Acupuncture explained in terms of hypothesized biochemical mechanisms with copper-, zinc and magnesium ions

In this paper a biochemical hypothesis is proposed for the working of acupuncture. In this hypothesis, copper and zinc ions play an important role. Inserting a needle into an acupuncture point will locally damage the tissue. It is known that this causes a local release of zinc ions. It is also known that both zinc ions and copper ions bind on the intracellular transport protein metallothionein, where they compete with each other. Furthermore, the copper dependent enzyme lysyl oxidase plays a role in the change of softness and stiffness of connective tissue. Needling into an acupuncture point can change the structure of connective tissue. Locally soft tissue becomes stronger, and locally stiff tissue becomes softer. From this is hypothesized that needling an acupuncture point can affect its tissue structure by biochemical reactions that involve copper and zinc. Subsequently it is hypothesized that the proprioceptive system projects the pattern of soft and stiff places of all acupuncture points onto a neural map in the brain, on which meridians are formed by associations of subgroups of acupuncture points. A meridian is interpreted as the mapping of a particular set of skin locations above muscle-groups which is associated with a certain behavior. Examples are the stomach meridian, related to eating; the gallbladder meridian, related to performing physical work or to capturing a prey; and bladder meridian which relates to changes between lying and standing. Then the activity pattern of the neural map is associated with a particular physiological state and sensory patterns, and the brain responds to the activity of this neural map with a regulation of the autonomous nervous system (vagal nerve) and a regulation of neurotransmitters and hormones. We hypothesize that the local stiffness of acupuncture points indicate certain physiological states of the body, related to copper or zinc. In particular zinc dependent processes like parts of digestion, and copper dependent processes like production and degradation of dopamine. Because during the day, different physiological processes are planned, both copper and zinc vary during the day. In this circadian rhythm of copper and zinc, the entero-hepatic circulation and the cerebrospinal fluid is involved. The copper and zinc displacements due to these regulations are then in turn hypothesized to affect the structure of tissue around related acupuncture points. Concepts in acupuncture are related to the copper and zinc hypotheses: the Wu Xing model, yang, yin and blood emptiness, backshu points, shu transporting points, Qi stagnation, damp, phlegm, external pathogen factor and Jing. Adding a relation between copper and iron ions leads to an interpretation of yin emptiness and blood emptiness. Adding the fact that magnesium competes with zinc leads to an interpretation of Wei Qi and Front Mu points. Magnesium is important in phosphorylation of diverse enzymes, a kind of energy potentiation of enzymes, and in binding NADH and NADPH as cofactors. This may be associated with the term ‘’Yin” used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency are described in symptoms used in acupuncture diagnosis. In summary, both magnesium and copper may