A common argument against the validity and utility of Traditional Chinese Medicine is ”Why can’t you see the Acupuncture meridians?” Why is it that when you cut open the body, there is no tube-like structure that corresponds with the Acupuncture diagrams shown in Traditional Chinese charts?
While these arguments sound reasonable, they stem from a flawed premise, which is that the meridians are solid and fixed structures, as shown in the diagrams.
In this article, I’m going to make a quick case for the evidence of the Acupuncture meridians and what the scientific research has shown in the field of the study of Acupuncture meridians. I will try to illustrate the most common objections pondered by skeptics, then formulate my case and illustrate what the studies have shown.
Table of Contents
Criticisms of the Acupuncture Meridians by Skeptics
Let’s begin by analyzing the most common objections skeptics use when arguing against Acupuncture meridians.
They are not found in any anatomical structures.
This is perhaps the most common one I have seen. This argument is based on Western institutions’ materialist reductionist approach to science, and it implies that if there is no visible or measurable structure you can pinpoint as an Acupuncture meridian, then its presence is null.
However, as stated at the beginning of this post. This is a flawed premise that uses our current methods and imposes it on what the ancient Chinese tried to communicate. I’d argue that the meridians weren’t thought to be fixed anatomical structures found beneath the skin.
After all, the Chinese also performed dissections, and Chinese history, like all human history, is filled with battles and death.
So it would be naive to assert they were thinking about tube-like structures when they had access to corpses and performed dissections.
So why would they still hold on to the concept of Acupuncture Meridians?
Qi isn’t a substance, so how does it make sense?
Another common argument is regarding Qi, skeptics use this as a spearhead point to dismiss Chinese Medicine. Given that no substance in the body can be directly linked to Qi, it is an obsolete claim to be dismissed.
This argument arises from two main places in my opinion:
- The materialistic reductionist framework: If it cannot be identified nor measured, it doesn’t exist.
- Qi as a concept has been poorly understood by the West as a ‘life force’, vital energy, and so on. While the actual meaning goes deeper and can have different connotations based on the concept. The only unifying concept and thus the only correct one to use would be Qi, making it mandatory to grasp the concept correctly.
To the Western mind, if there are no chemicals, no hormones, nothing that can be detected by our methods, it doesn’t exist.
This is another wrong approach that uses Western methodology to understand Eastern terms. While science is one, you have to understand the foundational principles and concepts to assess the claims.
There isn’t evidence for the meridians, or the research is of low quality and thus unreliable.
This is a complicated argument because it depends on what the institutions and individuals refer to as evidence. What’s more, the absence of evidence does not mean Evidence of absence. The field of research of Traditional Chinese Medicine isn’t as advanced as one might want it to be, so there’s still ground to be covered.
Still…
There have been studies where the pathways of the meridians have been drawn by tracers. In the book Invisible Rainbow: A Physicist’s Introduction to the Science Behind Classical Chinese Medicine, the author shows a picture of the Large Intestine meridian taken using special equipment.
However, skeptics claim that such research is of low quality and, thus, is to be dismissed.
Now that I have laid out the rough outline of the main arguments used against Acupuncture meridians. I want to lay out my arguments and case for the Acupuncture meridians.
The Case for the Acupuncture Meridians
Tradition and Empirical Evidence
While many people tend to dismiss tradition, I think that is an anti-intellectual move. Before dismissing something, you must first assess it and see whether there is something there and also the reasoning behind the claims.
Using a point I made earlier. The ancient Chinese also had access to corpses, especially if they were fallen soldiers. Medieval wars were ideal for doctors to perform analysis of the inner structures of the human body. They saw the same anatomy that the professor could see during a dissection, only less refined, given the age they lived in. They didn’t find any anatomical evidence for the Acupuncture meridians but still held the criteria that they existed.
Why was that?
I won’t be as naive as to think they were just being dumb or stubborn. Remember, the Chinese were renowned for their intelligence by Westerners themselves. Gunpowder, paper, and other inventions come from China, so the claim of silly stubbornness isn’t as strong as some might think it is.
What’s more, even in today’s day and age, there are countless case studies (and research papers) that show that in certain scenarios, when the only added treatment was Acupuncture, the patients showed immense benefits that cannot be tied to other things. Especially in diseases like dysmenorrhea and musculoskeletal issues.
So maybe there’s something we are missing. There is empirical evidence that Acupuncture has effects on your body.
So that makes Acupuncture and TCM a ‘pseudoscience that works’.
