A new theory of FSN acupuncture, an immunological hypothesis of FSN acupuncture  which also known as ‘cobweb mechanism’, has been published in Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies recently (Image 1: The author, Dr Wenbo Xu, giving his presentation at London Conference 2019).

FSN acupuncture is based on the studies of modern physiology, biology, anatomy and histology. Currently, individual ‘tightened muscle’ is the primary indicator for FSN acupuncture. However, the mechanism of FSN is still not clear. This paper based on the theoretical and clinical studies in biomedical science, using logic and inference, postulates the immunological hypothesis of FSN. It is hypothesized that through the stimulation of the subcutaneous tissue,FSN acupuncture is considered to arouse and active the immune system and self-healing mechanism, in so doing this promotes and accelerates the process of tissue repair and function rehabilitation (Image 2: The process of FSN mechanism).

Likewise, subcutaneous connective tissue, the main issue FSN worked on, is also a continuous network that surrounds organs and tissues throughout our body, which shares the very similar characteristics in structure with cobweb. In order to vividly describe the proses of the immune system responding to the FSN stimulation of ‘connective tissue’, the authors use the spider and its ‘cobweb’ intruder as an analogy, so immunological hypothesis of FSN can also be understood as ‘cobweb mechanism’ (Image 3: Cobweb and Connective Tissue).

The establishment of the cobweb mechanism of FSN reveals the internal causes and processes of the action of FSN treatment and makes up for the deficiency of the existing theory, the tightened muscle theory. It has a great guiding significance for the expansion of FSN clinical indications and the improvement of its therapeutic effect.

In addition, “cobweb theory” provides a new perspective on the study of acupuncture mechanism, and it may also promote the study for discovering the mystery of traditional acupuncture too.