​Dissipative Structures and Acupuncture Meridians: How Physics can Help Understand Traditional Chinese Medicine

Sometimes, the best way to understand a topic is to examine it from afar. In other cases, a completely different method is needed.

Such is the case of Acupuncture.

Most of the time, Acupuncture research has been done under the lens of biology and biomedicine: investigating hormone concentrations, neurological responses to the needle stimulation, and overall effects on the body caused by Acupuncture.

While this research has reaped many benefits and has helped people understand the utility of Acupuncture and TCM, some core components of TCM need a different approach.

For example, the study of Acupuncture meridians and their physiology needs the combined efforts of doctors, biochemists, and physicists alike. What is the need for the science Avengers? Well, Acupuncture’s reach goes beyond just mere biology.

You will see why when discussing the facts about the meridians.

In this article, you will learn how Physic’s concept of Dissipative Structures and Acupuncture Meridians are related. And how Physics can explain Acupuncture meridians using this concept.

​Quick Summary About the Characteristics of Acupuncture Meridians

Meridian theory in Traditional Chinese Medicine is one of the core components of the medical practice. It describes the intricate network of meridians that go through the body creating a circuit. For most of the time, the Acupuncture meridians were a difficult topic because there was not technology yet that could help prove the existence of the Acupuncture meridians.

This was one of the main reasons Acupuncture was dismissed as just a shamanic practice.

But with the advance of technology and a better understanding of the human body, studies have shown that in fact there are structures with the same characteristics as the ones described as Acupuncture meridians.

Here is a quick summary of the scientific facts about Acupuncture meridians:

• They are located in the fascia and extracellular matrix: Dissections have shown that the meridians as shown in the ancient Charts coincide with intra and intermuscular fascial planes.
• They can be seen by modern imaging techniques: Researchers have injected radioactive tracers into acupuncture points and the tracer has drawn the pathway of the Acupuncture Meridian as described in the ancient charts.
• They follow a non-vessel low hydraulic resistance flow: The regions of the body that coincide with the Acupuncture meridians as described and charted by the Chinese are areas where the interstitial fluid flows easier than in other regions (non meridian regions) due to a higher permeability.
• The propagation sensation along the meridian can be stopped by applying physical pressure: The Acupuncture sensation also known as De-Qi also propagates along the pathway of the meridian. This propagation can be stopped if physical pressure (like a tourniquet) is applied further along the Acupuncture meridian pathway.
• The Meridian-Organ relationship is present: During an experiment in animals, the intervention group had their Stomach meridian blocked by injecting a gel and were fed the same diet as the control group who only had saline injected into the meridian. After 10 weeks, the blocked group experienced Stomach and/or Intestinal distension.

If you want to know more about the science of the Acupuncture meridians, check out this post:

The Science of the Acupuncture Meridians

But there is an important component of the Scientific understanding of the Acupuncture meridians that is still in the works:

How can these structures form and organize themselves?

This is where Biology meets Physics.

​Why Use Physics to Explain Acupuncture Meridians?

The current scope of the research into Traditional Chinese Medicine is mainly focused on the effects it has on the body: physiological effects, effectiveness and convenience when compared to other methods, and so on. However, there is still a lot of ground to cover when studying the mechanism of Acupuncture.

Modern biomedical studies have shed light on the characteristics of Acupuncture meridians but there is still more to discover. Some aspects regarding the characteristics of the Meridians cannot be explained by our current understanding of biology. Or at least by the current institutionalized understanding of biology.

For example, how can it be explained that along the fascia and extracellular matrix can an organized non-vessel flow network be created?

How can it be even conceptualized?

Here is when Physics comes into play.

Physics has been used to explain phenomena and physiology in medicine for many years. From understanding the pressure differences that drive the opening and closing of the heart valves during the cardiac cycle, to having a clearer view of how peripheral vascular resistance and airway resistance work, Physics has been key to advancing medicine.

Now it can help explain Traditional Chinese Medicine too.

In 1977 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ilya Prigogine for his works on Dissipative Structures.

This concept of dissipative structures, although not as covered by mainstream Physics as others, can be a vital tool for understanding the formation, organization, and even the physiology of the Acupuncture Meridians.

What is the link between life, Acupuncture meridians, and Qi flow?

Why do diseases arise when the flow of Qi along the meridians is affected?

Dissipative Structures can be the tool for understanding such questions from a more practical lens.

I came across the link between Dissipative Structures and Acupuncture Meridians first in the book ‘’Invisible Rainbow: A Physicist’s Introduction to the Science Behind Classical Chinese Medicine’’ which I have referenced many times.

After studying this book and the research regarding the non-vessel flow along the meridians, I will try to match the concept to the scientific findings to help you better understand how the Meridians work.

​What are Dissipative Structures?

Dissipative structures is a concept created to describe the apparition of self-organizing structures in environments that seem to be chaotic and disordered, such structures exist while there is a constant input from an outside source and that also constantly dissipates the energy.

For a better explanation think of a waterfall, it only exists when there is a constant input of water from a higher source and dissipates the water as it falls.

These structures have some core characteristics such as:

• Being self-organized: there is no physical medium that delimitates them.
• Needing an outside source of energy.
• Only exist while there is a constant input of energy.

Thus it can be said that Dissipative structures are coherent, self-organized structures that appear in seemingly chaotic mediums that need a constant input of external energy to exist and cease to exist once that input has stopped.

They are the emergence of order from chaos.

