The NY Times Article Everyone Sent Me

Image via The New York Times Magazine

I was thrilled that so many people sent me this fascinating article about the recently identified third circulatory system and its potential relationship to acupuncture. I thought I’d share it here in case you missed it…

In May of this year, The New York Times Magazine published a piece called Inside the Interstitium, the Human Body’s Hidden Pathways. It describes the discovery of a network within the spaces surrounding the body’s tissues and organs that serves as a conduit for fluid, cells, and molecules, called the interstitium. It joins the lymphatic and cardiovascular systems as a third circulatory system in the body.

This discovery could have major implications for our understanding of how the body works and could inform major innovations in future medications and treatments. As the article points out, ancient medical systems, like Traditional Chinese Medicine, have considered a circulatory network in the body like the interstitium for thousands of years.

Acupuncture points are located along pathways throughout the body known as meridians. Recent studies have shown that fluid injected into acupuncture points travels not only along the meridian pathway, but also along the same pathway as the interstitium spaces. This connection offers an incredible link between eastern and western medicine, and beyond that, further studies into the interstitium could help us understand more about how acupuncture works.

Check out the whole piece here, and if you want more, take a listen to this Radio Lab episode, which is also mentioned in the NYT article. A patient alerted me to this podcast a few years ago, and the acupuncture and Chinese medicine connections blew my mind. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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