How Does Acupuncture Actually Work?

A lot of people assume that acupuncture points only work on area right underneath the needling point — like a painkiller cream.

But I would use different approach - analogy of a road network.

Think of your body like a city with major roads running from top to bottom. If there's a traffic jam on the road near your house, sometimes the fastest fix isn't right at the jam — instead, it's clearing an intersection further down the route that's causing the backup…

Chinese medicine calls these roads "channels" or "meridians" — they're mapped pathways that connect areas of the body that don't look connected on the surface but are linked functionally. Your foot and your lower back sit on the same "road" — so treating a point on the foot can release tension along the whole route, including where it hurts.

That's why I'll sometimes needle somewhere that seems totally unrelated to where you're sore. I'm not guessing — I'm working on the road on the distant intersection.