It could be said they are ‘live’ structures given the need for constant activity and energy to exist. This is important for the explanation of Acupuncture Meridians as living structures.

The concept of dissipative structures was developed by Ilya Prigogine to describe the apparition of order in mediums that seemed chaotic.

The most common way to explain this is with the following experiment:

Take a pot filled with water and put it to a boil. At first, the water is calm which represents equilibrium. Once the water begins to boil, the activity of the water becomes erratic and disordered as it begins to move away from equilibrium.

After a while, if the supply of energy (in this case heat) is stable, there begins to appear certain patterns and dynamic structures that can explain the chaos. If you look at a boiling pot from above you will notice that if the supply of heat is constant, the boiling water shows a pattern behavior.

That is the essence of the Dissipative Structures:

Self-organizing structures that arise from seemingly chaotic and complicated mediums that interact with others. And just like Dissipative structures, the patterns in boiling water cease to exist if the energy input stops.

You may be wondering how this explains Acupuncture Meridians, right?

Here’s the explanation:

​What is the Relationship Between Dissipative Structures and Acupuncture Meridians?

To sum it up, Acupuncture Meridians are Dissipative Structures.

Here I am going to explain how Dissipative Structures and Acupuncture Meridians share the core characteristics making it possible to catalog Acupuncture Meridians as Dissipative structures.

It is important to note that this is not an attempt at explaining the physiology of the Acupuncture Meridians but rather an attempt at providing a conceptual framework that can help explain the nature of Acupuncture meridians as the living structures they are and why it is not possible to find the meridians themselves in dissections.

Acupuncture Meridians are Living Self-Organizing Structures:

The presence of a non-vessel flow points to order without the need for a defined structure. During the study of meridians it was shown that, although the meridians had no delimitating structure like in the case of blood vessels, the Acupuncture meridians still show a circuit-like flow thus behaving as a vessel.

As examples you have the drawings of the pathway of the meridians when a tracer is injected into an acupoint and the travel of warm saline solution when injected into the meridian and recorded by imaging techniques; they both draw the meridian as shown in the ancient charts.

Mainly due to the high permeability which draws interstitial fluid towards the meridian.

The role of structured water or ‘Exclusion zone’ water is also a key component but that’s a topic for another time.

Here is a representation of the flow along the meridian:

Acupuncture Meridians need a constant input from an outside source:

The presence of the Meridians in the fascia and its relationship with the extracellular matrix makes the Acupuncture meridians peculiar, they are not confined by a defined structure but still need constant input from the body’s metabolism i.e. into the interstitium.

This is compatible with the traditional physiology of the flow of Qi into and out of the meridians coming from the organs (Zhang-Fu).

It is known that in the metabolism and physiology of the organs, the role of the interstitium is crucial for substance interchange and cell metabolism, this constant exchange of fluids, nutrients, and waste products is the outside source from which the Acupuncture meridians get their input.

Dissipative structures need the input to be constant to be able to organize and in some cases exist, in the case of the Acupuncture meridians it would be the metabolic rate of the body the one that needs to be constant.

Acupuncture Meridians dissipate the flow of energy (Qi) into the Zhang-Fu:

Once the Acupuncture meridians get their energy input from the outside source, they will then dissipate this energy after it has run its course.

If you look at the pathways of the different Acupuncture Meridians you will see that they have an exterior pathway and an interior pathway that connect with the different Organ networks. This can be understood as the dissipation of the ‘energy’ done by the Dissipative structures.

Here is a rough outline of the circuit:

‘’Organ metabolism and its exchange of substances with the interstitium are the input source for the Acupuncture meridians, then they travel along the meridian and ultimately flow into the Organs.’’

The relationship between the outside source and the Dissipative Structures can help explain the Acupuncture Meridians.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, health is defined as the balance between Yin and Yang and an adequate flow of Qi and Blood through the meridians. The flow of Qi through the meridians is necessary for maintaining health and any disturbances to this flow have a direct impact on health.

The same goes for Dissipative structures, if the outside source of input is damaged, so will the dissipative structures. Let’s look at some examples:

• If the river that provides water to a waterfall is suddenly blocked or deviated, the waterfall will cease to exist.
• If during the boiling water experiment, you increase or decrease the heat source, you will disturb the organization of the Dissipative structures and if you turn off the stove they will cease to exist.

By understanding this, you can understand the physiological and pathological relationship between the Acupuncture meridians and the different Organ networks.

If the Organ is in an excess or deficiency state, the flow along the Acupuncture meridians will also be impacted which in turn will impact the Organs back due to the closed circuit that is formed between the meridians and the organs.

Given they form a closed circuit, it can be asserted that there is health if there is a healthy flowing Qi (wink, wink) and if that flow is disturbed or stopped, then health is damaged.

One key example of this assertion was exemplified in an experiment I referenced in the article on the science of the Acupuncture meridians where injecting a gel into the meridian of minipigs creating a stagnation pattern (affecting the flow) had a direct impact on the organ the meridian is associated to.

​Final Thoughts

Traditional Chinese Medicine is being vindicated by science with emerging evidence for its validity and effectiveness. Modern scientific methods can help bridge the gap between East and West’s understanding of the body without ceasing to be themselves.

Acupuncture meridians, once dismissed as a shamanic practice are now recognized as functional structures that can be observed and studied.

The concept of Dissipative structures helps us understand the core characteristics of the Acupuncture meridians and is a beginning step into making TCM more accessible to everyone.