Editing Acupuncture (section)

====Release of endorphins or adenosine====
Some modern practitioners support the use of acupuncture to treat pain, but have abandoned the use of ''qi'', meridians, ''yin'', ''yang'' and other mystical energies as an explanatory frameworks.<ref name="Peñas2010">{{cite book |last1=de las Peñas |first1=César Fernández |last2=Arendt-Nielsen |first2=Lars |last3=Gerwin |first3=Robert D |name-list-style=vanc |title=Tension-type and cervicogenic headache: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management |publisher=[[Jones & Bartlett Learning]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0763752835 |pages=251–54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HpRwMB-cNCoC&pg=PA251 |access-date=27 January 2016 |archive-date=4 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204181953/https://books.google.com/books?id=HpRwMB-cNCoC&pg=PA251 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Mann2000/><ref name=Williams2013/> The use of ''qi'' as an explanatory framework has been decreasing in China, even as it becomes more prominent during discussions of acupuncture in the US.<ref name=Ulett2002/>

Many acupuncturists attribute pain relief to the release of [[endorphins]] when needles penetrate, but no longer support the idea that acupuncture can affect a disease.<ref name=Williams2013>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Williams | first = WF | title = Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy | isbn = 978-1135955229 | encyclopedia = [[Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy|Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience]] | publisher = [[Routledge]] | year = 2013 | pages = 3–4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vH1EAgAAQBAJ }}</ref><ref name=Ulett2002>{{cite book | last = Ulett | first = GA | title = The Skeptic: Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience | publisher = [[ABC-CLIO]] | editor = [[Michael Shermer|Shermer, M]] | isbn = 978-1576076538 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr4snwg7iaEC&pg=PA283 | pages = 283–91 | chapter = Acupuncture | year = 2002 }}</ref> Some studies suggest acupuncture causes a series of events within the [[central nervous system]],<ref name=Wang2008>{{cite journal | vauthors = Wang SM, Kain ZN, White P | title = Acupuncture analgesia: I. The scientific basis | journal = Anesthesia and Analgesia | volume = 106 | issue = 2 | pages = 602–10 | date = February 2008 | pmid = 18227322 | doi = 10.1213/01.ane.0000277493.42335.7b | s2cid = 29330113 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and that it is possible to inhibit acupuncture's analgesic effects with the opioid antagonist [[naloxone]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Staud R, Price DD | title = Mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia for clinical and experimental pain | journal = Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics | volume = 6 | issue = 5 | pages = 661–67 | date = May 2006 | pmid = 16734514 | doi = 10.1586/14737175.6.5.661 | s2cid = 2647845 }}</ref> Mechanical deformation of the skin by acupuncture needles appears to result in the release of [[adenosine]].<ref name=Berman2010/> The [[Nociception|anti-nociceptive]] effect of acupuncture may be mediated by the [[adenosine A1 receptor]].<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Langevin HM | title = Acupuncture, connective tissue, and peripheral sensory modulation | journal = Critical Reviews in Eukaryotic Gene Expression | volume = 24 | issue = 3 | pages = 249–53 | year = 2014 | pmid = 25072149 | doi = 10.1615/CritRevEukaryotGeneExpr.2014008284 }}</ref> A 2014 review in ''Nature Reviews Cancer'' analyzed mouse studies that suggested acupuncture relieves pain via the local release of adenosine, which then triggered nearby A1 receptors. The review found that in those studies, because acupuncture "caused more tissue damage and inflammation relative to the size of the animal in mice than in humans, such studies unnecessarily muddled a finding that local inflammation can result in the local release of adenosine with analgesic effect."<ref name=Gorski2014/>