Peering under the skin

Having grown up around an adherent of alternative medicine (as well as alternative philosophy, lifestyles, etc.), I've always been willing to take the effectiveness of acupuncture seriously. This belief was further strengthened when I read about a skeptical veterinarian (I used to read their stories a lot) who, caught in a tricky situation, was able to rely on acupuncture -- a form that involved both needles and electrical current -- as the only anesthetic during a surgery. Thus I have not been surprised by the increasing acceptance of this technique by "mainstream" medicine.

However, I still found basis for amazement in reading this article, which includes some striking scientific evidence backing up traditional Chinese beliefs about human wiring.

At the University of California at Irvine, researchers have shown that when a needle is placed in a point on the side of the foot that Chinese theorists associate with vision, sure enough, the visual cortex in the brain ''lights up" on functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, though the cause and effect are not totally clear.

We should never presume that we know everything important about how the human body, let alone mind, works...

(via And That's All That Matters)