Dear Patient,
Did you know that humans are bioluminescent?
That’s right, we humans are capable of photon emissions—the same process that makes lightning bugs light up a summer evening and those creepy anglerfish at the bottom of the ocean dangle a glowing orb to lure prey into their giant maw.
Our photon emissions are too weak to be perceived by the naked eye, but we glow, it’s true. And there’s research suggesting that acupuncture makes you glow even more. One 2020 case study1 used used a hyperspectral imaging device, which detected an increase in photon emissions on areas of the skin where acupuncture needles had been placed.
I don’t fully understand the science of all this glowing, but I’ll tell you what it means to me as an acupuncturist.
A needle pierces the skin, and becomes a beacon, drawing your attention, stirring up energy, releasing stagnation, and directing qi onward to other parts of the body that need help. It’s like a magic wand, sending up sparks and creating change. And all this energy that’s moving and swirling around in response to the needle—it’s the body’s yang qi. Yang is moving, warming, and yes, light. That’s what bioluminescence is: a preponderance of yang qi so strong, it makes a creature glow.
But can there be too much yang? Yes indeed. Excess yang qi is chaotic hyperactivity rather than meaningful movement, a raging fire instead of glowing warmth. Can acupuncture stimulate too much yang qi?
Well there’s an interesting footnote from that study on bioluminescence and acupuncture. The hyperspectral imaging device detected an increase in photon emissions immediately after needles were placed, but after 30 minutes, the level of photon emissions dropped back down to baseline, or even lower. So a needle temporarily increases yang qi, but after a while, things settle back down and balance out.
People will sometimes ask me if there’s such a thing as too much acupuncture. Not really, I’ll say. Your body takes what it needs from the needles and nothing more. And the results of this study seem to support that. Acupuncture won’t send you in the wrong direction, and it doesn’t force anything upon the body.
But it does make you glow.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
P.S. Other case studies2 have produced similar bioluminescent results from meditation. So if you want to get your glow on without needles, meditation works too.
https://www.oatext.com/a-case-study-of-photon-detection-after-acupuncture-stimulation.php#Article
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16086532/
Are there different colors associated with these glows? Different needle points, different colors? What about "intensity"? Have there been any tests to see if certain needle points have a stronger glow than some other point? I would assume that, since every person is different and has unique physical realities, the stimulation-over-stimulation guage would vary person to person, right? I'd love to have these tests done over a period of time and compare one set of results with another, using the same point. Or has this been done already? Fascinating subject.