One of the most common questions about acupuncture is whether there is any transfer of energy associated with the acupuncture treatment. During an acupuncture treatment, thin, stainless steel acupuncture needles are inserted into specific points on the body known as acupoints, depending on the type and intensity of disorder. This is done to stimulate the acupoints so that the movement of energy, qi (pronounced as “chee”) is balanced and hence the pain is relieved and good health is restored, by correcting the flow of qi.

Restoring the balance of qi not only cures a person from the suffered disease, but also builds up the body’s resistance mechanism. Qi acts as the transferred energy and usually frees blockages, obstacles and stagnation in the path of the flowing energy, hence restoring the balance of the body as well as the mind.

Research proves that there indeed is a flow of energy through the body during a treatment of acupuncture. To confirm the involvement of bio-energy with acupuncture, according to the center for Integrative Medicine, Institute of Medical Science, Wonkwang University, Republic of Korea, a study was conducted on 20 healthy normal subjects. They underwent acupuncture treatment for the meridians and the changes in the direct current (DC) potential between the stomach meridian points ST-39 and ST-37 was measured, in response to invasive insertion of a needle at ST-36. The treatment on each subject was carried out twice, once with bare hands (ABH), without surgerical gloves, and once with the surgerical gloves (ASH), which acted as a shield to the electric energy transfer. ABH formed a response pattern for every stimulation, whereas AHS formed a response pattern to the first step alone. It was found that ABH reduced a much higher response potential than ASH (p<0.001), which confirms that bio-energy transfer along the meridians occur during the acupuncture treatment.