The increase in autoimmune diseases is staggering. If you believe what Mark Anderson, a respected researcher and teacher says, “It’s not that there are so many auto-immune diseases – it’s that so many diseases reach the auto-immune phase”, which I do, we should be asking some serious questions. Like “What’s going on that my body isn’t healing properly and progressively worsening to the point of auto-immunity”, or “What environmental or infectious triggers (e.g., viral/bacterial infections, parasites, toxins, smoking, drugs) is disrupting and dysregulating my immune system?”, or “How are epigenetic changes affecting my ability to heal or altering otherwise normal immune pathways?” Unless and until we get answers to these questions, we will always be chasing tails and just throwing drugs at it, hoping to “calm things down”.
One potential pathway, which has the scientific community intrigued about and is stimulating new research, is the Primo Vascular System (PVS). It has been theorized based on years of research that the PVS is the physical representation of acupuncture meridians, consisting of primo nodes and primo vessels. Research suggests that the PVS exists within intra-vascular, intra-lymphatic, and in and on organ surfaces, forming a network that may facilitate the effects of acupuncture. Furthermore, the PVS appears to have its own immune system and its own DNA. Studies have shown that stimulation of acupuncture points can activate the PVS, potentially influencing immune responses by modulating inflammation and other physiological processes.
Acupuncture has already demonstrated effectiveness in modulating the immune system by its effect on mast cells, vascular structures, nerve fibers and other neuro-immune pathways. Acupuncture works on both the innate and the adaptive immune systems, which make it perfect for treating auto-immune diseases. Autoimmune diseases involve dysregulation of the immune system, often leading to chronic inflammation, areas that acupuncture is notably able to control.
The Primo Vascular System is really pretty cool! It runs through the body in neatly defined pathways that correlate with acupuncture meridians. Those meridians are named after the organs they have the most influence on. When it was discovered through nano-technology, using gold hollow nano-spheres that the PVS was spider-web-like fluid pathways that spread inside and outside of organs, along vascular and lymphatic tissue, influencing those tissues it touches, it created some excitement in the scientific community. Scientists are now postulating that this may be how one auto-immune disease triggers another and another, and may also be the way cancer metastasizes. This is currently being explored further.
I love the new research being done on the Primo Vascular System, and even more so, I love the positive effects that acupuncture has on immune and auto-immune conditions. Acquiring detailed information about a person’s whole medical history to discover underlying causes of their condition, allows us to formulate a program to reset health and vitality to those who are suffering auto-immune and other diseases.
Want to hear more from Dr. Carling? Check out our podcast. Search for VitalHealth4You on your favorite podcast listening app or go to vitalhealthcda.com/podcasts/
©2025 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
