throughout our literature, meridians are considered channels through which energy circulates. The Chinese would be confused by both the word "channel" and the word "energy". The hieroglyph for the meridian speaks of "well-structured tissue" or, in modern scientific language, connective tissue."
The error goes back to those distant times when mainly astrological and navigational treatises were translated. There, the hieroglyph 經 denoted conditional lines on Earth, which run from north to south (meridians). And initially this hieroglyph was used to name the main threads in the fabric, which run along the length of the canvas, from top to bottom. Moreover, this sign did not denote the entire fabric, but only its main fibers (warp), while the weft (thread running perpendicular to the warp) was designated by a close hieroglyph 絡.
Chinese character for cloth / Illustration by RIA Novosti. A. Polyanina
Later still, this hieroglyph began to denote the threads running along the body.
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What are these threads? Anyone who at least once saw cut meat noticed that parts of the meat were covered with the finest rainbow film. And if you carefully separate it and look at the lumen, then its structure will become visible in the form of threads going in different directions. This film in the scientific Western language is called "fascia" (from the Latin. "Bandage", "bandage").
Fascia of the neck (according to International Anatomical Terminology), right side view: 1 - chewing fascia; 2.7 - subcutaneous muscle of the neck (cut and turned away); 3 - submandibular salivary gland; 4 - superficial lamina of the fascia of the neck; 5 & mdash; suprasternal interaponeurotic space; 6 - clavicular-pectoral fascia; 8.12 - fascia of the neck; 9 - pretracheal plate of the fascia of the neck; 10 - trapezius muscle; 11 - sternocleidomastoid muscle / Illustration by RIA Novosti. A. Polyanina
If we try to understand the detailed anatomy of the fascia, it turns out that they not only cover each muscle, but also separate parts of the muscles, supporting their structure and allowing free friction. In addition, they are linked to each other in chains, so it is almost impossible to use only one muscle in the body, excluding others (professional pistol shooters specifically learn to use only one finger muscle, thus reducing the likelihood of unnecessary vibration).
As you know, the fascia spread over the bones, covering them with a cover and even letting out processes inside the bones ("Sharpei fibers"). True, in this case they are no longer called the fascia, but the periosteum, but the structure remains the same. This very tissue covers all internal organs, including the brain, also dividing them into segments and providing them with structure ("visceral pleura"). All internal cavities of our body ("parietal pleura") are also lined by this very tissue.
In his book "Anatomical Trains" researcher Thomas Myers demonstrates the chains of fascias, which were called by the ancient Chinese "meridians".
An example of the location of the fascia chain / Illustration by RIA Novosti. A. Polyanina
Unfortunately, due to mistakes of translators and interpreters, this hieroglyph in texts about a person is usually translated by many as "channel" - and theories have already been built on this.
If we return to the idea of the ancient Chinese, then they rightly believed that if everything is connected, then by pulling (pressing, pricking) the thread, it will be possible to displace entire lines of organs. They designated 14 such lines (meridians).
Neurologist Yegor Lobusov explains: “In Chinese medicine there is one number of meridians, in Tibetan - another, in Indian - a third. This happened because you can look at the body in different ways: the fasciae are intertwined, this is not the same structure as, for example, bone. It's the same with dots. There are different numbers of them everywhere. And the term is also incorrectly translated: these are not points, but pits."
There are a lot of dots on the body - their number, as Yegor Lobusov says, was adjusted to the number of days in a year. What is a point? These places (pits) have become famous due to the long experience of the existence of Chinese medicine. This indicated the places in which it was easier to wind the fascia on a needle.
Anna Urmantseva
