Written by Yadi Alamin
In your lifetime, we’ve learned to type characters into devices.
We have devices that connect us to cameras, and phones that can shoot entire films.
We can instantly reach across the world, and everything is in the open market for sale.
We have more technology every minute, and yet:
We are still stuck on outmoded ideas about how to make our bodies pain-free, healthy and vibrant!
Enter Massage! Well, it’s rubbing your skin.
Why is it considered skin rubbing? Because we have 7 layers of skin:
Stratum corneum.
Stratum lucidum.
Stratum granulosum.
Stratum spinosum.
Stratum basale.
Dermis.
Hypodermis.
After the skin, there is connective tissue aka “Fascia”.
Then there’s muscle.
We can’t touch it because it’s underneath too many other tissues.
So, what is happening?
Basically, your skin is full of NERVES. You get a massage, the person rubs your skin, presses on your skin and warms your skin, and your brain gets all this input from the nerves.
Then, the new input replaces the old messages to tighten muscles, and you relax. YOU release your tension, and YOU allow it all to happen because touch is activating your brain.
Really? Yes, really.
Massage is skin rubbing with oil. All the benefits of massage happen in your brain.
Enter Acupuncture.
How does acupuncture work?
Well, acupuncture = “acu” or “needle” and “puncture” meaning “to break through”.
In this case, acupuncture is PUNCTURING skin.
There it is again!
Skin.
So, acupuncture uses needles to stimulate responses in the body by breaking the skin with super-thin needles…
THEN, what?
Your brain is getting messages from the nerves (messengers) on the skin where the needles are inserted (or other devices).
Why do we need to break the skin for acupuncture to work if we’re just messaging the brain through skin?
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (we don’t)
As it turns out, 70 years ago, a Japanese doctor named Yoshio Nakatanki reproduced the acupuncture “effect” with just microcurrent.
Why does that work?
Your brain, and nerves are electric. They use microcurrent to message back and forth.
Since your skin is mostly made of water and fat cells, it conducts electricity pretty well.
That’s why we don’t shower with appliances!
So, the same electrical impulses that you get in massage, you get in acupuncture, BUT…
Acupuncture is using smaller locations (2mm-1 inch), which has different effects:
-
Deep relaxation in minutes
-
Normalizing body temperature
-
Releasing muscle tension in seconds
-
Downregulating “feel-good” hormones”
-
Offering symptom relief from many diseases
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Pain control
And so on.
So, is the common thread between MASSAGE and ACUPUNCTURE as simple as a neurological response?
Is it just superficial stimulation on or just below the skin messaging your brain through your peripheral nervous system?
I say “Yes”!
Also, I’ve completely hacked massage and acupuncture to create a hybrid art that blends body mechanics, neurology and basic bio-chemistry.
A new art has been formed over the last 23 years, we just call it ‘AcuBodywork’.
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