A Biophysical Model for Cardiovascular Effects of Acupuncture-Underlying Mechanisms Based on First Principles.

According to recent translations by medical professionals of the foundational texts of Chinese Medicine, the acupuncture channel system can be reconciled with the neurovasculature. From there, the underlying mechanisms of the effects of acupuncture can be drawn from established physiology and known physical laws. A large body of research has been carried out using cardiovascular markers to measure the effects of acupuncture. Three of these parameters are re-viewed and explored anew in detail. The focus is on changes in microcirculation, blood pressure, and heart rate variability. The physiological mechanisms accounting for the observed changes are proposed to be ascending vasodilatation, resetting of the baroreceptor reflex, and re-organization of heart beating patterns around intrinsically assigned attractor sets.