Fire needle therapy has a history of thousands of years in China, with the earliest records found in the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon). With the clinical applications and research conducted by physicians throughout the ages, fire needle therapy has continuously developed and improved, becoming a unique medical system within acupuncture.
Fire needle therapy refers to a method where a needle heated to red-hot is quickly inserted into acupuncture points to treat diseases. A tiny fire needle can regulate the five internal organs (wǔ zàng) and six external organs (liù fǔ), treating various diseases across internal medicine, gynecology, pediatrics, and more. This method has the effects of warming the meridians (jīnglù) and dispersing cold, thus it can be used clinically to treat symptoms such as cold and dampness, and abscesses.
What is the difference between fire needles and regular acupuncture?
1. Combines the effects of filiform needles and moxibustion
Since it is acupuncture, why use fire to heat the needle? What special effects does fire needle therapy have? Fire needle therapy is a method that combines acupuncture and moxibustion. This therapy utilizes the power of fire to achieve results, combining the effects of filiform needles and moxibustion, directly stimulating the body’s qi (气), warming the internal organs, and enhancing yang energy, thus preventing and treating diseases.
In terms of local effects, fire needles can warm and open the meridians, accelerate local blood and qi circulation, improve microcirculation, dissipate stagnation, disperse cold and dampness, drain heat toxins, and relieve pain. Therefore, fire needles are used clinically for various abscesses, lymphadenitis, and herpes zoster, with quick and effective results.
On a systemic level, after the fire needle puncture, through local stimulation and the conduction of the meridians, it can regulate the body’s qi, blood, fluids, yin and yang, and qi mechanism, restoring the functional activity of the internal organs and achieving a relative balance of yin and yang. Many people experience local or systemic pain primarily due to cold evil qi, and the heat from fire needles can warm the meridians, promoting the rise of yang energy in the body, thus dispelling cold evil, harmonizing the meridians, and stopping the pain.
Fire needles can regulate the human system
From a modern medical perspective, fire needle therapy can functionally adjust multiple systems in the body, enhancing immune function, promoting metabolism, and facilitating cell repair.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) believes that “wind causes itching.” Fire needles have the effect of dispersing external wind, extinguishing internal wind, and promoting blood flow to stop itching. Fire needle treatment can directly disperse the skin’s pores, allowing wind evil to escape from the surface; it can also normalize local qi and blood flow, nourishing the pores and stopping itching.
In fact, fire needle therapy can treat many difficult diseases. For patients with kidney yang deficiency presenting with symptoms such as low back pain, impotence, and nocturnal emissions, using fire needles to puncture points like Shenshu (肾俞) and Mingmen (命门) can benefit the kidneys and strengthen yang. For those with spleen and stomach yang deficiency experiencing cold pain in the stomach and gastric prolapse, fire needles can be used at Neiguan (内关), Pishu (脾俞), and Zhongwan (中脘) to warm the middle jiao, elevate yang energy, and dispel cold evil. For heart yang deficiency presenting with chest pain and palpitations, fire needles can be applied to Xinshu (心俞), Neiguan, and the precordial area to strengthen heart yang and benefit heart qi.
How can fire needles suppress tumors?
Needle therapy for tumors has been recorded since the Huangdi Neijing, where it states in the Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot) that “the guests of the eight winds in the meridians are the cause of tumors, thus treatment with needles must wilt the body and sharpen the ends, allowing heat to drain and blood to flow, thus eliminating stubborn diseases.”
Ancient Chinese physicians believed that acupuncture and herbal medicine each have their unique characteristics in treating tumors. While herbs can “dissolve hard masses on the surface,” the “stubborn accumulations” located in the “stomach and intestines, between the origins, cannot be reached by herbs.” Therefore, Zhang Zhenjian from the Qing Dynasty proposed that “it is advisable to apply thin patches to attack externally, use needle methods to attack internally, and moxibustion to disperse solid accumulations, assisting where herbs cannot reach.”
From the perspective of TCM theory, the main action is to open the meridians. Fire needles belong to warming and opening methods, similar to moxibustion, promoting the flow of qi and blood to the affected area, allowing righteous qi to combat pathogenic qi, thus achieving tumor suppression.
