This paper elaborates on the acupuncture’s negative feedback mechanisms and their bidirectional regulatory patterns, and offer a more precise framework for understanding how targeted somatic stimulation contributes to systemic balance. Researchers from the Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, reported their findings (DOI: 10.13702/j.1000-0607.20250005) in May 2025 in the journal of Acupuncture Research. The study systematically analyzed experimental and clinical evidence to elucidate how acupuncture recruits autonomic and central regulatory circuitry to sustain homeostasis. The study demonstrates that physiological stability depends on bidirectional regulatory mechanisms comparable to opposing yet coordinated forces, such as sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. The first type, referred to as “homotopic acupoints,” exerts specific regulatory effects on target organs innervated by the same spinal segment through somatic–sympathetic–visceral reflex pathways.

Source: The Herald April 03, 2026 11:49 UTC