Research evidence
During the 1950s, there was an aggressive campaign to prove Traditional Chinese Medicine was scientifically accurate, and a whole corpus of knowledge and research was developed. The study of Acupuncture meridians quickly evolved and reached different countries. After many years of investigations, you can assert that there are agreed-upon scientific facts regarding the Meridians. Here are some of them:
- The acupuncture meridians and, more specifically, Acupuncture points coincide with low electrical impedance spots in the body, and non-meridian regions don’t show this characteristic. Electricity passes more easily in this area than in other places.
- The presence of the Propagation Sensation along the Meridian travels through the pathway of the Meridian, and its speed isn’t the same as neurological conduction nor vascular.
- Modern imaging methods have shown that when a radioactive tracer is injected into the meridian, it draws the pathway of the meridian as shown in the Traditional charts.
Physiological Effects of Acupuncture
One of the most important reports in this case is the Acupuncture Evidence Project, which analyzed the effectiveness of Acupuncture in 122 conditions across 14 different clinical areas. The results showed that Acupuncture is effective for different conditions and that the always-used argument of the Placebo effect was useless.
While there is still a large road ahead, this evidence points to the presence and functioning of structures or a combination of structures that work as the ancient Chinese deemed as Acupuncture Meridians.
Let’s expand now on the known characteristics of what we call the Acupuncture meridians:
Basic Facts About Acupuncture Meridians
The Meridians are not fixed anatomical structures, they are circuits through which Qi flows.
Let’s start by stating the obvious. The Acupuncture meridians are not anatomically fixed structures, there are no tubular structures that point to Acupuncture meridians.
Instead, the acupuncture meridians are better seen as ‘living’ and dynamic functional structures. They function and respond to stimuli as long as the person is alive. They exist and function because there is life and vice versa.
Hence the rendering of Qi as a force sometimes.
There are not just 12 main meridians plus the 2 mid-line meridians. Your body is a complex network of meridian lines that interconnect, cross, and surround your body.
This is a fact that probably makes the research difficult, especially when using what is called ‘Sham’ Acupuncture. According to TCM, there are many types of Acupuncture meridians. There are not just the 12 main meridians associated with the Zhang-Fu organs and the Conception and Governor Vessel ones.
There are also the Connecting meridians, sinew meridians, superficial meridians, Yang and Yin heel meridians, and the Belt meridian, among others. There are also what are recognized as Points outside of Meridians.
This arrangement of main and secondary meridians creates a closed ‘energetic’ circuit that surrounds your body.
They have been tracked by radioactive tracers and other imaging methods
Although there are no tubular structures that can be designated as Acupuncture Meridians, you can see the meridian using radioactive tracers. Pictures of Acupuncture meridians being drawn by tracers are becoming more famous. All these pictures draw the same pattern the ancient Chinese charts showed.
During some of those studies, the researchers analyzed the speed of the tracer.
What they found was that the speed didn’t match nerve transmission, cardiovascular flow, or lymph flow which indicates that such structures have their flow speed.
The low electrical resistance and acupunctural sensation speak about the presence of Acupuncture points along with the physiological effects they cause.
One of the very first known things about Acupuncture meridians is their low resistance to electricity. Acupoints are spots where the electrical impedance diminishes when compared with non-acupoint spots in the body.
In the book ‘’Invisible Rainbow’’ the author writes about multi-country research done to study the propagation sensation along the Acupuncture meridians. The results showed that it wasn’t plausible to point to a placebo effect given the high percentage of people from different countries having the same Propagation sensation.
‘’The degree of sensation and the forms to record results were also standardized to enable statistical analysis. The investigation found that 78 percent of the subjects experienced the feeling of sensation propagation along meridians. It is difficult to assert that over 40,000 people were all deranged in the same manner. As it is established that a pure placebo effect plays, at most, a role in 25 to 30 percent of cases, the result of 78 percent experiencing sensation propagation far exceeds what could be attributable to that.’’
Sometimes trackers don’t show the whole meridian, which is expected
Some skeptics may use the pictures of meridians drawn by the tracers and use them to dismiss them because the meridian isn’t perfectly drawn as in the chart. Yet this is expected if Acupuncture is to be a holistic technique with regional and remote effects.
One thing to keep in mind is that these meridians are interconnected, and Qi flows in every meridian. Thus, when stimulating one meridian, its Qi will begin to flow according to stimulation, but the collaterals and connecting meridians will also have their flow impacted.
So, the intention of finding an isolated meridian acting is futile. Think of it as an electrical circuit where there are many interconnecting cables; turning on or off the switch will impact the flow of electricity in all cables and not the ones directly attached to the switch.
