Interstitium and Qi Flow: East Meets West

This morning I opened my computer to find messages from two of our fellow Qi-sters, T. J. and Arlene W., alerting me to yesterday’s article in the New York Times Magazine. The article by Avraham Z. Cooper describes the interstitium, the spaces between the muscles, skin, and organs, where cells and fluids flow. In essence, the interstitium provides a third circulatory system along with the blood and the lymph.  There are enormous implications to this “discovery”, which Qigong masters actually discovered over 4,000 years ago: They called it the meridian pathways.

Dr. Andrew Ahn

The Times article describes the 2021 study that led to this breakthrough. In that study, dye was injected into the forearm, and its pathway traced. The dye followed the pericardium meridian, up toward the elbow. “This pathway doesn’t go in the veins, it doesn’t go superficially,” says Andrew Ahn, the study’s senior author and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. It goes instead…into the interstitium between the muscles: “When I saw that, I said: ‘We’re onto something. This truly has to do with acupuncture.’” (NYTimes, May 10, 2026)

I was very lucky to hear Dr. Andrew Ahn make his first public presentation on this topic two years ago at the Science of Qigong conference sponsored by the Harvard Medical School’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.  You could feel the excitement in the room as he described this potential proof of the existence of meridian pathways.  As one of dozens of Qigong teachers in the room, this evidence validated what our teachers had taught us: The meridians are real. Dr. Ahn himself was almost giddy with the news. Paradigm changing medical advances are possible from the application of the understanding the interstitium, including how it might influence gut health, diabetes, even cancer. More will be revealed.

Meanwhile, we can all appreciate the venerable Qigong direction to “shake the body to cure illness”, which activates flow through the fascia and interstitium. I was taught that vibrating and shaking the body, as we do in every class, is the best way to move circulation through the body. It actuates healing flow throughout all three circulatory systems: blood, lymph, and qi.  In fact, shaking the body for up to 3 or 4 hours a day is sometimes suggested by TCM doctors as a cure for very serious disease. We can shake our joints, limbs, and body for a much briefer time whenever we need to let go of stress or toxins, wake up our circulation, and bring healthy, enlivening qi closer to the surface. Even a few minutes of shaking can change your day, and refresh your whole being, from the interstitium out!