Treating tumors primarily involves invigorating blood and resolving stasis, as stasis blood is dead blood, which is useless to the body but very useful for tumors. By using acupuncture to eliminate stasis blood, the tumor is deprived of nutrients, thus achieving a tumor-suppressing effect.
Fire needles are inserted at high temperatures, reaching over 100 degrees Celsius instantly, which can significantly promote blood circulation. They can also kill some cancer cells, but they may also damage normal cells and tissues. However, this damage to normal tissues can induce local tissues to produce immune cells, increasing immunity and enhancing the body’s ability to attack tumors.
However, some believe that invigorating blood and resolving stasis may lead to cancer metastasis, which is a valid concern. Yet, for fire needle therapy, the possibility of metastasis is almost nonexistent, as tumor cells find it difficult to survive at high temperatures. When the fire needle is heated to red and white, it is impossible for tumor cells to implant.
The subsequent effects of fire needles include inducing the proliferation of normal immune cells and activating the programmed cell death of tumor cells, leading to their premature demise.
The application method of fire needles mainly involves shallow and rapid punctures without leaving the needle in place, as leaving the needle can cause varying degrees of burns, which can also harm the body. If one wishes to leave the needle, using fine fire needles or filiform fire needles can reduce damage.
When using fire needles, one can refer to the Six Harmonies needle matching method, mobilizing both local and systemic functions. The greatest advantage of incorporating acupuncture into tumor treatment is local treatment; when combined with point matching, it can harmonize the overall function of the body and enhance the body’s righteous qi.
Other effects of fire needles
1. Pain relief
By dispelling cold, eliminating dampness, opening the meridians, and promoting qi and blood flow, the movement of fluids will stop the pain. This is the pathological mechanism of fire needle therapy for pain due to obstruction. Therefore, fire needles can treat pain caused by cold evil, dampness, or wind evil, especially for stubborn rheumatic diseases.
2. Itch relief
By unblocking the meridians and promoting the smooth flow of qi, fire needles can dispel wind and stop itching. Fire needles not only have excellent pain-relieving and itch-relieving effects but can also treat various skin diseases characterized by itching, such as neurodermatitis and psoriasis, by promoting yang and assisting qi, thus alleviating numbness.
3. Spasm relief
By promoting qi and blood flow and adjusting the meridians, fire needles can relieve spasms, especially for facial muscle spasms and late-stage spastic phenomena, which are best treated with filiform fire needles.
4. Diarrhea relief
By strengthening the spleen and promoting dampness, harmonizing the stomach and intestines, warming the middle jiao, and stopping diarrhea, fire needles are effective in treating chronic enteritis, abdominal distension, and diarrhea.
5. Cough and asthma relief
By expelling cold and drawing out heat, symptoms caused by cold, such as coughing and wheezing, can be treated with fire needles to warm the lungs, unblock lung qi, allowing for smooth breathing and cessation of cough and wheezing.
6. Fire detoxification
By expelling heat externally, fire needles can be used for heat syndromes such as herpes zoster, erysipelas, mumps, and mastitis, which are characterized by redness, swelling, heat, and pain.
7. Stasis and necrosis removal
By promoting drainage and pus expulsion, generating new tissue, and invigorating righteous qi, fire needles can accelerate skin metabolism and are effective for various skin and surgical diseases, such as blood-borne pneumonia, acne, painful sores, hemorrhoids, and rubber leg syndrome.
8. Dissolving nodules and masses
By assisting yang and transforming qi, softening hard masses, invigorating blood, resolving stasis, and eliminating lymphadenitis, fire needles can effectively treat conditions such as hemangiomas, lipomas, fibromas, warts, ganglion cysts, uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatic hypertrophy, and post-stroke sequelae, often achieving remarkable and rapid results.
Note: Although fire needle therapy has effects such as pus expulsion, heat detoxification, softening hard masses, generating new tissue, and relieving spasms, it is not suitable for everyone. For acute skin diseases like psoriasis and flat warts during flare-ups, fire needles should not be used; caution is advised for facial applications; elderly, weak individuals, children, and pregnant women should use fire needles with caution; those who are overly tense or intoxicated should avoid fire needles; and critically ill patients, such as those with severe organic damage to the heart, liver, or kidneys, or diabetic patients, should also use fire needles with caution.
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