What Acupuncture Research Community Has Achieved

What Acupuncture Research 
Community Has Achieved

Clinical research: (i) There is mounting evidence from large-scale effectiveness trials that acupuncture treatments are superior to usual care for some chronic pain conditions. (ii) However, overall, acupuncture treatments are, at most, only marginally more effective than sham acupuncture. (iii) Sham acupuncture treatment, when compared to no treatment, is associated with larger effect sizes than when conventional placebos are compared to no treatment. (iv) There is no conclusive evidence as to which individual components of acupuncture treatment are directly associated with therapeutic benefit.

Basic research: (i) Basic science experiments, mostly in animals and healthy human subjects, show that acupuncture needling has demonstrable physiological effects that are dependent on needling parameters, including needle insertion depth, type, amplitude and frequency of needle stimulation. (ii) In animal models, needling parameters appear related to therapeutically relevant outcomes, for example, analgesia, antihyperalgesia, decreased tissue inflammation, decreased elevated blood pressure, and altered gastrointestinal motility. (iii) The extent to which the precise needling location (e.g., acupuncture point versus nearby nonacupuncture point) influences physiological responses remains unclear, although, in animal models, different effects have been demonstrated when needles are inserted in different body regions (e.g., abdomen versus limb).

To read the research report, click here.

Acupuncture for Inflammation

Can Acupuncture Reverse Killer Inflammation?

The ST36 Zusanli (足三里) acupuncture point is located just below the knee joint. This spot in mice—and it is hoped perhaps in humans—may be a critical entryway to gaining control over the often fatal inflammatory reactions that accompany systemic infections. Sepsis kills over 250,000 patients in the U.S. each year, more than 9 percent of overall deaths. Antibiotics can control sepsis-related infection, but no current drugs have FDA approval for counteracting the runaway immune response.

A research group at Rutgers University New Jersey Medical School, Newark, reported online in Nature Medicine on Feb. 23 that stimulating ST36 Zusanli with an electrical current passed through an acupuncture needle activated two nerve tracts in mice that led to the production of a biochemical that quieted a sepsis-like inflammatory reaction that had been induced in mice. (Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group.)

The finding, which also involved the collaboration of the National Medical Center Siglo XXI, Mexico City and other institutions, raises the possibility that knowledge derived from alternative medicine may provide a means of discovering new nerve pathways that can regulate a variety of immune disorders from rheumatoid arthritis to Crohn’s disease. If future studies achieve similar results, acupuncture might be integrated into the nascent field of bioelectronics medicine—also called electroceuticals—that is generating intense interest among both academics and drug companies.

To read the full story, please here.

First RCT on Acupuncture

First RCT on Acupuncture

The first randomized controlled clinical trial on acupuncture was published in New England Journal of Medicine in 1975. Forty patients, randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group, participated in a double-blind study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in reducing chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis. The experimental group received treatment at standard acupuncture points, and the control group at placebo points. Analysis before and after treatment showed a significant (P<0.05) improvement in tenderness and subjective report of pain in both groups as evaluated by two independent observers and in activity by one observer. Comparison of responses to treatment between the two groups showed no significant (P>0.05) difference. Thus, both experimental and control groups showed a reduction in pain after the treatments. These results may reflect the natural course of illness, and various attitudinal and social factors. (Source: Gaw AC, Chang LW, Shaw L-C. Efficacy of acupuncture on osteoarthritic pain. A controlled, double-blind study. N Engl J Med. 1975 Aug 21;293 (8):375-8.)

Acupuncture for Beauty and Baby

Pretty vs Pregnant: Pregnancy and Fertility Acupuncture

Acupuncture has never really been on my radar. However that changed last summer when acupuncture facials became one of the hottest treatments in the beauty world. As a dutiful beauty editor, I went off to meet London-based acupuncturist and Chinese doctor, John Tsagaris, who is famed for his facials.

Part of my consultation was discussing my overall health and I thought I may as well mention that I was trying to get pregnant. He suggested that a fertility acupuncture session may be more relevant at that moment in time, I thought 'why not' and fertility acupuncture is what I got.

Now, I want to present the facts as they were and leave you to make any judgements or thoughts. My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant by the time I saw Tsagaris. We are young and healthy with no pre-existing health conditions. We weren't worried about it not happening but just figured it was a matter of timing. I had one appointment with Tsagaris, he also prescribed me some Chinese herbs that I took and a few weeks later I was pregnant. It could be a complete coincidence, I will never know, but I know that I'm grateful that he decided I didn't need a facial.

I've spoken to lots of women about trying to concieve, and everyone has a different story to tell. For some it's an easy journey, for others it feels like an uphill battle, there isn't a one-shoe-fits-all way of it making it happen but a common thread seems to be, at least amongst the women I've chatted to, that acupuncture was suddenly something they were thinking about or had tried. I spoke to Tsagaris about why he thinks acupuncture is beneficial, whichever stage of the pregnancy pathway you're on.

To read the full story, click here.

Kuwaiti Princess Studies Acupuncture

Kuwaiti Princess Learns Acupuncture in Mumbai

In a country where traditional medicine is a virtual no-no, a Kuwaiti princess is aiming to buck the trend by learning acupuncture so that she can take its benefits to the four million citizens back home.

Last week, a Mercedes driven by a female chauffeur halted outside a small 1,000-sq.ft. clinic, located in a narrow lane in the congested Dadar area of southcentral Mumbai. The chauffeur asked her distinguished passenger, Sheikha Alia Salem Alsabah, the wife of Interior Minister Mohammad Al Khalid Al Sabah: “You have come here to meet a doctor?”

“Yes, since I have come here, you can well imagine what he must be…” the guest smiled, stepping inside the eight-bed clinic run by internationally-acclaimed acupuncturist Dr. P.B. Lohiya.

Expecting his visitor, Lohiya, 63, founder of Indian Academy of Acupuncture Science (IAAS), was well-prepared, despite a large crowd of patients in the clinic.

“I want to learn acupuncture as I have great faith in its curative success and benefits,” Sheikha Alia, 55, smiled, interacting with IANS at the clinic full of patients with problems ranging from back pains, irregular menstrual cycles, cardiac problems and cancer.

In her home country, with Indians and Egyptians comprising the largest chunk of expatriates, traditional medicines are virtually a no-no, she explained.

“Yes, we have a small acupuncture department in a government-run hospital run by Chinese medicos, but there is lack of proper diagnostic systems and cures,” Sheikha Alia said.

In fact, along with her daughter, Sheikha Alia recently travelled to China to get basic knowledge of acupuncture, but after a week of grappling with the local language problems and lack of diagnostic systems, she gave up her efforts.

In China, a medico informed her that she could learn a lot from renowned Aurangabad-based acupuncturist Lohiya, the only Indian visiting professor at the prestigious Beijing Meridian Research Centre and vice president of the Beijing’s World Association of Chinese Medicine. (Lohiya spends the bulk of his time in Aurangabad but attends the Mumbai clinic for one week every month. He also devotes time to his clinics in cities like Pune, Kolhapur, Nagpur and Hyderabad, besides travelling abroad.)

To read the full story, click here.