The therapeutic effects of acupuncture can be explained scientifically for the first time, according to the researchers behind a 'breakthrough' Hong Kong-based study.
Study leader Professor Edward Yang, from Columbia University's electrical engineering department, said acupuncture stimulated the production of endorphins, which mitigated pain, migraines, hot flushes, nausea and other illnesses.
The study was published in the European Journal of Physiology in June after eight years of research, and the researchers were in the city yesterday to discuss their results.
Yang collaborated with two University of Hong Kong professors: acupuncture specialist Dr Li Geng and former medicine faculty dean Professor Lam Shiu-kum.
The researchers said doctors of Western medicine often saw acupuncture as an alternative treatment that only worked because of the placebo effect, as it seemed effective even if the needle was not inserted on acupoints - locations on the body that produce different reactions when stimulated.
The team said they proved scientifically that acupuncture worked most effectively when the needle was on the acupoint, but was still effective to a slighter degree if it was off the acupoint.
They said that when a needle, oscillating mildly, pierced tissue, it sent slow-moving acoustic waves into the muscles that triggered calcium flow. When the calcium interacted with white blood cells, it produced endorphins.