Also, it is important to keep in mind that the meridians also go in and out of the body and organs, and sometimes the pathway of the meridians is deeper than in other places.
With that being said, the fact that the tracer doesn’t show the entire meridian and sometimes the image gets blurrier the farther the tracer goes can be indicative that the Acupuncture meridians are behaving as they should.
Now let’s dive into what the scientific research said about the Acupuncture meridians.
Science Breakthroughs in Meridian Studies
Meridians are found in the Connective tissue (fascia)
While there are no such things as tube-like structures that are defined as meridians, meridians do exist and are found in the fascia. This is a topic that has been argued by authors like Daniel Keown in his book ‘The Spark in the Machine’ and has also been shown to be accurate by scientific studies.
The fascia is an intricate web of connective tissue that wraps around all of your organs and covers your body. From covering singular muscle fibers (endomysium) to whole muscles (epimysium), to covering nerve fibers and whole nerves, the fascia covers, holds, and shapes the body. It has many characteristics, and one of them is having piezoelectricity or being capable of producing electricity when its structure is changed by physical action (think of the stone of a lighter).
This has been proposed as one of the mechanisms by which acupuncture works and why the propagation sensation, which often feels like an electric charge, is present.
In this study, scientists performed postmortem gross anatomical sections of the upper arm and mapped the different Acupuncture points. Here’s an excerpt from the study abstract:
‘’We found an 80% correspondence between the sites of acupuncture points and the location of intermuscular or intramuscular connective tissue planes in postmortem tissue sections’’.
Zhang, W. B., Tian, Y. Y., Li, H., Tian, J. H., Luo, M. F., Xu, F. L., Wang, G. J., Huang, T., Xu, Y. H., & Wang, R. H. (2008). A discovery of low hydraulic resistance channel along meridians. Journal of acupuncture and meridian studies, 1(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2005-2901(09)60003-0
This other study analyzes the traditional Acupuncture meridian pathways plus the Luo collateral Meridians and the small branches of the meridians. The results showed that the 14 main meridians are located in the connective tissue along the interspace of the muscles going longitudinally (just like the Acupuncture meridians show) while the Luo collaterals go transversally through the interspace of the muscles.
So the relationship between the fascia and the Acupuncture meridians has been established, but there is more to come.
How can it form organized and linear channels when there is no defining structure? Like in blood vessels. The answer to that question comes next:
Meridians Follow a Non-Vessel Low Hydraulic Resistance Model and Are Related to the Extracellular Matrix.
The discovery of a Low Hydraulic resistance flow along the pathway of Acupuncture meridians has been perhaps one of the most important breakthroughs in modern Meridian studies, in my opinion.
What is a Low Hydraulic resistance model?
It is a region in which water flows more easily than in other places. The studies showed that water and fluids flow better along the acupuncture meridians than in other non-meridian areas. In this study, the researchers used three methods to study the presence or absence of low hydraulic resistance channels in humans and mini pigs.
The results showed that there is a new type of channel that coincides with the ones proposed by the Meridian Theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine which shows signs of having a low hydraulic resistance making it easier for fluids to travel through these structures than in other areas (nonmeridian ones).
What about the Non-Vessel flow?
Discovering the presence of Low Hydraulic Resistance Channels along meridian lines, scientists also found that there is a higher permeability in such areas and thus, the Interstitial fluid tends to flow towards the meridian and go from there.
This forms an organized network of interstitial flow that doesn’t have a vessel-like structure. This is, in my opinion, the explanation for why, although you can see the Acupuncture meridians when traced by isotopes, you can’t see the meridians in dissections as specific structures.
Low Hydraulic Resistance channels and points also coincide with the points of low electrical impedance along the Acupuncture meridians.
This has been shown in both humans and animals because animals have meridians, too.
Propagation sensation along the meridians points to the presence of the Meridians.
Another discovery during the study of the Acupuncture meridians and the mechanism of Acupuncture was the presence of a Propagation sensation along the meridian. This has been a less focused-on topic but still relevant to the overall case for the meridians.
Some studies claim that the propagation sensation along the meridian isn’t as common as you might think.
‘’Although it is important to keep in mind that it depends on the patient’s condition, as I pointed out in my article on Acupuncture, there are times when Acupuncture works suboptimally or just doesn’t work and it is almost always caused by a disturbance in the HPA axis. Besides, people with increased BMI also difficult to find the propagation sensation as Dampness (Excess weight in body fat is seen as Dampness buildup) clogs and disturbs the flow of Qi’’
That being said, there is still a phenomenon in which the stimulation of acupuncture points using the Acupuncture technique provokes a migrating sensation like dull pain or an electrical charge along the pathway of the Acupuncture meridian.
