What is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of medicine in the world and is part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a system that has been practised for more than 3,000 years. Where Western veterinary medicine tends to focus on measurable abnormalities in organs and tissues, TCM looks at the animal as a whole: body, behaviour and emotions are seen as inseparably connected.

Qi: the life energy that flows

The foundation of TCM is the concept of Qi (pronounced “chee”), the vital energy that flows through the body along pathways we call meridians. As long as Qi can flow freely and evenly, an animal is balanced and healthy. Wherever a blockage, a deficiency, or an excess arises, it can show up as pain, stiffness, skin problems, digestive issues or changes in behaviour. With acupuncture needles placed at specific points along the meridians, we can get that flow of energy moving again, clear blockages and replenish deficiencies.

Yin and Yang: the search for balance

A second core concept is the interplay between Yin and Yang: two opposing yet inseparably connected forces. Yin represents the cool, calming and nourishing; Yang represents the warm, active and dynamic. No animal is entirely Yin or entirely Yang. Health arises precisely when the two are in balance. When that balance is disturbed, it can go in two directions: there can be a deficiency of Yin or Yang, but there can equally be an excess. A listless, chilly animal fits a Yang deficiency, while an animal that is overheated and restless is more likely to have a Yin deficiency. Conversely, an animal with a Yang excess may present as aggressive, “hot” or inflamed, while a Yin excess can show up as fluid retention or a slow, heavy stagnation. In TCM, then, it’s not only about what is lacking, but also about what there is too much of.

The five elements: everything is connected

One of the most beautiful parts of TCM, to me, is the theory of the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each element forms its own interconnected network: a pair of organs, a season, an emotion, a sense organ, a colour, taste and smell, and a climate it is sensitive to. Such a network doesn’t stand on its own, its parts are woven together and tell each other’s story.

Take the element Water, associated with the kidneys. Kidney energy (Jing, our deepest, innate essence) is what we are given at birth and what gradually diminishes as we age. Once kidney energy is fully depleted, life ends: in TCM, the kidney is therefore seen as the root of our existence.
What I find so fascinating is how consistently that picture carries through into the rest of the body. The kidney is also connected to:
hearing; it’s no coincidence that hearing declines in many older animals and people, right as kidney energy declines
the emotion of fear; older animals and people often become more insecure and fearful, something TCM links directly to diminished kidney energy. Fear can likewise express itself through the bladder: think of a dog that urinates in the house out of fright or fear. In TCM, the emotion of fear and bladder function are closely linked.
the bones; osteoporosis and an increasingly brittle skeleton in old age fit into that same picture

The element Wood shows the same kind of interconnected network, associated with the liver and gallbladder. Wood belongs to spring, the season of growth, building up and movement, the time when nature gets going again after winter. Its corresponding sense organ is the eyes: liver problems in TCM often show up in the eyes, think of watery, itchy or dull-looking eyes. The emotion associated with Wood is anger or frustration; an animal with disrupted liver energy can come across as irritable, quick to react, or tense. Its preferred taste is sour, its colour green, and the climate Wood is sensitive to is wind. It’s no coincidence that windy weather often brings a flare-up of complaints related to tension, muscle stiffness or restlessness. Here too, liver energy can either be deficient or in excess: a liver excess (often Qi stagnation) shows up as that irritability and muscle tension, while a liver blood deficiency tends to show up as stiff muscles, dry eyes, or timid, fearful behaviour.

Connections like these appear for every element: a season, an organ, an emotion, a sense organ, and a preference for a particular taste, smell or climate all form one whole. As a result, a complaint that at first seems isolated — an animal becoming more fearful, losing hearing, and getting stiffer in the bones, or a dog that turns irritable with watery eyes in spring — can, from a TCM perspective, be seen as one and the same underlying shift. That’s why, during a consultation, I look not only at the complaint itself but also at the season, the animal’s behaviour and its age, to build a fuller picture of what’s really going on.

The nourishing and controlling cycles

The five elements don’t exist side by side in isolation, they influence each other through two fixed cycles. In the nourishing cycle, each element gives rise to the next: Water nourishes Wood (think of a plant needing water to grow), Wood nourishes Fire (wood is fuel for fire), Fire nourishes Earth (ash becomes earth again), Earth nourishes Metal (metals form within the earth), and Metal nourishes Water (condensation forms on cold metal). If one organ is weak, the organ it’s meant to nourish may not be adequately replenished. A kidney weakness, for example, can over time also weaken liver energy (Wood).

There is also the controlling cycle, in which each element keeps another in check. This control keeps everything in balance, as long as no element becomes too strong or too weak. When that balance is lost, an element can start to “overwhelm” the element it’s meant to control. A well-known example is stress and frustration (Wood/liver) becoming too strong and overwhelming Earth (spleen/stomach): this shows up as stomach pain and diarrhoea under stress.

Notable behaviours can also point to a deficiency in a particular element. Dogs that eat dirt often point, in TCM, to a deficiency in the Earth element (spleen/stomach), while dogs that chew or eat wood can point to a deficiency in the Wood element (liver). I see this kind of behaviour as a signal to look further than just the habit itself.

The daily cycle: every organ has its own time

Alongside the yearly cycle of the seasons, TCM also recognises a daily cycle: over the course of 24 hours, Qi flows successively through each of the twelve main meridians, with each organ being “at its peak” for about two hours. This explains why certain complaints seem to keep returning at the same time of day. An animal that becomes restless every early morning, or tends to vomit around the same time, can offer a clue as to which organ needs extra attention. I use this daily cycle as an additional piece of the puzzle alongside the other findings from the consultation.