Acupuncture effects and neuroimmune regulation: a breakthrough in “treating diseases at the root”
Kristen Sparrow • June 04, 2025
I’m doing a YouTube video on this topic. It’s nothing new to readers of the blog and my book, Radical Resilience. One of the main points of the book is that by leveraging your autonomic nervous system through acupuncture and other means, you stay healthy, have a better mood and longer life. This abstract confirms this hypothesis and also promises that with the latest techniques this acupuncture therapy will only get better, more effective and precise.
Summary:
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), particularly acupuncture, is finding new scientific explanations within the neuroimmune regulatory framework. Acupuncture’s effects are now being understood through precise mechanisms involving the nervous and immune systems, and this shift is moving the practice from empirical roots to data-driven, precision neuromodulation.
Three Main Points:
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Local Immunomodulation Initiated by Acupuncture.
- Acupuncture works by turning mechanical stimulation at specific acupoints into neuroelectrical and biochemical signals. This transformation creates localized immunomodulatory changes, remodeling the microenvironment around these points to promote healing.
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Acupuncture and Autonomic Nervous System as an Immune Modulator
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a central role in regulating immune homeostasis throughout the body. Vagus nerve activity exerts anti-inflammatory effects, while the sympathetic nervous system provides a dynamic, bidirectional control of immune responses in organs and tissues.
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Acupuncture and Enteric Nervous System and Gut-Brain Axis Communication
The enteric nervous system helps restore gut barrier integrity through complex neuropeptide and microbiota interactions. This gut-brain axis communication creates a two-way immune dialogue that supports overall systemic health.
Emerging technologies, such as bioelectronic devices, are leveraging these discoveries. By combining multi-omics data and artificial intelligence, future research aims to map acupuncture’s precise mechanisms and apply them to treat inflammatory and immune-related diseases more effectively.
Abstract
The holistic philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) embodied in acupuncture therapy has gained novel insights within the neuroimmune regulatory framework. Its mechanistic framework encompasses 3 pivotal dimensions: 1) Acupuncture stimulation at acupoints transduces mechanical signals into neuroelectrical and biochemical signals, initiating localized immunomodulatory microenvironment remodeling; 2) The autonomic nervous system orchestrates systemic and organ-specific immune homeostasis through vagus nerve-mediated anti-inflammatory effects and sympathetic nerve-mediated bidirectional regulatory dynamics; 3) The enteric nervous system facilitates barrier restoration via neuropeptide-microbiota crosstalk, establishing bidirectional gut-brain axis immune communication. Emerging bioelectronic devices based on somatosensory-autonomic reflex circuits are driving the evolution of acupuncture from empirical practice to precision neuromodulation. Future research should integrate multi-omics profiling and artificial intelligence algorithms to construct a comprehensive “mechanical stimulation-neural coding-immune response” mapping paradigm. This will operationalize TCM’s core principle of “treating the root of disease” into targeted neuromodulation strategies against inflammatory and immune-related disorders through defined neural circuit interventions.
Keywords: Acupuncture; Autonomic nerve; Neuro-immune; Somatosensory.