This propagation has its speed, and it can be blocked by applying physical pressure ahead on the pathway of the meridia, which dismisses the possibility of being a neurological signal (both by the speed and blocking of the sensation) as well as a vascular one.
The propagation sensation points to the presence of some sort of pathway where such stimulus flows, which is also impacted by physical pressure.
The Pathway of Acupuncture Meridians Have Been Drawn by Radioactive Tracers and Dyes.
Developing the capacity to capture an image of an Acupuncture Meridian has been ground-breaking and reassuring of what the ancient Chinese already knew.
Thanks to modern methods, you can now use different imaging techniques to find and see the Acupuncture meridians, and what they show is almost the same as the diagrams drawn by the Chinese when studying the different Acupuncture meridians.
Some of the methods used to draw the pathway of the acupuncture points have been the use of radioactive tracers like in this study. This has been done in both animals and humans, and the path of the tracer coincides with one of the Acupuncture meridians.
But it doesn’t stop there.
In the book ‘’Invisible Rainbow’’, the author shows a photograph of an Acupuncture meridian taken with a high voltage high frequency photo which can point to the role of electrical energy in the meridians.
Another method was using an Alcian blue dye and injecting it into an Acupuncture point. This dye is especially useful because it binds to hyaluronic acid, which is the most common molecule in the interstitial matrix. The pathway drawn by the dye (a blue line) corresponds to the pathway of an Acupuncture meridian.
Using the hot saline solution and injecting it into the stomach meridian in the foot also showed the fluid traveled along the meridian pathway as shown by a heat detector.
Physical Models Replicating the Characteristics of the Acupuncture Meridians Show They are Sensitive to Sound Waves.
The use of singing bowls in holistic medicine circles has often been seen as a quackery practice and just another New Age nonsense that has no other effects than the placebo effect.
However, the reasoning behind the use of singing bowls is found in cymatics.
Cymatics is a field of science that studies the effects of sound waves when traveling and interacting with other mediums like liquids (water, oils, etc.) and sometimes some solids. The metal plate with sand on it changing shape according to the note being played is a wonderful example.
Using this reasoning, the use of vibration and sound waves has effects on the liquids of the body. Perhaps they were talking about the Acupuncture meridians as it turns out they are sensitive to sound waves.
In this study, scientists recreated a physical model representing the characteristics of the acupuncture meridians as low hydraulic resistance channels and compared it to a non-meridian model.
The result was that sound waves traveled better along the Acupuncture meridian model, pointing to a potential effect of sound waves along meridian lines.
Acting on the Meridian has a direct Impact with Its Associated Organ
This is my favorite part of the study I have referenced the most in this post. It is a tenet of Traditional Chinese Medicine that every one of the main 12 Acupuncture meridians is closely related to the organ they are named after.
In fact, since the times of the writing of the Huangdi Neijing, it was a fact that the meridians also had a defined pathway inside of the body where they connected with their respective organs and their coupled organs as well.
To everyone’s surprise in the West, there is an experiment that points to the Meridian-Organ relationship.
In animal models (minipigs), the scientists injected a gel into specific portions of the Stomach meridian to block it. Then, they fed them the same diet as the control group, who only had saline solution injected into their meridians. This experiment lasted about 6 to 10 weeks, and when analyzed, the intervention group who had their stomach meridian blocked showed signs of distension in the stomach and/or intestines of all the blocked pigs, while the control group suffered no change.
Image taken From: Classic and Modern Meridian Studies: A Review of Low Hydraulic Resistance Channels along Meridians and Their Relevance for Therapeutic Effects in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Volume: 2015, Issue: 1, First published: 02 March 2015, DOI: (10.1155/2015/410979). Creative Commons License
This is a powerful indication that indeed there is an extremely important relationship between the meridians and not just the organs but their functioning as well.
Final Remarks
There is a growing corpus of evidence that points to the validation of what was being said by the traditional Chinese doctors. All of these investigations necessarily need larger studies and follow-ups, but the evidence for the claims of Traditional Chinese Medicine continues to grow.
I’m looking forward to seeing this field expand and reach more people who will be interested in researching more on this subject.
So now I want to hear from you, what are your thoughts?
Leave a comment below!
See you in the next post.
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