THE SPARK IN THE MACHINE

One of the differences between Western and other medical traditions is that Western medicine does not acknowledge the existence of subtle energy or subtle bodies – the only body is the physical and this can broadly be explained and mechanistic terms. It is slightly unfortunate, therefore, that the title of this book uses the word machine when it represents a real breakthrough in the understanding of acupuncture and the way it links with key concepts in Western medicine. This goes far beyond the endorphin theory of acupuncture, which only predicts one effect - pain relief when many others including lowering of blood pressure and heart rhythm regulation have been studied and established. The author is a medical doctor who has also completed a degree in Chinese medicine and acupuncture and has studied with Dr Wang Ju-Yi in Beijing.

The three parts of this book explain the science of acupuncture, embryology as understood by Chinese medicine, then the yin and yang channels covering the function of various organs. The book begins with a discussion of Robert Becker's research on salamanders, when he found that there was a reversal in the polarity of the normal electrical current when he amputated a limb and that this reversal would cause limb regeneration. The cells would once more de-differentiate into stem cells and then start rebuilding the limb. Significantly, when he re-reversed the polarity at injured limbs, the regeneration stopped. He then asked the significant question, explored in this book, whether this was the same mechanism as worked in acupuncture. The short answer seems to be yes.

The key to understanding this is the nature of fascia and collagen. The word fascia means bind together, and it binds our tissues, connecting organs to muscle, spine and nerves, surrounding bone and underpinning skin. It is vital to how the body forms and, in view of the author, explains acupuncture channels perfectly as well as the nature of Qi and its internal pathways. In short, it is the overlooked link between acupuncture and anatomy. Collagen is the principal ingredient of fascia and is a triple helix. Most significantly, it is piezoelectric with the ability to generate tiny electrical currents when an object is deformed. Fascia 'is in effect an interconnected, living electrical web' and collagen 'should be seen as an electrical super-substance, semiconducting, piezoelectric, by helix, holding, generating and even directing body electricity.' This leads on to a discussion of the parallels between Qi and electricity (biophotons are also discussed at this stage), and the formulation of Qi as the organising force of the body, intelligent metabolism or Life Force, a unifying concept expelled from modern biology in the 1920s.

These ideas are elaborated in the following chapters in relation to the function of organs and more basically to DNA and the various levels of fractals existing in the body. The author sees Qi as the organising or morphogenetic force behind DNA as well as embryology more generally. He explains the role of acupuncture points and energy disturbance as a precursor of disease. He coins the term elecQicity for the electrical organising energy running through the body and responsible for embryological self-organisation as a morphogenetic field, concluding that when the West talks of fascial planes, the East speaks of acupuncture channels. This is surely a major conceptual breakthrough.

The second part is devoted to a detailed discussion of embryology in relation to Chinese medicine, explaining the basic terminology and the various dynamic processes and relating them to a Western understanding. The third part looks at the channels in Chinese medicine and their relation to the function of organs. In the course of the discussion on the heart, the author cites an interesting case of a boy who received a new heart and behaved towards the donor's parents in ways highly reminiscent of their own son. The recipient even recognised the father in a church congregation even though they had never met. Sometimes, the knowledge of Chinese medicine can be life-saving in a Western medical emergency (there are emergency case reports at the end of each section here). A medical colleague performed an arterial blood gas test on a patient, precisely on an acupuncture point known as the master point of blood vessels. Unfortunately, the needle had the effect of draining the Qi from the heart and lung channels and leading to immediate death. There is much more technical material here, which medical practitioners will be able to appreciate in more detail.

The epilogue discusses the need to know what you are measuring when conducting research. Medical researchers have tried to apply the rules of double-blind randomised controlled trials to acupuncture, but do they really know what they are measuring? The Chinese approach is holistic and contextual, so asthma may have a number of different causes in that philosophy. One of the problems is that sham points don't exist as conceived - there are strong points and weak points as well as good acupuncturists and bad acupuncturists. This would be enough to confound any results, and the author commendably recommends open-mindedness on the part of both Western medicine and acupuncturists when it comes to formulating the kind of science of acupuncture explained in this groundbreaking book.